Top 5 Worst Atheist Songs By Steve Flynn (Atheist)

During a conversation with Atheist frontman/guitarist, Kelly Shaefer, we jokingly asked him to come up with 5 of Atheist’s worst songs. We then said, “Hey, Kelly, do you think Steve (Flynn) would want provide his Top 5 Worst Atheist Songs”? Shaefer relayed our request to Flynn and Flynn responded, “Sure… Fun request.” Turns out Steve Flynn and Shaefer kind of hate the same songs, which is both weird and cool. Herewith are Steve Flynn’s Top 5 Worst Atheist Songs.

5. “Life” — Piece of Time (1989)
Speed for the sake of speed and simplistic. Or should I say cheese for the sake of…OK, well, it might not be pure cheese. But this is one of those songs that was a holdover from our really early days. This song sort of represents the dark ages for us as a band – prior to the ‘renaissance’ that was “I Deny,” “Piece of Time,” and a few others. Now I will say that “Life” has nothing on “On They Slay” from a cheesy standpoint, but “On They Slay” is a classic, heavy, fun song that is just amazing to play live. “Life”, needs to be, well, put to death!

4. “Why Bother?” — Piece of Time (1989)
See the comments on “Life”. Further, I say, why bother listening, why did we bother writing it, oh, and why bother to play it?! Though, it did have some interesting moments and is not like “Every Rose has a Thorn” bad, but still it pales in comparison songs from that era of Atheist like “Unholy War” and “No Truth.”

3. “Brains” — Unquestionable Presence (1991)
Kelly may kill me on this one, but I just never liked the song – musically. It’s got twists and turns and moments of cool musicianship, but it hurts my brain every time I listen to it – which is never. Compared to “Life”, “Brains” is a masterpiece, but for me it just never had the personality of the other songs on Unquestionable Presence. It has always felt thrown together to me.

2. “Fractal Point” — Elements (1993)
I’ll agree completely with Kelly on this. Rand, well, I’ve seen him shine in so many ways. This was simply not one of them. I’m not sure what the hell he was thinking!

1. “And the Psychic Saw” — Unquestionable Presence (1991)
Now, I do love this song musically. It’s just a total bitch to play live! It’s not the most technical Atheist song ever, but it’s just a, well, total bitch to play. I hate you “Psychic Saw.” I want to ‘saw’ off my hands after each time we play it!

** Atheist’s new album, Jupiter, is out November 9th, 2010 on Season Of Mist. Order it here.