CARBON-BASED ANATOMY

Cynic have been quite an enigma for me since the release of Traced In Air. The album from the reunited trio of Paul Masvidal, Sean Reinert and Sean Malone was very well recieved by the progressive metal community even if the album more often than not deviated from the familiar style that was set by Focus.

Released in 1993, Focus was a ground breaking album that reinvented the technical death metal sound and made this otherwise obscure Miami based band into heroes of the newly formed death scene. After the band's break up in 1994 it took them more than a decade to work out their differences and release their long awaited second album. Since then, the band was engaged in a lengthy tour that took them halfway around the world and showed that fans have certainly not forgotten their heroes.

It's been a few years since the band's acclaimed second album and Cynic are currently working on their third album which is currently planned to be released in 2012. Still, this doesn't mean that they can't make another love letter to their fans which is exactly what they did with the release of Carbon-Based Anatomy EP in November 2011. This 23 minute mini album is a continuous piece that's been broken down into 6 segments. The style never reaches the technical metal of their 1993 classic and there's not much tech metal to actually talk about since most of the music is very atmospheric. The title track and Box Up My Bones are the two centerpieces of this EP that serve as great companion pieces to the material off Traced In Air. Still, there are some improvements in the style that makes the music a bit more enjoyable for me. The rock instruments are a lot more prominent on Carbon-Based Anatomy and the melodies are a bit more defined.

I can definitely say that I found this material to be quite enjoyable and am certainly looking forward to the upcoming album release that will hopefully impress me even more!

***** star songs: Box Up My Bones (5:33)

**** star songs: Amidst The Coals (2:11) Carbon-Based Anatomy (6:24) Elves Beam Out (3:59)

*** star songs: Bija! (2:27) Hieroglyph (2:28)