'88 DEMO

Few would debate the serenity and calmness of the modern incarnation of Paul Masvidal, so much so that at times the more metal parts of Traced in Air seem at odds with his character. Not so when he and long-time friend and bandmate, Sean Reinert, formed Cynic in 1987, a year before this demo was released. Long before they discovered what they could do with jazz, they were a death metal band of the thrash-influenced ilk (as opposed to the slower or groovier doom/melodic/groove metal kind); a far cry from what they'd do with Focus and, later, Traced in Air.

Established Cynic fans will have no trouble listening to this demo (if only once), just for the sake of understanding where the band started and what they sounded like before the many changes (by the time the next demo arrived, Jack Kelly's tenure with the band would be over and Jason Gobel was the second guitarist while Paul handled vocal duties) that preceded the eventual line-up that recorded their first full-length. Recommending it to first-time listeners, however, is tricky (it isn't, by a long margin, the band's best work). Especially those from the prog community, because this just doesn't do much for the word "progressive", nor is it in that sense very good.

All this said, Cynic would get better with every release , and this isn't by any means a bad start for a bunch of kids trying to find their way in music. Sean's drumming is already quite proficient, although not yet as polished as in later releases; Paul's guitar playing sounds like typical thrash-riffing, with fine guitar solos; Jack adequately fills his role as the singer, but he lacks any power and variation in his voice (from what I can hear) and it's easy to see why he didn't last long; and Mark van Erp's bass is groovy in places. Once Misguided and Weak Reasoning find themselves battling vainly for attention and staying power, with their only memorable parts to the average listener being the choruses which sound too similar for taste (the riffs in Weak Reasoning, though, are pretty cool). They are let down by the band's as yet undeveloped songwriting skills, which is understandable, considering their age. Dwellers of the Threshold, the final track, is the most memorable, mainly due to the prevalence of more melody in the guitar and bass, and Paul's solo, which is his best on the demo. Production, especially the guitar, is sub-par (but not awful), but not unexpected, as this was the 1980's and done by amateurs on cassette.

Overall, it is Cynic's worst release, written when the band (and members) was still very young. As far as metal goes, it's good and some people would probably prefer this to the robotic vocals and jazz that would later become an important part of the music, seeing as it's straight death/thrash metal. But I wouldn't recommend this to someone unless they wanted to hear Cynic's discography from beginning to end, in that order, or if they're already a fan and want to know how it all started. 2.4 stars.

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