Cynic

Paul Masvidal, vocalist and guitarist of Cynic, 2007
Background information
Origin Miami, Florida, USA
Genres Technical death metal, progressive metal, jazz fusion
Years active 1987-1994
2006-present
Labels Roadrunner, Seasons of Mist
Associated acts Æon Spoke, Aghora, Anomaly, Atheist, Death, Gordian Knot, Malevolent Creation, Master, Monstrosity, Office of Strategic Influence, Pestilence, Portal, Solstice
Website www.cynicalsphere.com
Members
Paul Masvidal
Sean Reinert
Sean Malone
Tymon Kruidenier
Former members
See: Former members section

Cynic is a progressive metal[1][2] band with incorporated jazz fusion[3][4][5] elements, founded in Miami, Florida, US. Their first album, Focus released in 1993 (see 1993 in music), is widely regarded as a landmark release of the genre. The band released their second album on November 17, 2008.[6] Traced in Air was released through French label Season of Mist.[7]

Contents

[edit on Wikipedia] Biography

[edit on Wikipedia] Demo era

Cynic was formed in 1987 by guitarist (and now singer) Paul Masvidal and drummer Sean Reinert who met in elementary school. Eventually, they added guitarst Russel Mofsky, and Esteban "Steve" Rincon on vocals. After more personnel changes, they recruited bassist Mark Van Erp and singer Jack Kelly. In 1988, the band made their first recording, simply called the '88 Demo. After the demo, Paul Masvidal took over vocal duties, while continuing to play guitar. The band also added a second guitarist, Jason Gobel. Another demo followed in 1989, this one titled Reflections of a Dying World. 1989 also brought the addition of bassist Tony Choy. In 1990, the group went to the studio to record their third demo, plainly titled '90 Demo. In 1991, Cynic signed with Roadrunner Records and recorded their fourth and final demo, known as Demo 1991.

[edit on Wikipedia] Recording Focus

Sean Reinert on drums (with Focus art on bass drum), 2007

The recording of Cynic's debut full-length album, Focus, did not happen immediately after the ink dried on the band's new contract with Roadrunner Records. Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert had played on Death's 1991 album Human, and were obliged to take part in the supporting tour of Europe. During this tour, Death ran into serious financial trouble, and Masvidal and Reinert's gear was confiscated, and they had to wait six months before being able to retrieve it. During this time, the band parted with bassist Tony Choy who then joined Atheist. They planned to record Focus in August 1992. However, the day they were set to begin recording Focus, Hurricane Andrew struck Florida, destroying both guitarist Jason Gobel's home, and the band's rehearsal space, leading to a further three months of delays. The band used this time as an opportunity to write new material, much of which is featured on Focus. Just before recording the album, Paul Masvidal was in danger of losing his voice and death metal singer Brian Deneffe was recruited from Wisconsin's Viogression, but this was short-lived. Tony Teegarden was eventually brought in to do the "death growls", however all the "robotic" vocoder vocals were recorded by Masvidal. Eventually they found and recruited Sean Malone as bassist while in the studio. During the European tour with Pestilence, Tony Teegarden was brought in as a full member of the band, playing keyboards and singing the "death growls". Bassist Sean Malone could not participate in the tour due to school commitments, and Chris Kringel was brought in to take his place.

[edit on Wikipedia] Split-up

Cynic disbanded during the fall of 1994 while working on a second studio album.

Ex-members went on their separate ways. Gobel, Masvidal, and Reinert, with bassist Chris Kringel and vocalist/keyboardist Aruna Abrams, formed the short-lived Portal. Currently Masvidal and Reinert perform in the band Æon Spoke, and Kringel has also played with them, touring the UK in 2005. The members of Cynic loosely reunited (playing with Bill Bruford, Steve Hackett, and Jim Matheos on various tracks) on Gordian Knot's second album, Emergent.

[edit on Wikipedia] Reunion

David Senescu, 2007
Tymon Kruidenier, 2009

In September 2006, Paul Masvidal announced that Cynic was reuniting to perform during spring/summer of 2007. During June/July/August 2007, they played 15 shows across Europe, predominantly at major metal/rock festivals. The setlist consisted of songs from Focus, Portal's demo, a cover of Mahavishnu Orchestra's "Meeting of the Spirits," and a new song, "Evolutionary Sleeper."

The reunion line-up features founding members Paul Masvidal on guitar/vocals and Sean Reinert on drums. Jason Gobel, the long time guitarist who played on Focus, could not participate due to family and work commitments. David "Mavis" Senescu was brought aboard as a replacement. Sean Malone, who played bass on Focus, was unavailable due to teaching and work commitments, and Chris Kringel, who played bass on the 1993 European tour, was brought in as a replacement. All "death growls" were handled by pre-recordings of Teegarden (rather than have Masvidal or Senescu do them live). All keyboards were covered by Masvidal and Senescu using guitar synths. With the absence of Teegarden, the group organized a contest in order to find fans to provide the death vocals for the song "Uroboric Forms" on various dates.

In early 2008, the band announced plans to complete a second studio album. Sean Malone has rejoined the lineup, and Dutch guitarist Tymon Kruidenier has replaced Senescu. The band also played at the Wacken Open Air festival.[8] Malone was not present at the Wacken Open Air gig on August 1, 2008. He was replaced by Robin Zielhorst. [2] The band supported Opeth on their European tour in Autumn/Winter 2008 with Robin Zielhorst on bass.

[edit on Wikipedia] Traced in Air & new EP (2008−present)

Main article: Traced in Air

Starting in February 2009, Cynic toured North America with Meshuggah and The Faceless, and beginning April 15, 2009, Cynic toured North America, along with Dååth, in support of DragonForce.

During the 2010 tour in support of Between the Buried and Me along with Scale the Summit and the Devin Townsend Project, the band performed live "an experiment" titled "Wheels Within Wheels." [9] Shortly after unveiling this new work, the band announced a new EP coming soon on their MySpace blog. Tymon revealed in an interview the plans for the coming EP.

"As most of you already know we're working on an EP. We're reinterpreting 4 songs from Traced In Air: Space, King, Evolutionary and Integral, and we will record a brand new song. There's several reasons we're doing this. We're not done yet with TiA, the album has only been out for a little over a year and we feel the songs are still fresh. Besides that we want to try different production techniques and incorporate influences from different genres we all love, but which never had a place in Cynic. So I saw someone asked how "surprising" this EP could be? I would say: very surprising" [10]

[edit on Wikipedia] Musical style

Cynic's first recordings feature a more traditional death metal sound, but in the 1990s, their sound changed towards a highly complex, experimental and extremely technical form of progressive metal, while still retaining their death metal roots. Many influences from jazz and fusion[3] can be heard on their debut album Focus. The vocals on Focus have both "death growls" and a "robotic" voice[3], which was achieved by using a vocoder. The offshoot Portal later released a demo recording that continues even further in the direction of progressive metal, refining and softening up the influence of technical death metal in Cynic's sound, though styles of technical death metal were still present on Traced in Air.

Cynic's 2008 album Traced in Air melded together the styles and influences heard on 1993's Focus with the more progressive-oriented Portal approach. The result had Cynic put less emphasis on its death metal elements, with new guttural vocalist Tymon Kruidenier playing a smaller role than Tony Teegarden did on Focus. Additionally, Paul Masvidal all but abandoned his vocoder-aided robotic vocals, opting instead for a more standard singing voice, albeit one made an octave higher by digital effects.

[edit on Wikipedia] Band members

Chris Kringel, 2007
Robin Zielhorst, 2009

[edit on Wikipedia] Current members

[edit on Wikipedia] Former members

[edit on Wikipedia] Discography

[edit on Wikipedia] Albums

[edit on Wikipedia] EPs

[edit on Wikipedia] Demos

[edit on Wikipedia] References

  1. ^ http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1587142/20080508/story.jhtml
  2. ^ http://www.thegauntlet.com/article/1225/13626/.html
  3. ^ a b c http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1994-01-26/music/faded-glory/
  4. ^ http://www.mywire.com/pubs/Muze/2007/02/01/629496?extID=10051
  5. ^ http://www.timeout.com/newyork/articles/music/69955/best-and-worst-albums-of-2008
  6. ^ http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=106819
  7. ^ Cynic Sign to Seasons of Mist. News @ metalstorm.ee
  8. ^ http://www.wacken.com/en/woa2008/main-bands/billing-2008/
  9. ^ [1]
  10. ^ http://sputnikmusic.com/news.php?newsid=11435

[edit on Wikipedia] External links

v • d • e
Cynic
Paul Masvidal · Sean Reinert · Sean Malone · Tymon Kruidenier
Robin Zielhorst
Jack Kelly · Mark Van Erp · Tony Choy · Jason Gobel · Aruna Abrams · Chris Kringel · David Senescu · Tony Teegarden
Studio albums
Focus (1993) · Traced in Air (2008)
Demos
'88 Demo (1988) · Reflections of a Dying World (1989) · '90 Demo (1990) · Demo 1991 (1991) · Portal 1995 (1995) · Promo (2008)
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