Awesome band!! My review from a while back:
CYNIC - FOCUS
Back in 1993 I was in the infant stages of music obsession. I was still holding on with dear life to 80's rock and bands like Slaughter and Def Leppard, and punk bands like the Misfits and Black Flag. I was also pretty ignorant to the vastness of the music world and too stubborn to truly open myself to new music styles. It was then that I met someone who was a huge metalhead and he introduced me to bands such as Sanctuary, Solitude Aeturnus, Heathen, Helstar and he eventually introduced me to Cynic's Focus album. I hated the CD, though I thought the cover artwork was pretty sweet! I just could not grasp the concept of this being music! It was just a bit too heavy for me at the time. I loved the power metal bands he showed me like Sanctuary and the doom metal bands like Solitude Aeturnus, but Cynic was just too much for me too handle at the time.
Years later as my music obsession was nearing maturity and I was actually listening to really extreme bands I came across an article about this short-lived band named Cynic, I did a little digging and found that this band's one and only CD is considered one of the best metal CDs of all time! I hated one of the best metal CDs of all time?, I thought. So I sought it out, found it at a used record shop, brought it home, cranked it and proceeded to declare this CD one of the best metal CDs of all time!! This CD was amazing!! Many people refer to it as death metal, but to me death metal is played by bands like Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel, this is not Cynic.
Cynic are more in the melodic death metal vein with bands like Dark Tranquillity, Nightrage, and The Defaced. Yet, at the same time they are completely different than these bands. Cynic combined extreme technical playing with traditional metal, death metal, thrash, jazz, fusion, and classical. Paul Masvidal's death metal growls intertwine with his angelical clean vocals, and the signature haunting flanged vocals. No other metal band has ever combined such contrasting styles, extreme technical wizardry and pulled it off as flawlessly as Cynic did. They were in a class of their own in 1993, and ten years later they still exist there, alone.
This new re-issue comes remastered with six bonus tracks, new artwork and pictures, and liner notes by Ula Gehret (Metal Maniacs editor, Century Media rep) and a message from Paul Masvidal. The remastered tracks aren't any different than on the original release, they've just been brought up to current audio standards. The six bonus tracks consist of three remixes of "Veil Of Maya," "I'm But A Wave To..." and "How Could I," and three tracks pulled from the post-Cynic band Portal's 1994 demo. As much as I love this re-issue I have to question the logic behind remixing only three songs. These three songs are far superior than the original three, which are also included on this CD. Why not remix and remaster all original eight songs? Why stop at three? Don't get me wrong, the original tracks sounded great in 1993, the mix was perfect for the time, but ten years have passed and the technological advancements with which they could have used to remix the five remaining tracks should have been utilized because there is a glaring difference between the three tracks they did remix, and the original eight. Honestly, they should have remixed all or none. The three Portal tracks are excellent songs and I wish I had a copy of that demo. They are very different than Cynic. Gone is the death metal and it is replaced by a Floyd-ish prog-rock experimental noisescape with male and female vocals having more in common with Dead Can Dance than anything metal. I'm not sure why these are on this CD, most fans would have taken a few pre-Focus demos over these three tracks, I'm sure, but at least they're good. I think a re-issue of the whole Portal demo, as well, would have made more sense.
Regardless, on the back of this CD there is a blurb where it says that " 'Focus' is an absolute classic!" 'Nuff said.
Tracklisting:
1. Veil Of Maya
2. Celestial Voyage
3. The Eagle Nature
4. Sentiment
5. I'm But A Wave To...
6. Uroboric Forms
7. Textures
8. How Could I
9. Veil of Maya *
10. I'm But a Wave To... *
11. How Could I *
12. Cosmos **
13. The Circle's Gone **
14. Endless Endeavors **
* Remixed Tracks
** Portal Demos
Website:
http://www.cynicalsphere.com
