The ‘80s are often seen as the glory days of metal (rightly so), but as the ‘90s dawned, metal was a dirty word, except for death metal acts in Florida and Sweden. Fans wanted harder and faster. Words like esoteric and progressive weren’t welcome. Cynic, along with Atheist, Psychotic Waltz and Watchtower before them, found their intelligent music drowned out. Perhaps NOW, in a climate that has fostered careers for the likes of Tool, Dillinger Escape Plan, Meshuggah and Primus, an act like Cynic has a better shot. If it were possible to combine the sometimes wacky output of the aforementioned foursome, it might approximate Cynic, who is often favourably compared to latter-day Death (Paul Masvidal, vocalist/guitar, and Sean Reinert, drums both teamed with the late Chuck Schuldiner on the groundbreaking Human in ‘91). Shame that after 15 years apart, they could only create eight selections (34:45), one being the tribal drum-laden instrumental ‘Nunc Fluens’. That said, the jazz meets art rock meets rock style employs the two vocal approach: predominately smooth and super-clean, backed by another, right out of Death metal. Chuck would be proud! ‘Evolutionary Sleeper’ is moody, whereas ‘Integral Birth’ picks up the pace/intensity and features plenty of growling, yet as with any and all Cynic “songs,” they can switch on a dime. Take the subdued intro to ‘King Of Those Who Know’, complete with a choir of female voices. Suddenly it jumps to metal, a la improvisational jazz. You want virtuoso musicianship? Check out the guitar on ‘A Space For This’. Call it math metal, technical, whatever, just approach with an open mind. Probably an album you’ll hum along to, more than sing. Crazy!