Metal Reviews

So I'm listening to the three track promo and it sounds like Porcupine Tree with some Atheist style technicality and some raspy growls taking a backseat to the clean vocals. The vocoder isn't prominent but is still noticeable.

With only three of the eight tracks represented, it sounds pretty cool and I'm interested. Unfortunately it doesn't come out until October 27.

You can hear a snippet of the song 'Integral Birth on their myspace: http://www.myspace.com/cyniconline.

Yeh, the promo is great. Definitely looking forward to this.

It's safe to say that Cynic will probably no longer fit the "death metal" mold on their next album. But this was still a great song. Looking forward to the actual album, although let's not be too quick to expect Focus Part 2.

I was actually a bit let down by those promo songs...

Artwork's been released, it's quite similar to Focus, same artist. Apparently this new album's only about 30 min long...

yeah i head it's gonna be pretty short too. i liked "Evolutionary Sleeper" (haven't heard the rest of the promo) and have heard that they toned down the stuff i don't like much about Focus (vocoder, growls), so this should be good

Robert Venosa is awesome o/

Being that Focus was only, I think, about 36 minutes (which is short for a prog album), the fact that Traced In Air is only about EP length isn't too surprising IMO.

I actually have the live version of Evolutionary Sleeper from just a little over a year ago, and it's awesome.

My version of Focus has lots of bonus guff on, probably why I thought it was longer.

That's one ugly cover.

Reminds me of Lateralus. I didn't realize how much bonus material was on my copy of Focus until just now.

like the cover.

only heard "Evolutionary Sleeper", between the intro and the slow bit about a third of the way through i really enjoyed it. they got a really nice, flowing beat going and the weird (vocoder?) vocals fit qutie well in my opinion.

will listen to the samples after i get my internet connection (any traffic "excess" and it crashes within seconds.. to the point that i can't even open a website like cracked.com).

Listened to some samples from Focus yesterday and they're GREAATT. kind of like Frosted Flakes. So yeah I really need to get it.

Expect a live review come November, if all goes to plan.

After one listen, not as enthused about this as I originally was. The tracks from the demo are still great but the rest is boring; I was expecting more death metal which could explain this reaction.

I'm liking this, I don't find it boring, but it's definitely not death metal in any way. A very good progressive album. The voice kind of annoys me in some parts, but I think I'll get used to it.

heard the first three tracks and i'm liking this. vocals are quite cool.

i like this. i should listen to Focus more