Cynic: Traced in Air (2008)

1. “Nunc Fluens” – 2:56
2. “The Space for This” – 5:46
3. “Evolutionary Sleeper” – 3:35
4. “Integral Birth” – 3:53
5. “The Unknown Guest” – 4:13
6. “Adam’s Murmur” – 3:29
7. “King of Those Who Know” – 6:09
8. “Nunc Stans” – 4:13

Now I’ve stated somewhere around this blog before that my tastes are most firmly rooted in metal and progressive music. I love metal music; I love progressive music. What I love even more is progressive metal music done well. That is why whenever you see me listing my top favorite bands, Opeth and Dream Theater are usually in my top two, and the likes of Meshuggah and Tool in my top 5. I have a strange affinity for heavy, dark and epic music. You get heavy in metal, dark in most metal and some progressive, and lots of epic in progressive and some metal. In addition, in metal you get lots of intricate and technical musicianship, as well as a raw intensity you just don’t really find in other genres. In progressive music (nowadays), you get even more technical (albeit not necessarily intricate) musicianship, innovation, and a sense of discovery and wonder built into the arrangements and composition.

Despite my being in utter love with progressive metal, I gave up on finding too much music in the area. There’s good metal, there’s good progressive, but nine out of ten progressive metal bands are complete shit. They plug the progressive tag into their music by adding in some keyboards, half-assed “orchestra” or “classical” arrangements, lots of fast-played scales, dissonant chords, clean vocals, and seven to eight minute songs. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t cut it.

Progressive is a pretentious term intrinsically; there’s no escaping that, I suppose. But if you’re going to label your music with a pretentious tag, at least be able to back that up. You need to write music that makes sense. It doesn’t need to be technical–it needs to be smart. It needs to be mature. It needs to instill that feeling that you’re listening to something interesting and fresh (without needing to actually be fresh). Experiment, be daring and adventurous in your music, for god’s sake. When you start writing and playing technical music for technicality’s sake, you get today’s Yngwie Malsteem, and we all know how that turned out (in case you don’t know, he’s washed up now; even Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth agrees with me: Read his blog on Yngwie Malsteem).

This is where Cynic comes in. I went on a spree recently, getting all sorts of new music; mostly doom, death/doom, and some old progressive and progressive metal music. I was suggested Cynic as well when I was searching through progressive metal stuffs. I had heard of them when they supported Meshuggah on one of their past tours, and being from the Tampa Bay, Florida area, I had previously brushed them off as another run of the mill death metal band. This time I took them a bit more seriously and actually took a good listen to one of their albums.

Let me sum up the impression this album left on me after I’d finished listening through it in as few words as I can: “Holy fucking shit”. Now let me elaborate. This is an absolutely amazing album. It is one of the best metal albums I have ever heard. It is fun to listen to, it is refreshing, and it is unpredictable. Most impressive is the way the entire album comes together. Throughout your listen, nothing ever feels out of place, and the concept is delivered flawlessly. I’m not the biggest fan of innovation/new things. I prefer a solid and well-written album to one that goes out of its way to be “new” and “innovative”.

Traced in Air, however, innovates and tries new things without messing it up. It is an absolute wonder of an album. From the get go, you’re drawn in with a fast intro track that builds up tension with each passage. By the end, you’re on the edge of your seat before it abruptly tapers off and leads into the next track. From there, you’re on a journey. It pulls you through measure after measure of fast paced and heavy melodies. It is heavy in its intensity, not its speed or its tone. The musicianship is perfect. Cynic does not add in extra notes where they’re not needed. The guitars are intricate and balanced (Paul Masvidal, Tymon Kruidenier). You can actually hear the bass (Robin Zielhorst, Sean Malone). The drum work is perfectly fitting yet has a manic personality of its own (Sean Reinert). Traced in Air grabs a hold of you and doesn’t let you go until you reach the end.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this album is the vocal work. It predominantly uses clean vocals fed through a synthesizer of some kind. It gives the vocalist (Paul Masvidal) a robotic and sort of inhuman feel. While generally when the vocals do appear, they still hold the leading melody, this effect really brings the instruments to the forefront. The vocals become another instrument in the band that only happens to narrate, and you are more easily able to focus on the music as a whole.

The perhaps weakest part of the album are the death growls added in now and then to back up the clean vocals. They simply are not that strong. Handled by guitarist Tymon Kruidenier, they lack any real impact or punch. However, they appear very sparsely on the album, and they never have a leading role, so I suppose it is forgivable.

In any case, Traced in Air is an absolute treat for the fan of progressive music, metal music, and progressive metal music. I absolutely did not expect to find a band of this quality ever in my lifetime; especially one that goes in such an unexpected direction such as this. I cannot recommend this album enough. It is beautiful, it is engaging, it is absolutely engrossing.

Cynic produces a sound not easily described in detail, but can be easily summarized in the album’s title. It has an esoteric and transcendental feel to it. The songs flow seamlessly from one to the next, taking you with them to some place unknown, but somewhere you know you want to be. The songs truly do feel like they were Traced in Air.

Stephen’s mostly inane and irrelevant rating:

***** 5/5 Stars.

Arch Enemy: Rise of the Tyrant (2007)

1. “Blood on Your Hands” – 4:41
2. “The Last Enemy” – 4:15
3. “I Will Live Again” – 3:32
4. “In This Shallow Grave” – 4:54
5. “Revolution Begins” – 4:11
6. “Rise of the Tyrant” – 4:33
7. “The Day You Died” –4:52
8. “Intermezzo Liberté” – 2:51
9. “Night Falls Fast” – 3:18
10. “The Great Darkness” – 4:46
11. “Vultures” – 6:35
12. “The Oath” (Kiss cover) – 4:16 (Japan Bonus Track)

This is a full two years late, I know, but for some reason, I never got around to listening to Arch Enemy’s seventh and latest offering, Rise of the Tyrant. Arch Enemy are an interesting Melodic Death metal band; they aren’t a traditional melo-death band in the same vein as old In Flames, Dark Tranquility or At the Gates. They are one of the many bands lumped into the rather large and varied Melodic Death metal genre. They were always known for their very aggressive and thrash-influenced music, but what caught my eye from the beginning was first, the maturity in their songwriting (most thrash-influenced melo-death is complete crap), and second, the thing they are perhaps most known for: their eyebrow-raising technicality.

Arch Enemy is not such a showy band as the likes of Necrophagist or John Petrucci, they aren’t as fast as Cryptopsy or Nile, and they aren’t as experimental as the likes of Meshuggah. They are, however, fun. They are lots and lots of fun. Their technicality lies in their intricate dual guitar work. They write catchy and interesting riffs and melodies that abuse that playing style to hell and back. However, despite that, the music is never uninteresting and has kept my attention since I first saw them live at Ozzfest 2005.

Rise of the Tyrant is a much more melodic album than I can remember of any of Arch Enemy’s previous albums. The songs are all rather formulaic and somewhat predictable, but that is part of the charm of this album, in my opinion. Now I love innovation, progression and weird experimental shit as much as anyone else, but that does not mean music needs to incorporate those things in order to be good. A band can release something done before and still be held in high regard, in my opinion, as long as they meet two requirements: first, they can’t have just bluntly and crassly ripped it off; the music must have its own charm, and second, they must do it well.

Rise of the Tyrant does what has been done before with the trademark Arch Enemy aggression and lyrical/aesthetic themes. They also do it very, very, very well.

The songs on this album go back and forth between heavy thrash-influenced, aggressive riffs and epic sounding melodic lines. This doesn’t sound very original, does it? Well, it really isn’t. As I said before, it’s nothing that hasn’t been done before, even by Arch Enemy themselves. However, what really catches the ear is how tight everything feels. The melodic sections really bring together the aggression and anger you feel from the (relatively) amelodic parts and show you what the song is saying, what it’s doing. It isn’t just heavy heavy, then catchy melodic; there’s a sense in which the two contrasting types really work together to bring forth the lyrical and thematic concept of the song.

This may all sound rather dumb, overly artsy, and pretentious, but keep that in mind while listening to the songs, and you’ll be able to see what I mean. The sense of balance in the songs is something that makes them listenable many times over.

I think this is perhaps Arch Enemy’s strongest offering by far. The guitar work is very tight, the drums stick out a bit more than they did before (they were boring as hell in previous albums, I thought), you can actually hear the bass on this release, and the vocals, as per usual, bring shame to men. I highly recommend this album to anyone who likes fun music to get pumped with. It isn’t the best release ever, it isn’t the most thought-provoking or the most innovative release ever, but it shines in its own right by virtue of its familiarity. We (fans of metal) at one point or another loved this kind of sound, and Arch Enemy brought it back with full force like a brick to the face. Let the Revolution Begin.

Stephen’s mostly inane and irrelevant rating:

**** 4/5 Stars.

Opeth: Watershed (2008)

Roadrunner Records

1. “Coil” – 3:10
2. “Heir Apparent” – 8:50
3. “The Lotus Eater” – 8:50
4. “Burden” – 7:41
5. “Porcelain Heart” (Åkerfeldt, Åkesson) – 8:00
6. “Hessian Peel” – 11:25
7. “Hex Omega” – 7:00

I cannot lie. I am a huge Opeth fan. In fact, I would go so far as to say they are among my very top favorite bands of all time. And so I write and put up this review the very day their latest offering comes out in the US.

Opeth is quite unlike any other band out there, I think. I would classify them under Progressive Metal (if genre classification counts for anything), but they are not like most bands that would get grouped together with them. They are known for their rather maximalist songwriting style and for never really following trends in music. Song lengths often exceed ten minutes in length, and albums last for more than an hour. Within those ten minutes, they explore whatever song idea is presented fully, leaving nothing behind and nothing left out. Watershed, however, is a slightly different take on Opeth as a whole.

This is the first album since nearly the inception of the band to not feature Peter Lindgren and Martin Lopez on guitar and drums respectively. While I’d nearly cried when I first heard that announcement, Fredrik Åkesson and Martin Axenrot are great additions to the band that have both contributed to shaping Opeth’s ever developing sound.

Watershed overall is a very different album when compared to the rest of their catalog. The album is a concept album; if I recall correctly (there isn’t much on this floating around), the album was written with a focus on the darker tendencies of man and the darker aspects of the human mind. Either way, when you listen through the album, the songs are quite diverse. Some are heavier, others more epic, or brutal, or melodic or even calming. Each song is unique and feels like an individual vignette into a different idea or concept. Splendid song writing and overall album composition, in my honest opinion.

And as thus, every song deserves a closer look.

The album opens up with the shorter song, “Coil”, clocking in at 3:10. This is a very short, pleasant song featuring epic-sounding acoustic guitar and Per Wiberg’s new keyboard samples. Nathalie Lorichs, a progressive singer local to Sweden, lends her voice talent on this track. It is a beautiful piece; simple, elegant, emotional and most importantly, sets up the reflective nature of the entire album.

“Heir Apparent” opens up with some soul-ripping and brutal tone in sharp contrast to the soothing previous track. This is the heaviest and most brutal song on the album, and is a throwback to the darker aesthetic found on Opeth’s first two albums. There are no clean vocals to be found here, and while there is a broad dynamic range in the songs (going from intense and heavy riffs to calmer keyboard driven interludes) as is Opeth’s trademark, the song never travels so far so it can be considered “soft” at any point. In addition, we see a Fredrik Åkesson solo in this one. His style shows through quite obviously, and is a sharp contrast to Mikael Åkerfeldt’s. “Heir Apparent” is the headbanging, metal-horns-waving song of the album.

Next, up is “The Lotus Eater”. This is the most energetic song of the album. Not so much like the grating aggression found on the previous track, but simply moves fast, has groove, and lots of fucking energy. It opens up with an odd duet with Mikael Åkerfeldt humming counterpoint with a bassoon…but then opens up with an in-your-face power riff backed up with, of all things, a blast beat from Axe. This was a surprise, as Åkerfeldt once swore to never write blast beats into his music after Heavy Metal had beaten them down to a pulp and then some at that point. However, it fits very well, and it’s nice to see that Opeth are not limiting themselves musically because of others at the expense of themselves. This song features one of the coolest passages I’ve ever heard. After a dramatic drop in speed and mood, the song builds up into this almost funky and jazzy melody, featuring every member of Opeth prominently all at the same time. It must be heard, otherwise you’ll just think I’m spouting off like a fanboy.

The album then takes a breather, and slows down with “Burden”. This is a simpler song, it is fairly straightforward. The style is reminiscent of old classic rock ballads. It is structured similarly to “Coil”, but having three verses (though all sung by Mikael), with a series of solos intermixed in between played by both Mikael and Fredrik. It ends with a clean guitar part, however as the part is repeated, the guitar is slowly de-tuned. It is one of the coolest little tricks (if you can even call it that) I’ve ever heard, and just trips you out.

“Porcelain Heart” is the big epic piece. Rather straightforward in structure as well, it opens with a huge, pounding and epic riff, then suddenly drops down into a softer clean guitar verse. This song has constant dynamic changes, going from the huge and epic to the very intimate. There are surprisingly only clean vocals on this song, considering its length and heaviness. The voicework also features some really cool vocal arrangements obviously influenced from Steven Wilson’s time with them on the Deliverance/Damnation albums. This is a great, powerful song, and is perhaps the most dramatic and epic off of the album. They released a music video for this song as well. The video isn’t bad, but the song was edited to be about half of its original length, and cuts out an entire solo…ridiculous. The song is much better uncut.

The album takes a step back towards the more intimate with “Hessian Peel”. This song opens very soft and relatively slowly, featuring some neat clean guitar playing. It then moves into a more groove-oriented and keyboard dominated section. “Hessian Peel” is perhaps the most like Opeth’s previous work out of the entire album. It is the longest song on the album, clocking in at 11:25. It covers many different musical ideas, and develops and alters itself many times over. You hear some really cool and epic guitar playing, then the song softens and calms in aesthetic. The song then builds up, breaking into a section as heavy and brutal as Opeth has ever done, then proceeds to bounce around and back and forth between many different song styles.

The album ends with “Hex Omega”. This is another ballad-esque song of the epic variety, and is a great album closer. There are no dirty vocals on this one either, and is, in fact, mostly instrumental. It’s a relatively slower song, and caps the entire album with some grand riffs.

This album is a wonderful listen. I suggest, if you have the time, to sit down and start it from the beginning, and listen to it all the way through the end. Every song is quite different, and they all explore something different. If you already know and are a fan of Opeth, you may be thrown off with how short the songs are (still longer than My Arms Your Hearse, but you know what I mean), but just give it a couple listens, and you’ll realize they haven’t lost any of their songwriting edge, but are simply trying different things.

Opeth, starting arguably with Damnation, and even more arguably with Deliverance, moving into Ghost Reveries and now Watershed has been moving away from their Death Metal and Black Metal roots, and more towards their Progressive side. This album is much less “Metal” than their previous offerings, but it will still find a home in the hearts of many a metalhead (perhaps save the bonehead Death Metal idiots).

Opeth has always had a thing for combining beauty in with brutality, and this album is a shining epitome of
how that can be done, and not just done, but done so well, you can feel it, and not just think it.

I highly recommend this album.

Stephen’s mostly inane and irrelevant Rating:

***** 5/5 Stars.