Cynic.....

I've been listening to 'Traced in Air'.... pretty wild and experimental at times. Progressive yes.... anyone else dig 'em.

I've not listened to this that much but I'm realizing what I've been missing..

Their first album was brilliant.

The new one is probably the worst come-back of all-time IMHO.

They took FOREVER to write "Focus" and it showed. This new one sounds like a complete rush-job.

I was SO looking forward to Traced In Air, and it was just too 'out there' for my taste. Love the artwork though. I was hoping for something closer to Focus, but I can't deny that they are very talented musicians. Just wish the new album had grown on me more than it did.

Traced In Air is great, but it can't touch Focus. Not for the reasons ToB stated, but simply because it's too clean and polished. Focus had balls! Traced In Air, while heavy, is just a bit too sterilized. The guitars need more crunch, the death vocals need more gut, and those robotic vocals are just a bit too robotic on this one. They couldn't replicate that.

But it's still a great album. Focus, however, is a damn classic that just can't be surpassed.

Eyesore wrote:

Traced In Air is great, but it can't touch Focus. Not for the reasons ToB stated, but simply because it's too clean and polished. Focus had balls! Traced In Air, while heavy, is just a bit too sterilized. The guitars need more crunch, the death vocals need more gut, and those robotic vocals are just a bit too robotic on this one. They couldn't replicate that.

But it's still a great album. Focus, however, is a damn classic that just can't be surpassed.

I'll have to look into that one......

I've been spinning some Scar Symmetry as well.... blow me down it kicks butt....

Love 'Focus'. I wish I could hear Reinhart as clearly as I can on the new one, he's muddy in the mix, but apart from that it's just excellent all around. Essential progressive metal. The new one has a song or two that sort of give me the old feeling ('Evolutionary Sleeper' and 'Integral Birth'), but generally it sort of sounds like a band heard 'Focus', and tried to sound like that...but without much of the depth and the mystery and magic....it just tends to sound like 'Cynic sound' rather than 'Cynic SONGS'.

Totally did not 'get this'. It sounded like one long song. Nothing memorable in the entire album (for me). No highs or lows. No individual/different feel to the songs, etc. I thought it may be a 'give it some time' cd but it just has not clicked with me. It is in my 'trade back' pile.

Looking forward to this:



Hard to separate old Cynic from new Cynic, but this may help a bit. They're a different band. I kind of wish they'd ditch the vocoder altogether in the future. The sound isn't right anymore.

Sounds like (new age) metal. Weird.