Tony Choy got sacked

Spew · 08-04-2010, 04:04 AM

Taken from LG:

Atheist has announced the recent dismissal of bass player Tony Choy. The group has issued the following statement:

"First we would like to extend sincere apologies to all Atheist fans around the world. We have been silent on the matter of a former member being dismissed for some time, but we were entirely focused on recording our new album, 'Jupiter.' Therefore, we did not want to get sidetracked on an issue, which, quite honestly, was far less important to us than it might appear to some looking in from the outside.

"When we came together to write again, it was an obvious choice, for several reasons, to try and continue in what has been our touring lineup. We've had such a great time together on the road for the past four years. We're all great friends, and all of us were working peacefully towards the completion of the album. Therefore it hit us very unexpectedly when Tony called one day and informed us that he would not record with us. What's worse is that this happened only four weeks prior to our confirmed studio date. This left us in a very unfortunate position and without a choice.

"Although we are quite angry with him for this extremely late and inconsiderate change of heart, we have no desire to let this become personal or start some public feud. We simply want to be sure the facts are out there so we can get on with writing and playing music. While this might come as a surprise to some, we simply shrugged our shoulders and continued on, unfazed, for one simple reason: Tony was never instrumental to Atheist's sound in the first place. The true genius behind the technical bass lines of 'Unquestionable Presence' was co-founding member Roger Patterson. It's not well-known to today's fans that Roger actually wrote all the bass tracks just prior to his ultimately sad and tragic death and deserves the credit. Tony simply played what was written. However, the public perception has become distorted over the past two decades.

"It was the trio of Steve [Flynn], Kelly [Shaefer] and Roger who helped to bring Atheist alive — and continue to do so today — without Roger, of course. Tony had no influence on the band's original sound. It was that one young, gifted kid, Roger Patterson, who inspired subsequent generations of bass players to delve into technical metal and bring their instrument to the forefront. Yet, unfortunately, Roger has not always received the credit due to him. With all due respect, most of the credit has been misplaced on Tony. It was actually following Roger's terrible accident that Tony joined us, after Doug Keyser from Watchtower declined our offer to join for personal reasons.

"It must be said that nobody can deny Tony did a good job of playing the parts written by another musician. We will never stop being thankful for Tony to step in and help us out at that most difficult time. He remains a great friend. Apart from that, however, Tony's contribution to the sound of Atheist consists only of his participation as a fifth contributing member in writing 'Elements'. We leave it to Cynic and Pestilence to tell their own stories, if anybody feels the need to hear them.

"Those who are close to us know we do not like to discuss band business publicly. We prefer to keep those things internal, as they have nothing to do with the music. Yet this story must be told for a variety of reasons — primarily to honor Roger! Thus, with this very brief glimpse into our history, we hope people understand why we handled things like we did and why we were able to react quickly when Tony left us in the lurch just before the recording of 'Jupiter.' As with previous classic Atheist material, Tony had not contributed to the writing of 'Jupiter' in any significant way, so we did not have to start over. Also, we had no intention to accept any further delay caused by Tony, especially since there was already an extremely talented young musician in our ranks: Jonathan Thompson (guitar). Not only did Jonathan do his intricate guitar lines flawlessly on 'Jupiter,' but as a huge fan of Roger's work, he also wrote and performed the very impressive and original bass lines on this album as well. That is quite a story in itself.

"Tony may tour with Atheist, but for now it shall suffice that rather than settle for some random guy, we went with the best and kept it in the family. Now that our work on what we hope will soon become another classical technical metal masterpiece is nearly finished and the news of Tony Choy's removal has already reached the public, we feel the need to have our story heard instead of letting the false legend, rumor and speculation perpetuate and persist in replacing truth.

"Atheist are alive and well and 'Jupiter' will prove us to be stronger than ever!"

veshly · 08-04-2010, 04:39 AM

A lot of... pretentious wording in that statement.

brainimpalement · 08-04-2010, 05:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by veshly

A lot of... pretentiousness in that band.

rfe · 08-04-2010, 09:15 AM

tl;dr. They could have just credited Roger for the bass writing on UP instead of making such a dramatic statement about it years later.

Hideous Infirmity · 08-04-2010, 09:31 AM

"We don't wanna go public......"
4 pages later....
"again we don't wanna go into detail"

Antæos · 08-04-2010, 09:37 AM

Between "dismissal of bass player Tony Choy" and the last exclamation mark, I learned absolutely nothing. Must be a pretty big deal to these guys on a personal level.

Anyway, very excited for the new material.

Rottenatomy · 08-04-2010, 09:49 AM

what rfe said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spew

"Those who are close to us know we do not like to discuss band business publicly. We prefer to keep those things internal, as they have nothing to do with the music. Yet this story must be told for a variety of reasons — primarily to honor Roger!

*facepalm*

serocs · 08-04-2010, 10:43 AM

they sure like themselves

Reincremation · 08-04-2010, 10:44 AM

let's not forget that kelly schaeffer is a total poser who spent 1995 to 2002 trying to make it big singing for a nu-metal band. dude basically reformed atheist cuz it was the only viable career option for him. we already know that atheist have boring, safe tastes nowadays from their wretched choice of tour openers, how can they expect to dazzle us with an exciting technical metal album NINETEEN YEARS after unquestionable presence?

this whole press release is such a "look at us, we're atheist, we released a classic album, our bassist died back in the day, no really, we don't like to talk about ourselves. no really, we don't like to talk about ourselves. no really, we don't...."

come on ya queefs, make me eat my words cuz i'll be astonished if yall even manage to release a B- album.

YellowBrutalizer · 08-04-2010, 11:00 AM

Fuck it for sure

Claude · 08-04-2010, 11:22 AM

I'm still hoping the album will be sick.

But yeah, this is pretty gay

P4nz3r · 08-04-2010, 12:36 PM

terrible band

disGUSt(tx) · 08-04-2010, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by P4nz3r

terrible band

AllP0werToSlaves · 08-04-2010, 01:08 PM

Atheist is one of my favorite bands, but this is lame as fuck. Even though Roger was the man, there will never be a better replacement than Tony Choy. This line up is a mess, and without Tony I think it's going to be kinda iffy.

I'm just glad I still have the first three albums to shit my pants over.

strychnine · 08-04-2010, 02:04 PM

Tony was probably the only reaon I watched a few Atheist songs at MDF. Lame band gets lamer.

ShadowHunter · 08-04-2010, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reincremation

let's not forget that kelly schaeffer is a total poser who spent 1995 to 2002 trying to make it big singing for a nu-metal band. dude basically reformed atheist cuz it was the only viable career option for him. we already know that atheist have boring, safe tastes nowadays from their wretched choice of tour openers, how can they expect to dazzle us with an exciting technical metal album NINETEEN YEARS after unquestionable presence?

this whole press release is such a "look at us, we're atheist, we released a classic album, our bassist died back in the day, no really, we don't like to talk about ourselves. no really, we don't like to talk about ourselves. no really, we don't...."

this. 100% this. plus, those 2 Gnostic members don't really inspire any confidence (considering that, at best, average album), imho. and the exclusion of Choy is quite irrelevant

De Profoundis · 08-04-2010, 09:07 PM

RICE510 · 08-04-2010, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rfe

tl;dr. They could have just credited Roger for the bass writing on UP instead of making such a dramatic statement about it years later.

not to contradict but in anything to stress your sentiment - they DID!!! U.P. has that big ol pic of roger and they made a huge thing of pointing out that he was "the guy" that had just died and Tony was only a replacement.

rfe · 08-04-2010, 10:15 PM

I see, well then in that case this makes this announcement even more pointless. They were great at MDF though so hopefully Jupiter will be good.

brutalized · 08-05-2010, 12:52 AM

No. It's going to suck. That's it. And I had no idea that Kelly posed out in a nu-metal band.

Chromaticity · 08-05-2010, 01:39 AM

Ugh. Fuck that shit!

Antæos · 08-05-2010, 02:53 PM

This is worse than seeing your own mother in a porno movie.

GrindYourMind · 08-05-2010, 03:05 PM

Bunch of douchebags. People don't realize anymore that even with the advent of the internet and the ease of publicising personal beefs that they shouldn't. It ends up taking respect away from the music and the musicians and even gives me a negative outlook on the upcoming CD.

I hope the album comes out well still. I love Atheist.

Reincremation · 08-05-2010, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Antæos

This is worse than seeing your own mother in a porno movie.

haha, i don't think he could possibly look less into it or more washed up.

foreign10 · 08-05-2010, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reincremation

let's not forget that kelly schaeffer is a total poser who spent 1995 to 2002 trying to make it big singing for a nu-metal band. dude basically reformed atheist cuz it was the only viable career option for him. we already know that atheist have boring, safe tastes nowadays from their wretched choice of tour openers, how can they expect to dazzle us with an exciting technical metal album NINETEEN YEARS after unquestionable presence?.

I really don't know where to start with this. First I'll say that I'm not really looking forward to the new Athiest album so I'm not defending Kelly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reincremation

let's not forget that kelly schaeffer is a total poser who spent 1995 to 2002 trying to make it big singing for a nu-metal band.

To be fair, to say he's a poser because he played in a nu-metal band is a bit far. Shaun Glass from Broken Hope was in Soil for a long time after Broken Hope split up, I guess that makes him a poser. Jeremy Wagner (also from Broken Hope) is in a band call Lupara, which is also a departure from death metal, guess that makes him a poser too. I'm sure I could give more examples but those were just the first that came to mind. To say a musician is a poser just because they play for a band that's not in the same category as the band they were first in is ridiculous.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reincremation

dude basically reformed atheist cuz it was the only viable career option for him.

Well for some people music is what they know and what they do best. I'm not saying that apply's to Kelly, because I hav no clue whether or not he does anything else outside of music career wise. This is why I don't have a problem when old bands reform. It's their band, whatever they want to do is up to them.

Nailed To Gold · 08-05-2010, 06:56 PM

none of this drama will make me listen to their first 2 albums any less

RICE510 · 08-06-2010, 12:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rfe

I see, well then in that case this makes this announcement even more pointless.

yeah, exactly. And none of it changes the fact that Tony has in fact earned his reputation based mostly on his own merits.

Irrespective of UP - Tony ripps! Wished he was available to play with Cynic when I gave a shit about Cynic.

rfe · 08-06-2010, 12:09 AM

Tony always looked like he was having fun live. During their set at MDF I saw the biggest shit-eating grin on that motherfucker while he was playing.

Spew · 08-06-2010, 03:13 AM

But that's OK, he didn't contribute, so it's all good. Lol.

Johnny-Skinless · 08-06-2010, 04:07 AM

Atheist were incredible live a few years ago and Tony was incredible. Really one of the best shows i've ever been to. I wonder why he doesn't wanna record with them. It seems like he was the one who quit the band rather than getting sacked. The anouncement is way too long and whiny. Should've been something like "Tony refused to record with so we replaced him"/end of story. New album should be just great anyway.

08-04-2010, 04:04 AM	#1
Spew Big Baby Jesus Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 8,945 Rep Power: 21	Tony Choy got sacked Taken from LG: Atheist has announced the recent dismissal of bass player Tony Choy. The group has issued the following statement: "First we would like to extend sincere apologies to all Atheist fans around the world. We have been silent on the matter of a former member being dismissed for some time, but we were entirely focused on recording our new album, 'Jupiter.' Therefore, we did not want to get sidetracked on an issue, which, quite honestly, was far less important to us than it might appear to some looking in from the outside. "When we came together to write again, it was an obvious choice, for several reasons, to try and continue in what has been our touring lineup. We've had such a great time together on the road for the past four years. We're all great friends, and all of us were working peacefully towards the completion of the album. Therefore it hit us very unexpectedly when Tony called one day and informed us that he would not record with us. What's worse is that this happened only four weeks prior to our confirmed studio date. This left us in a very unfortunate position and without a choice. "Although we are quite angry with him for this extremely late and inconsiderate change of heart, we have no desire to let this become personal or start some public feud. We simply want to be sure the facts are out there so we can get on with writing and playing music. While this might come as a surprise to some, we simply shrugged our shoulders and continued on, unfazed, for one simple reason: Tony was never instrumental to Atheist's sound in the first place. The true genius behind the technical bass lines of 'Unquestionable Presence' was co-founding member Roger Patterson. It's not well-known to today's fans that Roger actually wrote all the bass tracks just prior to his ultimately sad and tragic death and deserves the credit. Tony simply played what was written. However, the public perception has become distorted over the past two decades. "It was the trio of Steve [Flynn], Kelly [Shaefer] and Roger who helped to bring Atheist alive — and continue to do so today — without Roger, of course. Tony had no influence on the band's original sound. It was that one young, gifted kid, Roger Patterson, who inspired subsequent generations of bass players to delve into technical metal and bring their instrument to the forefront. Yet, unfortunately, Roger has not always received the credit due to him. With all due respect, most of the credit has been misplaced on Tony. It was actually following Roger's terrible accident that Tony joined us, after Doug Keyser from Watchtower declined our offer to join for personal reasons. "It must be said that nobody can deny Tony did a good job of playing the parts written by another musician. We will never stop being thankful for Tony to step in and help us out at that most difficult time. He remains a great friend. Apart from that, however, Tony's contribution to the sound of Atheist consists only of his participation as a fifth contributing member in writing 'Elements'. We leave it to Cynic and Pestilence to tell their own stories, if anybody feels the need to hear them. "Those who are close to us know we do not like to discuss band business publicly. We prefer to keep those things internal, as they have nothing to do with the music. Yet this story must be told for a variety of reasons — primarily to honor Roger! Thus, with this very brief glimpse into our history, we hope people understand why we handled things like we did and why we were able to react quickly when Tony left us in the lurch just before the recording of 'Jupiter.' As with previous classic Atheist material, Tony had not contributed to the writing of 'Jupiter' in any significant way, so we did not have to start over. Also, we had no intention to accept any further delay caused by Tony, especially since there was already an extremely talented young musician in our ranks: Jonathan Thompson (guitar). Not only did Jonathan do his intricate guitar lines flawlessly on 'Jupiter,' but as a huge fan of Roger's work, he also wrote and performed the very impressive and original bass lines on this album as well. That is quite a story in itself. "Tony may tour with Atheist, but for now it shall suffice that rather than settle for some random guy, we went with the best and kept it in the family. Now that our work on what we hope will soon become another classical technical metal masterpiece is nearly finished and the news of Tony Choy's removal has already reached the public, we feel the need to have our story heard instead of letting the false legend, rumor and speculation perpetuate and persist in replacing truth. "Atheist are alive and well and 'Jupiter' will prove us to be stronger than ever!"

08-04-2010, 09:15 AM	#4
rfe idk Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: neverwhere Posts: 843 Rep Power: 11	tl;dr. They could have just credited Roger for the bass writing on UP instead of making such a dramatic statement about it years later. Last edited by rfe; 08-04-2010 at 09:25 AM..

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08-04-2010, 04:39 AM	#2
veshly Registered User Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Alberta. Posts: 783 Rep Power: 14	A lot of... pretentious wording in that statement.

08-04-2010, 09:31 AM	#5
Hideous Infirmity Registered User Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 1,739 Rep Power: 16	"We don't wanna go public......" 4 pages later.... "again we don't wanna go into detail"

08-04-2010, 09:37 AM	#6
Antæos Registered User Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Denmark Posts: 9,224 Rep Power: 25	Between "dismissal of bass player Tony Choy" and the last exclamation mark, I learned absolutely nothing. Must be a pretty big deal to these guys on a personal level. Anyway, very excited for the new material.

08-04-2010, 10:43 AM	#8
serocs >implying Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: meheeco Posts: 4,655 Rep Power: 17	they sure like themselves

08-04-2010, 10:44 AM	#9
Reincremation deranged from bud Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 23,235 Rep Power: 38	let's not forget that kelly schaeffer is a total poser who spent 1995 to 2002 trying to make it big singing for a nu-metal band. dude basically reformed atheist cuz it was the only viable career option for him. we already know that atheist have boring, safe tastes nowadays from their wretched choice of tour openers, how can they expect to dazzle us with an exciting technical metal album NINETEEN YEARS after unquestionable presence? this whole press release is such a "look at us, we're atheist, we released a classic album, our bassist died back in the day, no really, we don't like to talk about ourselves. no really, we don't like to talk about ourselves. no really, we don't...." come on ya queefs, make me eat my words cuz i'll be astonished if yall even manage to release a B- album.

08-04-2010, 11:00 AM	#10
YellowBrutalizer Registered PoUser Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Tokyo, Japan Posts: 1,210 Rep Power: 11	Fuck it for sure

08-04-2010, 11:22 AM	#11
Claude Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: montreal Posts: 1,391 Rep Power: 0	I'm still hoping the album will be sick. But yeah, this is pretty gay

08-04-2010, 12:36 PM	#12
P4nz3r Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 1,755 Rep Power: 11	terrible band

08-04-2010, 01:08 PM	#14
AllP0werToSlaves Riff-tastic Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: New Hampshire Posts: 2,683 Rep Power: 14	Atheist is one of my favorite bands, but this is lame as fuck. Even though Roger was the man, there will never be a better replacement than Tony Choy. This line up is a mess, and without Tony I think it's going to be kinda iffy. I'm just glad I still have the first three albums to shit my pants over.

08-04-2010, 02:04 PM	#15
strychnine Administrator Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: New York Posts: 2,938 Rep Power: 10	Tony was probably the only reaon I watched a few Atheist songs at MDF. Lame band gets lamer.

08-04-2010, 09:07 PM	#17
De Profoundis ۞CC♆LTIST Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: now Posts: 8,289 Rep Power: 26

08-04-2010, 10:15 PM	#19
rfe idk Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: neverwhere Posts: 843 Rep Power: 11	I see, well then in that case this makes this announcement even more pointless. They were great at MDF though so hopefully Jupiter will be good.

08-05-2010, 12:52 AM	#20
brutalized Registered User Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Texas Posts: 704 Rep Power: 14	No. It's going to suck. That's it. And I had no idea that Kelly posed out in a nu-metal band.

08-05-2010, 01:39 AM	#21
Chromaticity erusredsteregi Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Longueuil, Quebec Posts: 3,637 Rep Power: 13	Ugh. Fuck that shit!

08-05-2010, 02:53 PM	#22
Antæos Registered User Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Denmark Posts: 9,224 Rep Power: 25	This is worse than seeing your own mother in a porno movie.

08-05-2010, 03:05 PM	#23
GrindYourMind Jedi Master Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Southern California Posts: 4,023 Rep Power: 17	Bunch of douchebags. People don't realize anymore that even with the advent of the internet and the ease of publicising personal beefs that they shouldn't. It ends up taking respect away from the music and the musicians and even gives me a negative outlook on the upcoming CD. I hope the album comes out well still. I love Atheist.

08-05-2010, 06:56 PM	#26
Nailed To Gold Registered User Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 2,463 Rep Power: 14	none of this drama will make me listen to their first 2 albums any less

08-06-2010, 12:09 AM	#28
rfe idk Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: neverwhere Posts: 843 Rep Power: 11	Tony always looked like he was having fun live. During their set at MDF I saw the biggest shit-eating grin on that motherfucker while he was playing.

08-06-2010, 03:13 AM	#29
Spew Big Baby Jesus Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 8,945 Rep Power: 21	But that's OK, he didn't contribute, so it's all good. Lol.

08-06-2010, 04:07 AM	#30
Johnny-Skinless Registered User Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 6,932 Rep Power: 21	Atheist were incredible live a few years ago and Tony was incredible. Really one of the best shows i've ever been to. I wonder why he doesn't wanna record with them. It seems like he was the one who quit the band rather than getting sacked. The anouncement is way too long and whiny. Should've been something like "Tony refused to record with so we replaced him"/end of story. New album should be just great anyway.