CYNIC – TRACED IN AIR
Almost birthing a genre in itself Cynic were able to craft a sound that was not only ground breaking in the death metal arena, but would slowly see them showcase their more progressive side. After releasing Focus in the heyday of Florida death metal Cynic became more prone to progressive tendencies. Already seen in their phenomenal Focus the band were beginning to branch out, little did we all know that Cynic would return to the fore fifteen years later with an evolved sound that was Traced In Air. The band seem to have accepted their progressive roots wholeheartedly now with this year’s Kindly Bent To Free Us although brilliant, is a far cry from their original sound. However before they decided to solely devote themselves to the progressive sound there was the hybrid of Traced In Air. Complete will Paul Masvidal’s masterful guitar work, the eponymous tremolo picked riffs along with the off kilter harmonies creating an elevated atmosphere shown in “Integral Birth“.
Contrasted fantastically with the heavier elements of the band along with Sean Reinert’s jazz fills although moving on a more progressive tangent there are still elements of the “metal” left. The final chorus of “Space For This” has a fantastic choreography between Masvidal’s alien like vocals along with old familiar growling, ensuring us that there was a reason the pair were both in arguably the band that began it all, Death. Not to mention the excellent solo midway through “The Unknown Guest” along with the ethereal clean guitar creating a true sense of higher being echoing Masvidal’s idea’s of spirituality. Where Traced In Air truly stands alone though is the sense of continuity ending the album with “Nunc Stans” (meaning “abiding now” essentially saying that time itself is redundant, that there was no such concept of past,present and future) so that when the ambient noise of “Nunc Fluens” (meaning flowing now giving the appearance that time and life flows through an eternity) reappears the transition is seamless, simulating the idea that Traced In Air is perpetual. Bring this mature idea along with the fantastic song writing, memorable hooks and sounding one of a kind and you will have what makes up one of the most interesting, forward thinking and unfortunately unheard of bands in metal itself.
