Cynic
Ascension Codes

The close-together deaths of the two historic members Sean Reinert (who had already left the band some years earlier) and Sean Malone do not stop Cynic. Paul Masvidal remains the only survivor of the original core and carries the brand forward with pride. We thought it was over, but instead, this big surprise titled "Ascension Codes" has arrived. I'm not sure how high expectations could have been after seven years from that "Kindly Bent to Free Us," which seemed rather lacking in bite. Instead, we find ourselves facing a sound intelligently redesigned.

It is clear from the beginning that one must absolutely forget about that masterpiece that was "Focus," an astonishingly important record for extreme and technical metal. The sound is rather dry, it doesn't exhibit the punch one would expect, probably it can't even be defined as metal, the tones are generally softer but do not appear dull as was the case in the 2014 album; also because the aggressive aspect is well compensated by the technical and virtuosic one, a trademark of the band originally from Florida which manifests itself remarkably once again here. In the end, the absence of the two historic members is not felt that much because substitutes Matt Lynch and Dave Mackay do an excellent job, especially the drummer (the bassist, on the other hand, remains more in the shadows); what is missing is, besides the death vibe, also the fusion imprint that characterized the 1993 masterpiece, but rightly one must move forward.

However, the technical characteristics were already widely in Cynic's DNA, the element that represents a novelty and arouses curiosity is another. The album is indeed characterized by an evident robotic and space atmosphere that is not familiar to the band. Here and there, there is an intelligent use of synthesizers that truly seem to create a science fiction atmosphere. Sounds that recall whistles from distant galaxies, loops of onboard calculators and computers, it really feels like being aboard a spaceship, it may not be the perfect mission space album, but if astronauts asked me for advice on which records to take onboard, this one would certainly be among them, along with those of Star One (some might say Pink Floyd but that would seem too obvious, among other things Samantha Cristoforetti has already chosen them).

To accentuate this atmosphere, brief interludes occur between one track and another; in these, the science fiction mood is at its peak, but they have an underlying flaw: they are too similar to each other, they could easily be played randomly without recognizing them, without distinguishing them from one another. It's a pity they didn't strive to elaborate them better because they could have made the record even better and more varied than it already is.

The fact remains that the album is a pleasant surprise, the album you did not expect from a band you thought had nothing more to say, the album that instead reinvents the band and offers some hope for a possible future.