TRACED IN AIR

This album came and went pretty much unnoticed. But being a fan of both the Tech Metal genre and Cynic's debut album I was eager to hear if Cynic's comeback would be comparable to the "new wave" of Tech Metal that has been sweeping me off my feet for the last couple of years. I'm talking about young bands like for example Between The Buried And Me and Canadian Protest The Hero. After a few spins it's safe to say that Cynic's sound is nothing like the new Tech Metal. The band has more of a Space Metal approach (combination of Space Rock and some Tech Metal) which was an interesting combination at first but I felt that all the technical riffs were muted down for the sake of the overall flow, which is in my opinion a real pity since I would have enjoyed it a whole lot more. Even during the most outrageous guitar-driven moments there is always some mellow atmospheric sound that keeps it all from not sounding as exciting as the guitar work would suggest.

This album just never clicked with me the way Focus did so I rarely listen to it although it's, by no means, a bad release. There's just so many different combinations that have been applied to the Tech Metal music in the last couple of years and couple of them do in fact bring something new to the table (Opeth, Unexpect) while others tend to sound like the continuation of the experiments that were conducted by Atheist, Death and Voivod in the early heydays. This one unfortunately fits into the latter category for me.

**** star songs: Nunc Fluens (2:56) The Space For This (5:46) Evolutionary Sleeper (3:35) Adam's Murmur (3:29) King Of Those Who Know (6:09)

*** star songs: Integral Birth (3:53) The Unknown Guest (4:13) Nunc Stans (4:13)

Total rating: 3,64