Search - Cynic :: Re-Traced

Getting mellower and lighter with each release

J. Forst | Farmington Hills, Michigan United States | 05/18/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I've been a long time Cynic fan seeing them back in the day in '92 a handful of times (including a horribly packaged tour w/ Cannibal Corpse) and have followed them since their early demo days on Roadrunner.

That said, Cynic has been frustrating their core fans since their reformation the last few years. "Traced in Air" was a powerful sophmore release but lacked the technicallity and complexity that made "focus" a cult favorite and cemented them a place in the annals of metal history.

Now comes "retraced" with reinterpretations of songs off "traced in air" plus a new song (Wheels).

I heard the new song when i saw them live w/ Between the Buried and me about 6 months ago. The song sounded pretty good live.

Re-traced is not what I was hoping for from the Floridian lads. Half the drums are processed from a machine with some live parts thrown in and the bass is almost non existent. To me it sounds as if they were Masvidals home demos and for some reason they decided to officially release them instead of including them as bonus tracks on the next cd. Sounds strangely like their Portal/Aeon Spoke post-cynic days when no one was giving the new sound of theirs much attention. Why the worlds most forward thinking technically proficient metal band keeps wanting to get softer and more airy is beyond my comprehension. This is barely a metal release and then new song is the onlty thing even close on Retraced. I really wanted to like this and I do appreciate other genres like Blues, new Age, jazz, etc. but this is just too Cynic-lite for me to wrap my head around. Bottom line for me: I just don't get this new direction to adult contemporary mixed w/ some light metalish moments."

Unrecognizable as Cynic; recognizable as excellent.

Devin Wilson | Grove City, PA | 05/21/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I really like this album. I'd give it five stars if not for the fact that I'm likely writing this review for metal fans.



This album is not Cynic as you know them from Focus or even Traced in Air. I've only listened to the album once, but I don't think there were any death metal vocals at all, even on the more traditionally metal "Wheels Within Wheels". The other four tracks are re-imaginings of songs from Traced in Air. These are not simply remixes. The songs were stripped down and then built back up in ways that maybe shouldn't have had the Cynic name attached to them, for better or worse.



That said: this is Paul Masvidal and company excelling again. I like pretty much all of the music Paul has been involved with, including Aeon Spoke. Comparisons to the post-Focus project named Portal aren't totally unfair, but this EP is much more ambitious than that project was. Paul incorporates styles from all over the place in his re-workings of the songs. It sounds like a Björk album more than anything Paul's been involved with in the past.



The final song on the disc, however, is a song that was written for Traced in Air but decided to be not appropriate for the release as a whole. It's a very good song, but it seems to lack death metal vocals.



The production seems relatively low-budget and imperfect. In 2010, when recorded music can't be counted on to make money, this isn't reprehensible. It sounds good enough.



If you are a fan of Cynic because you're a fan of metal, Re-Traced may not be for you. However, if you're a fan of Cynic because you're a fan of sincerely interesting music of all genres, it's hard not to recommend the EP."