CYNIC: Focus (DEATH METAL,Others Extreme): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

The brainchild of gifted musicians, Cynic was born in 1987 in Miami under the impetus of the duo formed by Paul Masvidal and Sein Reinert. In just a few years, with demos and a legendary album, "Human" in 1991, the duo aroused excitement, curiosity and impatience, so far from the metal conventions of the time is the music practiced by Cynic.

"Focus" was released in September 1993, with Sean Malone on bass and Jason Gobel on guitar. The album took death metal to new horizons, with impressive technical mastery. With its jazzy, progressive influences and mystical, poetic and philosophical lyrics, far from conventional metal canons, the album will be acclaimed not only by fans of technical death metal, but also by a large proportion of those who enjoy complex, progressive music.

Yet "Focus" is not easy to get into, so much so that the performance is at the heart of the tracks, and Masvidal's vocoder-driven robotic vocals may come as a surprise. Similarly, the growls may put some people off. But beyond these considerations, the album takes us into a world of its own. From Malone's vibrant, gripping bass to the complex riffs (without sterile demonstrations) and the calm, jazzy passages, everything is done to take the listener on a journey. It's these moments of gentleness, magnified by female vocals, that bring out the richness of this record.

A real UFO, "Focus" was soon to become a cult hit, helped along by the fact that Cynic took a break in favor of Portal with the same musicians. This first album is a stroke of genius that ranks among the best metal records in history, and will have a major influence on a whole generation in the 90s and 2000s. - Official website

CYNIC

FOCUS

ROADRUNNER RECORDS

DEATH METAL