cynic - ascension codes

what a great band. "focus" (1993) and "traced in air" (2008) are among my all time favourite metal records and so i was excited for this new release. "kindly bent to free us" from 2014 didn't leave much of an impression but "ascension codes" really hit a nerve with me. i still miss the growls but this new album is a downright return to form. fantastic prog metal all the way through.

rest in peace sean reinert and sean malone.

cynic - focus

wow, a re-issue i am most pleased about. cynic's mammoth record and debut "focus" back in press. and what a beauty it is. but from the beginning - i get the regular newsletter of high roller records, a fine independent german metal label and distro. in the past i was able to snag a few limited bits of french label season of mist records via high roller (atheist, archspire) and so i pay good attention when those newsletter roll in.

this time when i was scrolling down the "new pre-orders" list, my jaw dropped when i saw a coloured version of "focus" for the taking. original copies just went through the roof and so i got sweaty hands and checked out a copy as fast as i could. after i got my pre-order in, i started to search for some information on the re-press. i couldn't really find something illuminating. the official source roadrunner records doesn't have it in their store nor mention it at all.

furthermore i wasn't able to find any pressing numbers. this thing just appeared out of the blue and nobody seems to know anything. well, i won't lose my mind over this. i rather dance around like crazy and take another listen to this masterpiece via my beautiful orange marble record. i am still amazed at how unique and ahead of its time this album was. the re-press is actually a vinyl edition of the 2004 cd re-issue.

therefore it comes with some nice liner notes by vocalist paul masvidal and ula gehret (he works for century media and actually i don't know why he was involved here). at the time both didn't know that cynic was to return with "traced in air" a few years later. roadrunner stood true to the original artwork and layout of the cover sleeve. i really appreciate this. a few changes on the printed dust sleeve and different centre labels but i can live with that. gorgeous choice of vinyl colour. roadrunner records. 1993/2018.

cynic - kindly bent to free us

a week or so ago i was bidding on ebay for a record i wanted badly. it was animals as leaders' first self titled full length. but not only this, i was bidding on the glow-in-the-dark vinyl pressing out of 106 copies. i don't have any glow in the dark colour records and the combination with this great album made it very desirable. in the last twenty hours of the auction a bidding war flared up. i mean, i was expecting it to go for considerable money but when i saw the end result, i was stunned.

that fucking thing went for over one hundred euros. boy, i bid something over sixty bucks and thought that was pretty inflated. sometimes i am amazed at what people pay for those plastic discs. ok, anyway, why am i telling you this when the post title indicates something about cynic? well, the same seller who offered the glow-in-the-dark animals as leaders record also had a copy of cynic's latest album "kindly bent to free us" up for grabs.

and it wasn't some random copy, it was a semi-translucent bronze colour copy of the first press. one of the most limited colour press. so i also prepared myself to pay a good chunk of money for it and then something unexpected happened. i don't know what it was. probably people lost their interest in bidding over that erruption concerning the animals as leaders record, or "kindly bent to free us" isn't that sought after as i thought. whatever it was, i got it for fourteen bucks. good catch in my book.

musically this the great quirky, progressive metal that cynic perfected. there is a certain depth and beauty to their music which i fail to describe with words. on "kindly bent to free us" the band reduced the death metal parts, which is really the only reason why i like "traced in air" a bit more. the drum sound is very organic and a nice contrast to the extra-stringed guitar and bass. the band's third full length under the name cynic is complex but never loses focus. prog supremacy. 150 copies made. season of mist records. 2014.

cynic - traced in air

this one had a long time coming. i had "traced in air" by cynic on my radar for quite some time but somehow never found the motivation to finally go for a physical copy. a few weeks ago cynic found their way back into focus and this time for good. there are three versions of the band's second full length out there. a clear blue, a clear and a grey vinyl edition. as i am not the biggest clear vinyl colour fan, i wanted the opaque grey platter. the problem was this edition was the first press.

so logically this edition has the tendency to be the most expensive. fortunately cynic doesn't seem to be hyped and therefore prices were, even for a first press copy, quite moderate. i found a seller from greece with good price and shipping costs proportions and bought it right away. i asked him to pack the vinyl outside of the sleeve to avoid seam-splits. well, either way he didn't figure what i meant and didn't care to ask or he simply ignored it knowingly.

the result is an ugly bend on the back of the gatefold sleeve and seam-splits at all three edges of the printed dust sleeve. fortunately no seam-split of the cover sleeve but the other damages are rather enough to me. the vinyl however is in mint condition and seems rarely played or even unplayed. so all in all the music is what counts and i think i can live with the rest. speaking of, the music is outstanding. a wild, dreamy trip through big soundscapes and technical diversity.

cynic's sound is the blueprint of prog metal to me. "traced in air" is packed with details, quirky melodies and riff virtuosity. anyone into between the buried and me or born of osiris will love this record. the album was released via french metal label season of mist in 2008 but on cd only. a year later england's back on black records gave it the vinyl treatment. first press comes on 180gr grey vinyl out of  1.000 copies. back on black. 2009.