Out of Focus

Reunited progressive metal band CYNIC record a new album worth believing in

Well over a decade after progressive metal quartet Cynic released its landmark 1993 debut Focus and broke up the following year, nobody could have predicted that the band would ever reform.

But sometimes, the universe has a way of taking the reins. According to Paul Masvidal, Cynic's main songwriter, vocalist and guitarist, it started with an email from a Russian fan, who had a vision of the band reuniting at a festival. "It was seven things over the course of two weeks," he says, "a concentrated Cynic infiltration. Sean [Reinert, Cynic's drummer] and I having the same dream. Phone calls. More emails. And then Kelly Shaefer from [death metal band] Atheist called me and said, 'You guys gotta get out there.' He had just gotten back from their reunion tour, and there was such demand. I just called Sean and I said, 'I think we're supposed to do this.'"

What started as cosmic synchronicity coalesced into a successful reunion tour through Europe in 2007. Fans were predictably rapturous about hearing Focus live, but it was the response to the new song "Evolutionary Sleeper," that set the stage for the next phase of Cynic. "By the end of one of those two-week tours, through the Internet, we had people singing the lyrics," says Masvidal. "I was blown away by the energy, the enthusiasm for something new." Soon after returning from tour, Masvidal and his bandmates started working on Traced In Air , the first Cynic album in 15 years.

Though Masvidal spent the interim years writing for TV ( That 70s Show and Operation Junkyard , among others) and his less-aggressive prog-rock band Aeon Spoke, it didn't take him long to get back into the Cynic mindset. "We did it for so many years, that it's in your biology after a certain point," he explains. "I felt like it was a radio station called Cynic that I tuned into, and once I had that frequency, I just had to interpret what I was hearing."

It's a testament to the honesty of this reunion that Traced In Ai r feels like an extension of Cynic's exploratory approach to metal, rather than a repeat of Focus .While never abandoning Cynic's trademark complex arrangements and their unique fusion sensibilities, the new songs are more dynamic and melodically rich. Masvidal describes this approach as "progressive breath metal," a play on the "progressive death metal" tag that some listeners lumped on them early on. That's exactly right – Traced In Air expands and contracts, subsuming serenity, aggression and controlled virtuosity into its expansive embrace.

Masvidal acknowledges that fans of Cynic's older work may scratch their heads at the lower proportion of growled vocals on Traced In Air , but he's rightfully unrepentant about the toned-down brutality. "For the new stuff…I intentionally didn't listen to Focus ," he says. "The creative process is so free and raw and liberated that I can't go in with the idea of, 'Oh I have to live up to something or make this work.'" The new album represents just another creative stage in the development of a band that was always defined by its refusal to be pigeonholed. "I want to keep a continuity," says Masvidal, "but I do feel like it's a boundary-less project."

One thing that hasn't changed is the eastern spiritual language that informs Cynic's lyrics, whether it's the astrological mantra at the heart of "The Unknown Guest" or the desire for transcendence in "Evolutionary Sleeper" ("If letting go/ Means letting be/And the truth beyond the mind /Is what I see"). The imagery is a natural fit for an album that perpetually reaches up and out for new modes of expression.

Early on, Cynic caught flak from parts of the extreme metal underground for avoiding the unalloyed anger and antiestablishment themes of their peers. Masvidal is still awed by the earthy, visceral aggression of extreme music, but he doesn't believe that anger and self destructiveness are valuable on their own. "It's the way that we utilize them," he says. "Really the empowerment comes through the self-investigation. That's the most courageous act." When Masvidal describes the Buddha as "the biggest rebel of all," the circle connecting heavy metal upheaval and the self-seeking of eastern philosophy is complete. The Cynic frontman goes one step further, finding a spiritual urge in the very act of creating music. "Here we are, shaping sound and doing these really mysterious things and creating environments with this thing that you can't touch," he says. "We've got no idea where it comes from, why I decide to shape these kinds of sounds. That alone is deeply spiritual."

Masvidal removes ego from the creative process, saying that his music "belongs to the universe, or everybody else. It doesn't feel like it's Paul's music." And with characteristic, authentic humility: "I'm just trying to document it, keep the fluidity -- that feels like the whole process. It's really amazing. I'm so grateful to be a musician and have this path."

–Etan Rosenbloom