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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Cynic - Kindly Bent To Free Us
    Posted: February 13 2014 at 19:25
Cynic's new album sounds a little shakey, especially the lyrics here. The title track's is quite bleh - something  i thought Cynic always had locked down. 

That's the biggest sore of this album right now - anyone have other thoughts? 









Edited by Horizons - February 13 2014 at 19:26
Crushed like a rose in the riverflow.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 13 2014 at 20:15
Originally posted by Horizons Horizons wrote:

Cynic's new album sounds a little shakey

Agreed.  Ouch
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 13 2014 at 20:57
I've more than come to terms with Paul Masdival's vocals, so I won't bother mentioning them further. What I will say is that they seem to be drawing too much influence from other bands without adding any of their own personality to the songs. Lyrically it sounds like Masdival is trying too hard to be Cedric Bixler-Zavala. The intros to True Hallucination Speak and The Lion's Roar sound suspiciously like Mastodon. Sean Malone sounds like he was expressly told to write Joe Lester (of Intronaut fame) -esque basslines. Masdival's tone is lacking something. A certain warmth or anything that would make it memorable. Sean Reinert's drumming is solid as always, but he just seems off in the mix, like the microphones were just a tiny bit too far from the drums.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 14 2014 at 16:35
Sean's drumming is always great, true - but i think in general the music is lacking dynamics. It could be a production issue or a musical issue, either way Ermm

I don't see the similarities to Cedric's lyrics though.

Love the bass tone and it's overall presence on the songs i've heard. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 14 2014 at 18:00
I loved the album, my early thoughts from the streaming are that its as good as Traced in Air. I'll have to listen to it more but no problems for me, and I really don't hear the Mastodon influence at all, still sounds very much like Cynic. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 14 2014 at 19:13
Originally posted by Horizons Horizons wrote:

I don't see the similarities to Cedric's lyrics though.
I could just be hearing things, haha. Just seems like the lyrical esoteric-ness in this album is different than Cynic's usual esoteric-ness. Wacko
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 14 2014 at 19:22
Well i wouldn't call Cedric's lyrics esoteric - but that's another story :3
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 19 2014 at 14:23
Well I'm listening to this and enjoying it much more this go-round.  I think the vocals are the biggest minus.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 05 2014 at 18:50
I'm amazed it wasn't terrible. There are solid melodies pretty consistently. It's maybe somewhat of a mix between Portal and Traced in Air.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 06 2014 at 02:15
Originally posted by sleeper sleeper wrote:

I loved the album, my early thoughts from the streaming are that its as good as Traced in Air. I'll have to listen to it more but no problems for me, and I really don't hear the Mastodon influence at all, still sounds very much like Cynic. 



That´s pretty much how I feel about it too. They still sound unmistakably like Cynic although they´ve developed their style a lot since "Traced in Air", but that really shouldn´t come as a surprise if you are familiar with the two preceeding EPs (and the Aeon Spoke material), which also featured a less metal oriented sound. Personally I love Paul´s vocals (nice Beatlesque harmonies too) and I find the odd lyrics somewhat charming. If you expect this to be technical/progressive metal you´ll be very disappointed though.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 06 2014 at 11:57
The bass lines and spacey atmosphere are fantastic on this record. I love everything by Cynic, it's hard to say what I like the most.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 14 2014 at 14:23
I'm surprised by how much the vocals and melodies remind me of Between the Buried and Me. That's a real shame as now I can only think of the latter.
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