Cynic - Carbon-Based Anatomy
Rating
RIYL
Aeon SpokeExivious
Gordian Knot
Release Date
11/11/2011
Label
Season of MistTracklist
1 Amidst the Coals2 Carbon-Based Anatomy
3 Bija!
4 Box Up My Bones
5 Elves Beam Out
6 Hieroglyph
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If you know progressive metal, you no doubt know Cynic. Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert’s impressive death metal/space/fusion project turned heads in 1993 with the release of Focus, an incredibly important album in many musical communities. Though they dropped off the map after 1994, they released a second, equally as incredible album 15 years later in the form of Traced in Air and reached out to multiple generations. Now three years later, Cynic is releasing their second EP, Carbon-Based Anatomy, on Season of Mist. Will it hold the public over until their next surely ground-breaking LP? They’ll be cutting it close, but the music’s quality is no question.
The record begins with a two minute introduction, a lone female voice singing in an Eastern style. Surrounded by swirling sounds and airy effects, this is new but at the same time entirely Cynic. In fact, the presence of female vocals recalls Aeon Spoke, the band that Cynic morphed into following their debut. Setting the stage, things roll quite smoothly into the title track. Sean Malone’s forever pulsing bass provides more movement here than Masvidal’s guitar, the latter creating a simple yet dense background of sound. The first break leaves it in the open, revealing a very Traced in Air-esque moment built on echo and delay before falling right back in. The song continues, climaxing in an emotion releasing guitar solo, a songwriting technique that the group has perfected after 20 plus years of writing music. The title track has a less hurried pace than many Cynic songs, yet still retains the same sound that they've built over the years.
“Bija!,” the second interlude track, contains sounds from a bustling Indian setting, alluding to some sort of time shift. The song it leads into, “Box Up My Bones,” is traditional Cynic. Masvidal is a master of letting emotion shine through in his music, with every note holding some sort of weight. A blistering guitar solo amidst a lethargic background and a simple Malone bass solo accentuate the whole mood of the track, cementing it along with other favorites of mine such as “Textures” and “The Unknown Guest” from previous records. “Elves Beam Out” also carries a similar weight, with simple yet powerful musical motifs and a masterful execution. This marks the end of the album’s music, the two minute “Hieroglyph” outro winding things down in the same vein as the other two interludes.
Carbon-Based Anatomy rolls up into 23 minutes, 16 of which are actual songs. The other tracks provide supplemental storytelling about a philosophical journey, “One that begins in the Amazon jungle on the lips of a shamanic wisewoman and ends in outerspace,” according to Masvidal. If you’ve come for the songs, a (legal) download will suffice. For the full effect, however, you’ll most certainly want to purchase the album and spend some time with it. Cynic’s newest EP is short and sweet, but if anything, it builds immense hype for their next full length record. Let’s just hope they keep up the pace - 15 more years would be downright cruel.
--Cody Rogers
Comments
Good review! Excited to hear this.
Baton Rouge
I knew you would be the one to review this, dude, and I am so jealous that you've gotten to hear it already! Good review, though. Between it and hearing the one song they've released so far, I can't wait to hear the rest.
Boobs
http://thenicsperiment.blogspot.com/
Milwaukee, WI
Little disappointed to hear it's so short, but when the content is so good, it doesn't matter. Can't wait to get this one.
Copperas Cove, TX
"Let no one know that God hasn’t any friends and if wilderness is found laid out across your heart, then child I do understand that you haven’t a clue of where to start." -Me.
Raleigh, NC
I will say this is a lot less tech than any other Cynic album- It's a lot more fleshed out sound-wise, which offsets the typical airy trem riffs that make up their sound. This is also the reason Tymon and Robin left the band: http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/2713427-post123.html
Minnesota
Meh, consider me unimpressed. The three songs are pretty good, but the interludes are unneeded filler. Just write an entire album, already. Their style of music isn't suited to small EPs like this. They need to make sprawling, epic albums.
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Charlotte, NC
great album
"There must be more to this"
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