Cynic (United States of America (Miami, Florida) )

Cynic - Re-Traced, EP [2010] (Technical Progressive Death Metal/Fusion)
Lable : Season of Mist

I wasn’t really sure what to think when I found out Cynic was going to be reinterpreting four of their songs from their masterful Traced In Air album for this EP. I was even more unsure of what to expect when I heard the previews, which appeared to be significantly mellower and less metal than the originals. I was excited to hear the studio version of ‘Wheels Within Wheels’, which I had only heard the live bootleg so far.

As it turns out, Re-Traced makes for an interesting, if brief, listen. It’s weird to hear Cynic revisiting these songs, which seem so familiar, and turning them into something completely different. On the other hand, it is kind of nice to hear Paul Masvidal’s voice set free of the vocoder effects that dominated Cynic’s previous two albums. And the songs themselves benefit from the new concepts applied to them. The melodies are, by and large, the same, but they are given a new life in these versions.

‘Space’ (a reinterpretation of ‘The Space For This’) kicks things off and immediately sets the tone, with most of the heavier elements stripped away. There are some electronic elements present here that weren’t on the original, glitchy little 8-bit sounds providing percussion beneath some clean guitar. ‘Evolutionary’ (reinterpreting ‘Evolutionary Sleeper’ replaces the growling intro and heavy riffing with acoustic guitar, focusing more on the song’s soaring melodies. ‘King’ (‘King Of Those Who Know’) keeps the clean guitar, but lets drummer Sean Reinert and new bassist Robin Zielhorst carry the song, even throwing in some distorted guitar and vocals toward the end. And ‘Integral’ (‘Integral Birth’) goes almost entirely unplugged, just acoustic guitar, subtle keyboards, and harmonized vocals from Masvidal and guitarist Tymon Kruidenier.

And then there’s ‘Wheels Within Wheels’. While it’s certainly the heaviest song on this EP (mostly courtesy of some pummeling double bass from Reinert toward the end of the song), it’s still rather mellow and might have seemed out of place on Traced In Air. It does contain more standard Cynic instrumentation, but it still showcases the softer side of a band who recently on tour started leading its audience in yoga poses.

Cynic will be hitting the studio after the conclusion of their current American tour to record their next full-length album. Whether this is an indication of what the new material will sound like, or just a welcome bit of experimentation, you can consider me among the many eagerly anticipating another album.

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