Time Signature
Life...
Genre: progressive thrash/death metal
Back in the 90s death metal became so big in the underground that it degenerated into a generic mass of completely unimpressive bands who merely aped eachother and copied the leading death metal acts. But there were, thankfully, bands like Atheist, Cynic and Death that really stood out from the crowd.
On this, their debut release, Atheist succesfully integrate elements from influences such as Rush, Slayer and Mercyful Fate into their own progressive thrash/death metal style. Especially the basslines are interesting and complex, and a lot of the guitar riffage is based upon the basslines, and the combination of technical proggy riffs with simple Slayeresque thrash riffs make "Piece of Time" an interesting listen.
Fans of proressive metal and fans of thrash metal and early death metal should like this album, which, compared to later releases, still is quite accessible to the thrash and death metal audience.