Traced In Air -Ltd. Edition-

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Traced In Air
I wasn't previously aware of Cynic as some of the reviewers here were. I dropped in Traced In Air and was impressed. I even surprised myself by hitting play and listening to the album in it's entirety a second time. As I listened I tried to pin the band's sound down. They have an outstanding drummer in Reinert. This and certain song structure reminded me of Rush. Although Reinert does the double kick drum when needed he also creates some killer rhythms reminiscent of Phil Collins. The album has some growling vocals but the majority of the time they are blended with Masvilad's almost angelic vocals. The talented guitar styling for the most part is more Jazz/Fusion than Metal. However, the songs are melodic with tasteful variations that keeps your attention. Absent on the album is any heavy distortion or thrash. All of this blends to create the experience that is Traced In Air. Cynic, as a band, is very tight on this album. What I mean by that as complex as this album is the musicians bring their various parts together with precision. All the members are talented but you can't help being struck by the outstanding drums and guitar work. I hope it's not another 15 years before we hear from these guys again.

What an Amazing Album!
I've been waiting, 15 years for the new Cynic. I actually kind of liked the interesting direction Cynic took with their 'Portal' offshoot in the mid-90's but it just wasn't Cynic. 'Focus' is one of those revolutionary albums like MBV's 'Loveless', or forgotten/lost-in-the-shuffle albums like Failure's 'Fantastic Planet'. 'Traced in Air' is a bold, re-introduction to the Cynic sound, but somehow, these musical genius' (and there can be little doubt that Cynic is made up of some pretty hefty genius)made an even better album than 'Focus' (IMO). Equal parts 'Power of Omens', 'Frantic Bleep', and even 'Yes' (I would say that this is almost exactly the direction Yes could've taken if they went metal). There are powerful melodies here, virtuosic musicianship and musicality, poetic and well-thought out lyrics, top-notch production, and a mastering job that actually sounds full without being over-compressed. Count me very impressed and here's hoping that it's not another 15 years between bouts of Cynic. But if it must be and it's this good, I can wait.

15 years has worth it!
Cynic is a band that has made a stone mile into the metal scene. 15 years waiting for the second album has really worth it. Unique, challenging, impressive and emotional. As usual.

not your typical Florida metal
As most people know, Florida has become famous in the metal community for creating bands like Death, atheist, Obituary and other death-metal oriented bands that are just heavy as f**k. Then came along Cynic in the early 90's w/ a few demos that created an all-out eargasm of the most technical metal anyone had heard. no jazz parts, no messin' around .. just awesome death metal technicality. then surprisingly only a few songs from the demo era ended up on their debut release "Focus" which by that time the band included fusion jazz parts in songs, a voice decoder and lyrics about things that the metal community probably never heard before. Plagued by horrible pairings on tours (I remember seeing them open for Cannibal Corpse and practically being booed off stage) so that did not help this unique band that needed exposure to a wider audience. The Focus cd was the only offering officially sold by the band and they became a cult hit among the tech-metal community and Cynic actually began recording under a different name , Portal. Like many bands who change their sound drastically over time (can anyone say metallica?) this must be one of the few bands who had the decent sense to change their name. Portal had female vocals and a much less progresive sound which sounded more mainstream. If people thought that was bad they branched off to Aeon Spoke and other bands which put them squarely into mainstream w/ almost no prog-metal moments at all. Then Cynic surprised everyone w/ a recent reunion tour which was sadly only an overseas affair even though they are from the USA. This tour introduced a new song called "Evolutionary Sleeper" and fans were chomping at the bit for more new cynic stuff. So...Masvidal and Reinert went in to the studio also with Sean malone but SM is studio only and will not be part of any tours. Jason gobel had prior commitments and handed over his guitar duties to Tymon. With all of the above being said if anyone was a true Cynic fan following them from their demo days to the newer off shoots of cynic no one should really be surprised at how much the sound has evolved into less metal and more atmospherics. I completely agree w/ others on here that : 1) only 30 minutes of music is a shame. It means you could basically fit the focus cd and the new one onto one blank cd and just over an hour worth of material over 15 yrs is almost hard to comprehend for such a cult-status band. 2) since Cynic is celebrated as a tech-metal icon you'd think there would be more crazy changes and time signatures but that is not the case. this cd gets to be straightforward after awhile and that is a shame with members of this kind of technical capability. I still think this cd is head and shoulders above what most bands put out these days so i still give it 4 stars. I really was hoping for more "uboric Forms" type of stuff but this is more new-age metal sounding then death technicality. If you follow the band from the start I don't think you'll be too surprised at the outcome but others may wonder what all the tech-metal hoopla is about if they only hear this cd. Either way, I can't wait to see them live! Hope this review helped. PS - a limited edition boxset is available overseas for this album. Also, check out the artwork. It is a fantastic update from the same artist who did the Focus artwork. He stuck with the same theme but updated it and i think the artwork and the music go hand in hand. Great idea to stick w/ the same theme but give it an updtaed look, just like Cynic's sound.

Already been said
This is an amazing album and is for anyone who appreciates complex, melodic music. It is not "Focus 2," so if that's what you're expecting, forget it. This album sounds like a band who has taken 15 years to mature as musicians and song writers and aren't concerned about sounding metal for the sake of it. This album is a 34 minute auditory epic journey and I love it every step of the way.