CYNIC — Traced in Air (review)

Album · 2008 · Progressive Metal

3/5 · 2011-07-02
Isa

A great revival for Cynic.

It's easy to be suspicious of bands that get back together after a long period of being disbanded, for the output is almost always dreadful. But with Traced in Air we do in fact have a quality release from a band that has been disbanded for around decade and a half, then out of the blue reunites, produces an album, and even goes on tour for it. I wouldn't be all too surprised if this album has become so popular just because it far surpassed most peoples' expectations.

For anyone who doesn't already know, Cynic is a band that blends speedy death metal with fusion, the heavier parts being the former and the softer parts having qualities of the latter. They use many effects in their music in many ways, especially with the vocals and guitars. Their debut album Focus is considered by many death metal fans, especially on the artistic side, to be a staple of the genre , up to par with later Death and Atheist. The musicians certainly hold nothing back in showing off their musicianship, and not for the sake of itself, but for the sake of creating great music, which itself makes me have great respect for this band overall.

To be far, this album is a lot less heavy than their debut. There is much more emphasis on the "progressive" quality of their sound and less on the "death" aspect of their debut. This of course does not automatically make it a superior work obviously, and even though I'm very much a prog-metal listener I prefer the debut simply because it flat out isn't quite as good, in that the melodies and riffs are generally weaker for whatever reason.

Objectively, however, this is a highly polished album, very few if any awkward spots, and well thought out writing and production overall. The best track is by far the second one, The Space for This, which in my mind is an instant classic of prog-metal. The other tracks, however, were not nearly as thrilling for me, though each had some very good sections. Had they all been as great as that second track, this album would be a hands down masterpiece. And after listening to this album many times times, I don't thing they'll grow on me much more, or at least anytime soon.

To further compare this to the bands debut, here we have more use of clean vocals; the guttural vocals almost serve as more of a backing vocal line, rarely having any featured time. This aspect I prefer over that of Focus' somewhat below par sounding guttural vocals. What makes me slightly prefer their debut overall is how the music here has less textural variation than Focus, or at least from track to track. They overall sound all too similar to me, and I don't personally find the material as interesting overall, though I do appreciate everything that's done with the writing in logical terms.

I can see why many people are excited about this release considering the circumstances with the band and the progression in their sound. I find it an entertaining album but nothing to highly recommend or listen to often enough to learn every note. If you're interested in what's happening right now with prog-metal scene, or if you loved Cynic's debut and want to hear where the band has headed with their music after quite some time, this is a quality album for you to check out. It'll be very interesting to hear what their next album will sound like.