Cynic: Music Suggestion Of The Day 09/05/2018

Today I was  bound on suggesting something heavy as fuck…But the road ended up at today’s band; another fine example about the artistic freedom metallers often pursue despite their obvious non – commercial twists and turns. We’ve seen many groups @ Kokdi that started somehow and ended elsewhere (Tiamat, Paradise Lost, Woods Of Ypres, Ulver, Anathema and many more); and today’s band is no exception. In encyclopaedia in the genre section one can read: Thrash (early), Prog Death (mid), Prog Rock/Jazz Fusion I might add (later). So today’s suggestion is not only heavy as fuck (their first album is considered amongst the best in prog death metal), but diverse and interesting along the way, covering the span of metallic genre with obvious to my opinion jazz influences.

But let’s hear it from the experts:

«Cynic is an American band — incorporating progressive, experimental, alternative, and metal ^[2][3][4][5] elements — founded in Miami, Florida. Cynic are one of the only death metal-inspired bands to have openly gay members. Founding members Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert publicly revealed their homosexuality in May 2014,^[6] a move that was broadly supported by the heavy metal community.^[7] Their first album, Focus, released on September 14, 1993, is widely regarded as a landmark release of the progressive metal genre. Cynic disbanded in 1994, but reunited in 2006, and released their second album on November 17, 2008.^[8] Traced in Air was released through French label Season of Mist,^[9] followed up by an EP titled Re-Traced on May 18, 2010 and an EP titled Carbon-Based Anatomy on November 11, 2011. Their third studio album, Kindly Bent to Free Us, was released on February 14, 2014. In December 2017, after two years of an uncertain future,^[10][11] Reinert confirmed his split from Cynic, leaving Masvidal as the only remaining original member left.^[12]

Cynic's first recordings feature a more punk, thrash and hardcore sound, but in the 1990s their sound changed towards a highly complex, experimental and extremely technical form of progressive metal, while still retaining their death metal roots. Their 1990 demo displays a hyper-technical form of death/thrash, and the following 1991 Roadrunner demo bears a notable resemblance to Death and jazz-death metal pioneers Atheist, featuring two songs from Focus in cruder, more brutal form. Many influences from jazz and jazz-rock fusion^[3] can be heard on their debut album Focus. 

Focus has both "growls" and "robotic" vocals,^[3] using a vocoder. The offshoot Portal later released a demo recording that continues even further in the direction of progressive space rock, refining and softening up their sound.

Cynic's 2008 album Traced in Air melded together the styles and influences heard on 1993's Focus with the more progressive-oriented Portal approach. The result had Cynic put less emphasis on its extreme metal elements, with new guttural vocalist Tymon Kruidenier playing a smaller role than Tony Teegarden did on Focus. Additionally, Paul Masvidal all but abandoned his vocoder robotic vocals, opting instead for a more natural singing voice, with a subtler —although noticeable— vocoder layer that increases an octave his voice.

Noting the journey from metal to the progressives, The New York Times proclaimed in a positive review of Traced in Air that "Cynic should be understood not so much alongside any metal bands but along with the radical harmonic progressives in the last 45 years of pop and jazz: composers like Milton Nascimento, The Beach Boys or Pat Metheny."^[38]»

So Ladies & Gents please feast your ears with

CYNIC

The Complete Works

LINK1, LINK2, LINK3

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