Cynic – Traced in Air
Genres: Progressive Metal, Technical Death Metal
Label: Season of Mist
Metalgasm! Straight up, pure, unadulterated, and unfuckwithable eargasmic metal right here. I can’t stop listening to Traced in Air, an album I bought because I heard Cynic were pretty damn good and the tag on the album was Technical Death Metal. I thought I was buying an Origin- or Cryptopsy-like CD, but what came out was definitely not like either of those bands.
Instead, it reminded me right off the bat as Tool, but then the second listen brought in Deftones and Coheed and Cambria. And once I heard the Coheed-like elements, the Rush comparison was instant. And King Crimson. This is a wonderful, perfect album, a little on the short side (all of the best CDs are too damn short, aren’t they?) but still perfect.
It takes you on a mood swing ride, but unlike most death metal, it’s not all minor keys. Happy sounding major keys and beautiful melodies take you away on a cloud and drop you into a headbang session, then pick you back up again, just to smash your mind against the rocks of what you thought proggy tech-death could be.
If you don’t own this album, you are missing out on something so wonderful. Please, go to a store and pick this CD up.
10 out of 10.
Cynic on MySpace.