GMD Song Survivor: Atheist - Unquestionable Presence - Round 1

[Vegard Pompey]

I have no idea how this one's gonna turn out. I don't even know what I'll vote for myself this round.

If anyone's unaware how this works, this is a voteoff; you vote for the two worst (or rather, least amazing) songs on the album. When the poll closes, the two songs with the most votes will be removed from the tracklist and I'll host a new poll with those songs removed, and so on until there's one winner.

The poll will close in three days.

 

[EspaDa]

Great album, really concise. Vote fuckers.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

Whoever voted for And the Psychic Saw needs to be hung, drawn and quartered at the crack of dawn.

 

[EspaDa]

I voted for the last two songs. They do not appeal to me as the rest of the album does.

 

[Baroque]

I'll probably vote tomorrow night, this is a tough one

 

[HamburgerBoy]

The Formative Years is by far the weakest link, sounds like a Metal Church B-side or something, barely even thrash metal let alone tech-death. Which isn't to say there's anything wrong with speed/thrash, but it's not Atheist's forte. Title track is the next weakest, a very overrated song that could be criticized along the same lines Dream Theater is; there's nothing interesting about changing time signatures a bunch of times if all your riffs do is count beats. Rhythmically a bore despite the wanky drums (which Flynn often struggles to reproduce live). The song still has some great melodic leadwork and is still pretty good overall, but compared to what Watchtower and Mekong Delta were doing years earlier, it's pathetic that a second-rate tech-thrash song is considered any kind of landmark in tech-death.

The other six tracks range from great to perfection. An Incarnation's Dream needs to win this, or at least get to the final two.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

Title track is the next weakest,

 

[HamburgerBoy]

It doesn't have a single decent riff.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

... hold still please

 

[CF87]

can't say have heard the album in along time, would vote the last 2 songs off first

you think you're tough ?

 

[CiG]

This was a hard one. I like every song on this album almost equally.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

fuckin' essential album. Title track and And the Psychic Saw are the best songs on there, followed closely by Mother Man.

 

[CiG]

I think "Mother Man" may be my favourite track on this.

 

[Baroque]

I vote Brains and Your Life's Retribution. They're both still good songs, but slightly less interesting than their neighboring songs.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

Yeah, Your Life's Retribution is definitely the weakest track here, if we can call it that. It's the only 4 start track on the album.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

How is Brains the least interesting? It probably has the most angular, tech-y-weird riffing of any song in their discography. I'd say the most interesting song.

 

[EspaDa]

Brains is definitely a track of least quality on the album. It would be a misunderstanding if this song made it to the secound round.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Don't understand how one of the most ambitious songs is of less quality relative to a ton of slapped-together thrash metal on the album, but OK.

 

[Baroque]

I just don't enjoy it as much as the song before and after it. It's still a good song. I prefer tech thrash to tech death usually anyway

 

[Satanstoenail]

This is fucking difficult