Cynic - Focus
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Cynic's Focus turned 15 yesterday. Plenty of ink has been spilled on it, so I need not discuss its importance, except to point out that without it there would be no Alarum, Behold...The Arctopus, Between the Buried and Me, Intronaut, Spiral Architect, and many other bands today. I don't remember when I first heard it, but my impressions now are distinctly different from then.
The Eagle NatureThe Eagle Nature (remastered)
First, the record seems transitional. Yes, its innovation was combining death metal and jazz fusion, but the mix isn't seamless. Some of the parts are quite messy. Often, the pretty jazz bits drop in out of nowhere, and I don't think the band had a complete grasp on its sound. Of course, such unpredictability was part of the appeal, the sound of exploring new territory. Even the brevity of the record (36:14) suggests unfinished business. The 2-song promo leaked earlier this year (downloadable here) seems more like the direction the band was heading - less metal, more jazz fusion.
Second, Scott Burns wasn't the right guy to produce. This is probably obvious - but it does make me wonder if I would love the record, rather than just like it, if it had gotten the widescreen production it deserved. Nothing against Burns, as he helmed some of my all-time favorite records. It's just that the Death Metal Guy wasn't ideal to produce a record that was hardly Death Metal.
Uroboric FormsUroboric Forms (remastered)
Third, the Roadrunner remaster from 2004 sounds like shit, as Roadrunner remasters usually do. It's harsh and shiny, yet the low end is booming and muddy. Sean Reinert's drumming is crisp and nuanced, and that's completely lost in the remaster. But the remaster does include three way-cool Portal demos (as well as three pointless "remixes") and the expanded liner notes typical for reissues. Nice-looking package, if not a nice-sounding one.
I'm really excited to hear Traced in Air (out on October 27/28). It'll likely have a Cynic-worthy production, as well as low metal content. Normally that's a minus, but I think metal was only holding Cynic back. The jazz/prog parts of Focus were so much stronger than its metal, and I think they're where the band's heart lies.
Labels: anniversaries, clee, death metal, prog metal, usa
11 Comments:
I agree, while Focus is an amazing album, its blend of prog/jazz/metal does sound at times (just a touch) forced. Which makes Traced in Air all the more satisfying...it might not get the same immediate reputation of Focus, but it does feel like the more complete Cynic album.
Ok, I'll give the obligatory namedropping of Atheist here. I think their work has held up significantly better than Cynic, which seems gimmicky. The robot vox were cool the first couple of times I heard them, but just annoy me now.
Traced In Air is terrific, but yeah, it's way more Allan Holdsworth than Chuck Schuldiner. I'm interviewing Paul Masvidal later this week and I'm very interested to get his views on what he even thinks of metal these days.
I'd say Focus is an album I appreciate more than I actually enjoy.
Also, Evanz is otm up there^. Atheist get too little credit.
"Focus" is still one of my absolute favorite albums of all time. It was in my #1 slot from the moment I first heard it (the day it came out) until recent years, though it's still arguably right up there in that top slot depending on my mood. I think it hold up perfectly. Absolutely love it. I'm really excited to hear the new album. The teaser sounds great, though that two-song promo was actually a little underwhelming for me. Hard to say...
Ahhh, Focus!! I haven't listened to that for the longest time. Gotta look for it today...
Too bad they cancelled their appearance at Maryland Deathfest last year with about a few weeks before the fest started.
Awesome! Discussing a HM classic! And not just "back in the day" talk since this is relevant to the upcoming album. Your opinion on the record is mostly congruent to mine, but here's a few personal thoughts:
I was sorta intimidated by metaldom to like "Focus" for about the first five years of listening to it. I kept hearing about what an amazing record it was and the technicality on show was certainly indicative of some sort of genius but there was something wrong although I couldn't put my finger on it. I think now a lot of the scene was just dazzled but didn't try to understand the record. While some cuts in it flow excellently in terms of music (Veil of Maya, Uroboric Forms) the record is very torn on issues of aesthetic and philosophy.
The material is very sterile and calculated, the sound job suits this I feel but then again I can't even begin to think of how this record would sound with a different production. Nevertheless that is not where the problem lies.
Death metal was really a transient shell for Cynic and it would have been much better had they left it completely behind by the time of 'Focus'. The demos were as good death metal as Cynic would ever do, and they shouldn't have felt the need to accommodate for 'Floridaness' what with the cookie cutter session vocalist (robot voice was all this record needed!) and various bits of comfortable double-bass 'extremity'.
The spiritual lyrics are if anything, creepy to me, along with the mid-swim christening photos and thanks towards spiritual gurus in the liner notes. I can deal with creepy metal just fine, but not if it trips itself over as "Focus" does by marrying incompatible form to content. This isn't death metal, this is the exact opposite: it's life metal. Totally willpower affirming, concerned with a higher ontology (not nihilism). The appropriate shell for this sort of aesthetic is meticulously crafted ambient and progressive metal (or what have you) and it's no wonder that is exactly the direction key members from this band went to after "Focus". It's slightly ironic that this unworkable disparity between form and content serves make such a record appear... unfocused.
I didn't go see Cynic play their old songs in the recent tour because I felt it was quite disingenuous to provide voiceover backup brutal vocals. If they understood the error inherent in "Focus" they should have gone ahead and removed all brutal vocals from the old songs, it would only serve to better them.
The record hasn't aged well then, because it was moving on in a different direction on one side but the other foot remained planted firmly in a conventional form of what 'death metal' was expected to be by a 1990ish audience in Florida. In sharp contrast, prime Atheist material that didn't give a fuck remains absolutely stunning today (in a live setting too, I can say from experience) as does tangentally related offerings from Watchtower, Anacrusis or even Psychotic Waltz.
"Focus" is a transitional album and Cynic would have benefited greatly from having waited out transition out before recording and not giving a fuck if they were considered 'metal' enough by the scene they operated in. Sadly it seems "Traced in Air" will suffer from genre conventions as well, Paul having suddenly realized how much of a cult hit "Focus" was, will probably not risk alienating that audience he came to know again in the last tour. I am troubled by a promotion of more disingenuousness but will have to wait and see in any case.
I hope you do write ups for more classics with a sense of how they're relevant today!
I met Paul Masvidal last week at the ASCAP offices and, despite his eternally calm demeanor, he seemed pretty stoked that SOMEbody recognized and respected his old work with Cynic - dude's been doing just fine composing for TV in recent years (including some cues for That 70s Show!) but I imagine there's always gonna be a metalhead inside him. At the same time, I do wonder whether he and the rest of Cynic ever viewed death metal as a vital ethos in itself or just an aesthetic to be appreciated for its extremity, in the same way that jazz fusion held appeal for its accessibility to a closed circuit of musicians. Totally stoked for Traced In Air either way.
Helm wins. Damn, dude, you probably spent more time writing that than I did on my post. But I agree with most everything, save for one distinction. Death and life aren't necessarily polar opposites (and perhaps the type of spirituality Cynic explores might agree). Of course, on its face lots of metal seems death-obsessed, but the energy and vitality coming from it is hardly necrotic.
Etan, very cool story. I've been digging your writing recently.
pdf, I'm curious what your interview will yield.
Thanks. I have a lot of free time to think about HM! I agree that death and life aren't as much polar opposites in how HM deals with them (strangely, dISEMBOWLEMENT's "Transcendence into the Peripheral" comes to mind) but still, a generidude Florida growler singing "Veil of Maya / Balance every joy with a grief / Dual states of Maya / Earth's unending law of polarity" just seems... tacky, somehow. Especially when they have a perfectly fitting and servicable robot singing for them too.
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