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Joined: September 17 2009
Location: Madison, WI
Status: Offline
Points: 16122
Posted: November 23 2010 at 01:23
Holy crap, well, I think I like Animals as Leaders a lot more, given their playcount on my last.fm as compared to Cynic's.
For groups like Animals as Leaders you should check out some of the bigger bands in the djent scene like Periphery, Cloudkicker, Chimp Spanner, Vildjharta, etc.
For bands like Cynic you should look at other prog. metal bands with heavy jazz fusion influence like Exivious, Aghora, Atheist (Elements era), Intronaut, Ephel Duath, Textures.
Joined: April 20 2010
Location: Washington
Status: Offline
Points: 2
Posted: November 23 2010 at 01:30
Meshuggah in my opinion is the perfect mix of Cynic and AaL. You will find a lot of bands that have that ballpark sound of Animals but as for Cynic, if it isn't Paul Masvidal then good luck!
Joined: October 25 2010
Status: Offline
Points: 320
Posted: November 23 2010 at 01:30
^Wow! Thanks so much for all the recommendations! All of that should keep me very busy I also like AAL better. Cynic has a few good songs but the vocals usually ruin it and I don't think they're quite as talented instrumentally.
Joined: September 17 2009
Location: Madison, WI
Status: Offline
Points: 16122
Posted: November 23 2010 at 01:57
I for one am actually fond of Paul's electronic vocals. But Animals as Leaders is seriously just one of the most mind-blowing musical pieces to come out recently. Tosin Abasi is an incredible player who not only is beyond amazingly skilled technically but also writes some incredible melodies. I've actually gotten a guitar lesson from him and I saw them play for my second time a week ago.
Joined: October 25 2010
Status: Offline
Points: 320
Posted: November 23 2010 at 02:13
"I've actually gotten a guitar lesson from him and I saw them play for my second time a week ago" lucky!! The man is a legend in my book too. Seriously, I cannot even air guitar to his playing lol.
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Joined: August 12 2007
Location: Bryant, Wa
Status: Offline
Points: 8571
Posted: November 23 2010 at 03:28
Cynic was a huge catalyst for the paradigm shift in progressive metal. But in all honestly, I enjoy AaL more at this point. I really like Tosin Abasi. For being a monster, he is unequivocally humble.
Joined: October 10 2010
Location: Lancaster, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 1321
Posted: November 23 2010 at 03:33
NecronCommander wrote:
Holy crap, well, I think I like Animals as Leaders a lot more, given their playcount on my last.fm as compared to Cynic's.
For groups like Animals as Leaders you should check out some of the bigger bands in the djent scene like Periphery, Cloudkicker, Chimp Spanner, Vildjharta, etc.
For bands like Cynic you should look at other prog. metal bands with heavy jazz fusion influence like Exivious, Aghora, Atheist (Elements era), Intronaut, Ephel Duath, Textures.
Loving all that jazz fusion, (don't forget Dysrythmia)
Joined: May 12 2005
Location: Paris, France
Status: Offline
Points: 652
Posted: November 23 2010 at 06:52
My vote still goes out to Cynic... AoL are great, but I get bored of their stuff quite quickly, I tend to find them a bit dry.
https://soundcloud.com/why-music Prog trio, from ambiant to violence https://soundcloud.com/m0n0-film Film music and production projects https://soundcloud.com/fadisaliba (almost) everything else
Joined: January 05 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 217
Posted: November 23 2010 at 07:01
Is there really any comparison?? Animals As Leaders are a very good new band...but Cynic are legendary and their two albums are both pretty much perfect. Huge Cynic fan, so I'm biased, of course.
Joined: April 07 2009
Location: Falun, Sweden
Status: Offline
Points: 136
Posted: November 23 2010 at 07:56
So far, Animals as Leaders appeals to me far more than Cynic, although I'm a bit skeptical if the latter served as an influence to many of my favourite bands.
Joined: July 24 2008
Location: Big Muddy
Status: Offline
Points: 5208
Posted: November 23 2010 at 07:59
Animals as Leaders is a great debut by perhaps the most important talent doing metal right now, produced by the #2 in the genre (Bulb). But they're just getting started. Tosin has taken djent and made it into something beautiful, but at some level Meshuggah created the genre.
Cynic was a legendary band with three monsters and a sound that still hasn't been duplicated. Easy choice for me.
Though if you were left with just these three albums for life, you'd be doing pretty good.
You are quite a fine person, and I am very fond of you. But you are only quite a little fellow, in a wide world, after all.
As you know,I like djent.I like Animals as leaders but are over-technical.And I don't like that in music.Cynic has the combination of vocals(clean and growls,my favorite) and are more musical.
Joined: September 17 2009
Location: Madison, WI
Status: Offline
Points: 16122
Posted: November 23 2010 at 10:38
See, I've always thought that Animals as Leaders are so amazing because they've struck an incredibly fine line: mind-blowing technicality but with the songwriting still being the main focus. Indeed, the melodies and songwriting in the album are the strongest point, even moreso than the technical virtuosity.
Joined: September 30 2009
Location: Down Under
Status: Offline
Points: 159
Posted: November 24 2010 at 07:28
Cynic. There is a demo you can get of some of the guys from cynic that was made after Focus, performing under the name "Portal", which is quite good. Not to be confused with the Canadian or Australian bands of the same name. (the Canadian band is also quite good)
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Cynic vs. Animals as Leaders
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lucky!! The man is a legend in my book too. Seriously, I cannot even air guitar to his playing lol. 
NecronCommander wrote:
