"Focus" by Cynic - Technical death metal / Progressive Metal

Hello friends, this time I present the debut album of the American band known as "Cynic". An incredible album, highly recommended to delve into this genre, with some not very common touches, which I will detail in the next paragraphs.

First of all, let's talk about Cynic, in case you've never heard about them. They had their beginnings in 1987, when the wave of death metal bands arose in the state of Florida, thanks to the influence and the push caused by the famous band Death. It was in 1987 when the musicians Paul Masvidal (guitar) and Sean Reinert (drums) founded Cynic, and already in 1988, they released their first demo, titled as the band "cynic", in which they show us some of their ideas, a few more death / thrash. After a cycle of support to the band Death by the members of Cynic, they decide to join and create a separate album and really it was a great feat, that even after 25 years, is one of the best Death Metal albums for me.

Let's talk about this album, for that create this Post. It is an incredible album, perfect and unique in this genre, in which this band experiments with some sounds already created in Florida's death metal wave, but with the inclusion of new elements, textures and instruments, which give the technical death to from that moment on a fascinating and highly recommended experimental touch. This album can be considered a gem of Tendelic Death Metal and why not say it, progressive death metal. The inclusion of jazz was unpublished for the time and it was a highly consolidated experiment. It should be noted how each of the members stands out in their instruments and their simplicity, technique and effectiveness to take Cynic music to another direction, to another planet.

We started this album with "Veil of maya", an incredible great song! An amazing guitar, with some robotic voices proposed by Paul Masdival, that make us believe that this band was a set of Martians, who played the music in an admirable way. What better way to open an album in this way, with some impressive and perfect changes.

Similarly, "Celestial Voyage" and "The Eagle Nature" show a band that merges, throbs and breathes as a single entity, definitely the binomial Masvidal-Reinert was the one that caused 'Focus' to become from the same moment of his birth in one of the magnificent works within the genre.

"Sentiment" starts with a New Age sound, more than anything else. Here what we have is some musicians instructed in jazz schools and this one can hear clearly without having to try too hard; The insane polymetry of Reinert's rhythms is not a flower of a day. The theme runs through paths only conceivable for clairvoyant minds and the truth: I begin to consider if calling this Death Metal, is not to be short.

"I'm But A Wave to ..." crushes without further ado; The enormous use of the double pedals and the amazing distortion of the guitars was simply unheard of. "Uroboric Forms" is one of the few that to the point of starting, throws us over the horses, but we must not forget something very important: When CYNIC play quiet something wild is still present in his music, while on the other hand , when they advance in a rough plan, they never lose the patina of beauty that covers each of the seconds of which each and every one of their creations is composed. Quite possibly, we are facing the most powerful and violent theme of the album (of the Death voices would be commissioned by the studio keyboardist, Tony Teegarden), so the subject that happens to him, involves a significant change of record that after all either is going to miss us in crazy crazies like these unrepeatable CYNIC.

In this sense, the following one titled "Textures" presents an infinite network composed of millions of nuances that simply are not available to anyone. Some of the sections of the theme are directly Jazz. Listening as Malone, literally, flies with the bass or as Reinert fantasizes as a child, experimenting with his toy and traveling to infinity, puts the gallinaceous skin as few things.

With "How Could I" we reached the end of the tunnel, to the point that we reached the climax of the album and to which it is undoubtedly his best composition under my modest point of view. From the bass filters with which the theme takes off to the final embers with which the fire is agonizingly extinguished, everything that happens during its five and a half minutes is pure science fiction that at times detaches itself from the simple concept of music to fall back , to turn around and slide through an imaginary gap that leads to a fourth dimension where things have no colors or shape but are blindingly beautiful.

Without doubt there are better Death Metal albums than 'Focus' (better in terms of genre), but to assess the fact that someone has ever been able to approach their levels of talent is a simply ridiculous debate. The land is round, the stupid man and CYNIC is the most talented band that Death Metal ever gave in its entire history. So much that even snatches the senses to many of those who detest and denude the genre without knowing a shit about it. It's an impressive album and there's no way to say otherwise, it's that simple! I recommend it.