EMERGENT

After the amazing debut album Sean Malone decides to impress us even more. The only member who has remained in the line-up (and of course Sean Malone) is Cynic's drummer Sean Reinert. As you may know, Sean Malone was part of Cynic two in their Focus period and the two guitarists from Cynic, Jason Gobel and Paul Masvidal also appear. It's the first time all former Cynic members perform together since they disbanded in 1994. Along with this 'Cynic reunion' other great names appear such as on of the most famous drummers in prog rock's history, Bill Bruford, guitarist Steve Hacket, Jim Matheos who is famous for his work with Fates Warning and his project OSI and finally Sonia Lynn who helps Sean Malone with the vocals.

If you just look to all this names what you expect is a mess really. I mean how can you organize things in order not to make the music sound forced and meaningless? It would take ages. Well, no! Sean Malone seems to have thought about everything. I was fascinated with the first album due to its rhythmical patterns but this one is by far better. Not only the rhythmical aspect is brilliant but also the compositions. The music sounds much more alive and mature than on the first album without sounding forced at all. Beautiful melodies and amazingly sweet guitar solos are all over the place this time. I don't know what to say really. A true masterpiece!!! Sean Malone has a few information in his website on the blog area if you are interested. I won't go analyse each song here cause it will lose something from its magic. I really don't know why the first album is higher rated on PA. I just know this is a pure five star from me!