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Rating: This is definitely the best album I have ever listened to, it's the band's only official release, coming out in '93; it has six years of work and rejected demos behind it and is followed by the dispersion of Cynic, dissolved into myriad parallel projects; and it is precisely this that consecrates it as a masterpiece, eliminating any possibility of being followed by another work of inferior quality or, worse, repetitive.
It is immense, definitely Progressive Death Metal, unmistakable are the very fast riffs, which flow regularly and uninterruptedly, but which allow you to savor their complexity; two guitars, often indistinguishable, slip into phrases that, listened to individually, could be defined as melodically and rhythmically opposite, but which together give life to a symphony of pure musical emotions, an impeccable and creative rhythm section with Reinert's drums that can also be electronic without losing feeling, a bassist, Shawn Malone, who knows how to sustain very tight rhythms, pounding on accents, as well as opening up into paradisiacal harmonic overlaps; who, even in the same piece, moves from the insistent staccato rhythm of a stick to the soft expressiveness of a fretless and bursts into breath-taking jazz solos.
Undoubtedly a work that would enrich even, and I dare say especially, those who are not metal enthusiasts.
[For the uninitiated: the stick is a large twelve-string instrument played by tapping the strings at the frets; the fretless is a bass without frets and with smooth strings, practically an electric double bass.]
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Veil of Maya (05:23)
In Maya's grip illusion transforms verity
Perceiving thus a delusive world of duality
Veil of Maya
Balance every joy with a grief
Dual scales of Maya
Earth's unending law of polarity
Ahamkara...veil of Maya
Illusion works impenetrable
Weaving webs innumerable
Her gay pictures never fail
Crowd each other veil on veil
Charmer who will be believed
By man who thirsts to be deceived
Maya subjects you
Veil of Maya
Chops and divides God's dream thoughts
The great divider
As we be subject to likes and disgust
Ahamkara...veil of Maya
Maya subjects you
Charmer who will be believed
By man who thirsts to be deceived
Veil of Maya
Balance every joy with a grief
Dual states of Maya
Earth's unending law of polarity
Veil of Maya
Chops and divides God's dream thoughts
The great divider
As we be subject to likes and disgust
Ahamkara...veil of Maya
02 Celestial Voyage (03:40)
As I peered into my mortal cup of mind
A moleten liquid of penance splashed my eyes
Unseen truth, a divine surgery
Reveals view, windows of faith
The breeze to a raft of happiness
Guiding cue, calmness in a mental lake
A celestial voyage
To reach the shores and bathe
In pools of divine nectar
My raft filled with delusive waste water
Shall be drained by holes of wisdom
A celestial voyage
To reach the shores and bathe
In pools of divine nectar
A celestial voyage
To feel the bliss of liquid
Healing nectar inside
03 The Eagle Nature (03:30)
Learning, discerning, how to arrange
Thinking the haze will just not clear
Viewing, computing, our minds will stage
A vehicle inside we feel the eagle nature
Everchanging river flows high and low
Panoramic vision is undefined
For unfocused consciousness, the eagle nature
Precaution for a stream of risk, the eagle nature
It sees changes clear
A crystal goblet so fragile and dear
Needs fill one step at a time
Noting the fall of a sparrow
Attending the slightest scratch of flesh
Earthly ambitions weigh their share
The vastness of life, it doesn't care
A crystal goblet so fragile and dear
Needs fill one step at a time
Earthly ambitions wigh their share
The vastness of life does not care
04 Sentiment (04:23)
Cosmic mother awaken us in
Thine impartial love for all
Bless us that we be free from
The sway of greed and delusion
Inspire us to build a new world
One in which famine, disease and ignorance
Will be only memories of a dismal past
[CHORUS]
Creative mother arouse us to know
That we be not lost in the sands
Open our eyes
Creative mother arouse us to know
Inspire us to build a new world
Since forever we've yearned to
Quench what's never fulfilling
Lost endeavors found in a stilled
Mind if we be willing
[CHORUS]
05 I'm but a Wave to... (05:30)
As one I'll meet the mortal memories
Reliving seeking silence
And know that I as just a shell outside
Have sacred joys inside me
No fear, nor fight, comforting silent side
So free, through flight, comforting silence
[CHORUS]
So I call on
Sri cosmic sea, all is within you
As in a dream, I'm but a wave to...
Infinity within thy consciousness
An ever expanding sphere
Immortal spark ignites
Spreads by the air of bliss
Embracing warmth that heals
No fear, nor fight, comforting silence
So free, through flight, comforting silent side
[CHORUS]
06 Uroboric Forms (03:32)
Self is the universe, not separate
The state before the fall into self consciousness
Nothing is himeself, everything is world
[CHORUS]
Primordial egg returns
Consciousness unborn
Pre-personal perfection
Bliss's scree yet untorn
Uroboric forms
Find itself as a separate entity
An ego germ is just beginning to be
Wherever there is other, there is fear
Birth, primal paradise
No gap distance or separation
Between self and environment
Unconditional omnipotence
Nothing is himself, everything is world
[CHORUS]
Consciousness unborn
Uroboric forms
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Other reviews
By emanuele
The album is mostly developed on absolutely extraordinary bass lines and drumming.
The song 'Uroboric Forms' is certainly the most successful episode of all; wonderful crescendo and twilight atmospheres.
By paperino
Focus is everything and the opposite of everything, the hypnosis before the end, the dreamlike sensation that haunts us as soon as we wake up.
Only one album. One. A single powerful, vigorous flame before burning out.
By lipap
"Focus" was released in 1993 by Roadrunner Records, resulting in an exceptional album that truly cannot be categorized into any particular genre.
The distinctive element of Cynic is indeed the vocals of Paul Masvidal, featuring both vocoder and death voice.
