Review by chrisc7249 on January 24, 2023.

When it comes to all forms of technical and progressive death metal, from the spastic brutality of a modern day Archspire or the warm, clean sounds of Descent, these two very differing sounds can all harken back to one pioneering prog/tech death band - their name? Atheist.

Yes, formerly known as R.A.V.A.G.E. in the early to mid 1980s, Atheist is widely accepted to be the first band to blend progressive rock influences with the brutality of death metal. They aren't the first metal band to do so; Watchtower, Coroner and Voivod to name a few got headstarts in the mid 80s, albeit blending the prog elements with more heavy/thrash metal.

This here in 1989 is their debut album, Piece of Time and on it slays indeed. It is a very musically impressive, warping mass of riffs, solos and drum fills that beats the listener down with thrash-like intensity. It is, despite its technicality, extremely abrasive. Tech/prog death bands tend to let their complexity diminish the ferocity of their music a lot. This has always been what makes Atheist my favorite; that rage, that fury, that aggressive passion that comes with early death/thrash is on full display on their first two records, both a magnificent combination of bounce, brutality and virtuosity. I'd say Piece of Time is definitely more unhinged and raw when compared to Unquestionable Presence, but it doesn't deter really any from the listening experience - it is its own beast, and really shouldn't be compared to the next album.

Honestly, if you just enjoy thrash or death metal, there isn't any reason you wouldn't enjoy this album. It's surely technical, and would throw a more casual listener for a few twists and turns, but it's definitely far from inaccessible, and that's what makes it so good. It's raw, simple and it just works well for what it is. It's tech death in its most caveman form.

I'd say most, if not, ALL, death metal fans should listen to Atheist, they grew up in the same place, knew the same guys and even INSPIRED Death. So… yeah. They're one of the top 5 most important death metal bands ever and you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you haven't heard either of their opuses. Of course the second one is my favorite album of all time, but that's for another day. Their third album is a step down in quality, unfortunately not because of circumstances the band really had much control over, but it is what it is. They split up, reformed and put out an album in 2010 which… no.

FFO: Death, Cynic, Hellwitch

Favorite song: I Deny

Rating: 9 out of 10

Review by Felix on May 14, 2024.

An American and a Swedish band meet under a German title. Welcome to Naturmystik, a split where Häxanu and Greve join forces. They have recorded more than 44 minutes of music, so there is nothing wrong in terms of quantity. Häxanu have got the first four slots and I think they deserve to kick off this split, because their excellent debut from the year 2020 has shown that they can forge ingenious black metal.

Sadly, the opener 'Mercy' reminds us of the bitter fact that an outstanding first album can become a problem. Even in view of the less fascinating "Totenpass" full-length, my expectations were very high and 'Mercy' cannot fulfil them. Stylistically, it follows the route of the debut’s material, but it sounds like a leftover of the debut. The song suffers a bit from little intensity and anyone who doesn't show full commitment in the social Darwinist world of black metal is quickly eaten up. Even the comparatively mild, 'Untitled' intermezzo, adds a comparable degree of value to the split – and it doesn’t add so much, to be honest. But Häxanu prevent a medium-sized disaster with 'Saintly Surgery', a brilliant, dense and stormy piece. 'The Winged Chalice' also celebrates some haunting melodies and especially during the fast parts at the song’s end, I get this exciting “Snare Of All Salvation” feeling again. Conclusion: Häxanu’s contribution does not show a band at the zenith of its creativity, but at least it proves that the duo can still achieve outstanding results, namely 'Saintly Surgery'. Finally, the well-defined production is better than that of their partners in crime, because Greve’s material sounds slightly blurred and less focused (but not bad as well).

And so I am landed in Sweden, ready for the four tracks of its representatives. Greve are a blank page for me, I have heard some excerpts of their music so far, but I never listened really intensively to their art. Now I hear a band that loves high velocity and typical genre melodies, but the single components do not always go hand in hand. Thus, the songs lack coherence to a certain extent. 'Gudaföraktets Ton', for example, is not bad, but it gives me the feeling that the band did not make the best out of the song. Despite its different parts, it expresses uniformity. There is no real arc of tension, and this degrades the song to a solid, but not great number. At least it is cold and fast, and there we get “true” Nordic blackness, something that almost never totally disappoints. Nevertheless, the material of Greve is neither infectious nor does it boast with a long-lasting effect. It is probably too harsh to say that they want, but they can’t. The usual components, for example very raw vocals with reverb on it, restlessly hammering drums and (halfway) atmospheric keyboard carpets do not lead to thrilling results and so the ambient outro brings a rather imperfect album half to the end. From my point it’s 7.5 for Häxanu, 5.7 for Greve and 6.6 for the entire split.

Rating: 5.7 out of 10