Cynic New EP: Carbon Based Anatomy

[shadowdust]

Jazz/Fusion, Extreme-metal band CYNIC will release a new EP, "Carbon-Based Anatomy", on November 11 in Europe and November 15 in North America via Season Of Mist. Unlike last year's "Re-Traced", this new EP consists exclusively of brand new material.

"Carbon-Based Anatomy" track listing:

01. Amidst The Coals
02. Carbon-Based Anatomy
03. Bija!
04. Box Up My Bones
05. Elves Beam Out
06. Hieroglyph

The artwork was designed by the great Robert Venosa, the artist behind the covers of CYNIC's previous releases "Focus", "Traced in Air" and "Re-Traced".

Paul Masvidal describes this new EP as "both a philosophical as well as a musical journey, one that begins in the Amazon jungle on the lips of a shamanic wisewoman (as portrayed by Amy Correia) and ends in outerspace."

All bass parts on "Carbon-Based Anatomy" were recorded by one-time CYNIC bassist Sean Malone.

CYNIC last year parted ways with bassist Robin Zielhorst and guitarist Tymon Kruidenier due to the "logistical challenges of maintaining a band that is half based in The Netherlands and the other half in the United States" (drummer Sean Reinert and Masvidal live in California).

 

[black_floyd]

I really miss the style used on Focus. I don't want them to just regurgitate that since I think Paul would hate to repeat himself but I would love to see at least one more album where the death metal vocals are given a fair chance. On Traced in Air I almost have the feeling that the growls were included as a reluctant measure to not alienate the Cynic fans who come from the death metal side of the fence. I say this because growls were the primary vocal approach on Focus but on TiA growling represented less than 25% of the vocals (obviously just my best guess as I didn't sit with a recorder and a stopwatch lol), seemed to be mastered at far lower volumes than the clean parts, and were doubled by clean vocals a hell of a lot.

I just felt the growls added a power and intensity to Focus that was sorely missing on TiA and made it a disappointment for me since I saw so much potential but the decidedly lighter sound (production-wise) coupled with the growl issue just sapped it of a lot of that initial punch.

 

[Allfader]

A preview:



A full track to download on SoM:

http://www.season-of-mist.com/common/downloads/cynic/Cynic-Carbon-Based-Anatomy.mp3

It's pretty different again from the Traced album, it's like a more intense Re-traced. I love the atmosphere, the more audible bass (but not so clear), the drums are excellent as always.

People expecting Cynic going death metal again is nuts. Cynic grew up from death metal just right after Focus. I remember when the Portal demo was released - Cynic sans Malone - and it was really mellow, but not really that different from the band's style. Then came Aeon Spoke and, well, I didn't expect nothing brutal or heavy from Paul and Sean anymore, but good progressive music.

 

[AnTz0r]

i can live without the grunts, but i at least want the intensity and innovativeness of focus. i still think that focus now would have been a more innovative record than TiA in 1993.