FOCUS

Mixing a small dose of electronic music on a death metal sonority makes a futuristic extreme metal of some sort that, apparently, packs quite a punch. FOCUS is a good album and in many ways different from the ordinary "progressive" (most of the times it's just technical) death metal. The active guitar and bass presence is something to behold, and the ecstasy of each track is electrifying. However, the album also bears its cons. First, the main vocals are terrible. The growling isn't of an annoying type, it's just poorly executed. Granted, the robotic chants that sometimes accompanies it are really cool, but that's how far it goes - the duo of horrible and decent. Its second and utmost flaw is the lack of eclectism. All tracks sound way too similar to each other. If anything, FOCUS sounds like a 36-minutes-long with eight acts, because no matter the style - acoustic, ambient, aggressive - the tracks all seem to share a common core of melodies, chord progressions, and all those other fancy music theory stuff. While it doesn't denigrate FOCUS' enjoyability, it certainly makes me doubt of CYNIC's musicianship capability. They add something new to the table but fail to develop their idea. And for that matter, the further I can go is to acknowledge it is a good, but not essential album.

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