Florida progressive metallers Cynic have always happily inhabited a position outside the traditional metal box, refusing to remain comfortable occupying an area within the walls of habit or predictability. Next year sees the release of album number three ‘Kindly Bent to Free Us’ and given the nature of the opinion-dividing ‘Carbon-Based Anatomy’ EP, no one can say what path Cynic will forge this time. That is, no one except Cynic themselves. Soundshock were fortunate enough to catch up with Cynic frontman Paul Masvidal while he was out trekking on the Death (To All) tour.
“I’d say it’s a true trio record,” Masvidal states on his third full-length observation wearing the Cynic banner. “The previous one had more multi-faceted components with second guitar parts and the whole vocal thing but this feels like it’s drier, it’s more present. A lot of ‘Traced in Air’ for me was built around a lot of two part ideas so there was always this complex motion happening. This record has more of a direct riff; it’s a main idea. It’s propelled very much by the drum and bass. The guitars are playing a different role. The songs feel more realised and more melodic. It’s more of a celebration record to me. It’s a different head.” The aggression factor follows in the vein of ‘Carbon-Based Anatomy’ with no growls and the metal nature of the music notably depleted. “‘Traced in Air’ had them a little bit but it felt like the growls represented a certain kind of aggression whereas with this record, I thought it was represented musically and we didn’t need that through that instrument. It just wasn’t part of a vibe.”
The title ‘Kindly Bent to Free Us’ is a variation on a meditation trilogy of books ‘Kindly Bent to Ease Us’ by Buddhist teacher Longchenpa, remaining consistent with Cynic’s preoccupation of spirituality and the mind: “For me, it was just giving it my own twist. ‘Ease’, ‘free’ – they’re the same realm of an idea. It creates a larger scope and it’s a bigger, vaguer idea. It’s referencing the mind. It’s this thing that we can’t trust [laughs] that’s there for our benefit if we can actually get a hold of it. So there’s a little bit of that, actually a lot [laughs], in the record.” Also remaining loyal to Cynic’s themes is the album art, again by American painter Robert Vernosa. Masvidal is a long time fan of his work and something about Vernosa’s psychedelic imagery connects indescribably with the musician. “He’s just brilliant. He had a degree of precision where it looks like a computer generated image but it’s not, which is amazing.”
The new album art appears to be a hybrid between a tree, a brain and a mushroom cloud. “Obviously, he had all these ideas in mind of the brain because if you look at it, it has the pineal gland in the centre. The name of the original piece is ‘Atomic Blossom’. The most painful states of mind, like depression and suffering, are really juicy states. In some ways, they are like mushroom clouds, they’re very explosive. It’s about learning how to utilise them and steer them. Choosing album art is a precarious weird, mysterious process. I don’t know why I gravitate towards various things. A lot of the time, this stuff makes sense later and I get why I made that decision.”
The writing process differed to previous Cynic efforts in that Masvidal’s guitar work took a back seat in order to focus more of the attention on the rhythm section: “A lot of early Cynic stuff was rhythmically driven by the guitars and busy riffs, like 16th note pickings; that’s kind of what we were known for on ‘Focus’ and even ‘Traced in Air’. With this record, my thinking was to reduce that. For me, it’s a bold step to go. It’s stepping into a certain insecurity. Because it’s a real trio record, I thought there are moments where everybody comes up. It has that shape to it where there’s no one’s really featured. There’s just moments where everyone has their voice. It’s a drum and bass-centric record for sure. In some ways, I feel like my rhythm section guys are more prog rock than I am [laughs]. They’re the ones that do every Rush lick and every King Crimson song they’re were dissecting. I was too but I wasn’t perhaps as nerdy as they were about it. It’s a showcase of that kind of component for them. It’s all about trusting your gut and neither of us are really editing each other. I feel like we’re all in service of something and there’s a kind of instinct there that is innate.”
‘Kindly Bent to Free Us’ lyrically is the most personal album that Cynic have worked on. Masvidal elaborates on how this is not a straight-forward process for him: “In some ways for me, lyric writing is always about trying to get to the most naked and honest way possible. It’s really hard to do that. It’s hard to strip all the layers away and really find a way to say it without any embellishments or any pretension. I feel like this record gets closest to that in terms of touching something really honest. There are moments on other records where you get really close but it’s this thing that you’re reaching for. I don’t know if you ever arrive but it’s a process, a journey inward and outward [laughs].”
Not only do the lyrics deal with a personal touch but Masvidal states that each of Cynic’s releases have concentrated in the crushing beauty of death and the finality of life. “I feel like I’m always trying to reference some end of life perspective with everything. I think it’s trying to realise that life ends and that everyone you know will go away, including yourself at some point. There’s a preciousness to that that rips my heart open. It’s a beautiful fear because it’s the tragedy of living and it’s the heart of sadness. If I can remember that, then everything’s on track! Everything else is topical.”
This forthcoming album is undoubtedly one of the most highly-awaited in the metal sphere next year. Like all other Cynic releases, it will be praised as something daring and creative by some yet will probably dislodge some fan’s loyalties to the group. Either way, Paul Masvidal and drummer Sean Reinert have always musically challenged what has come before and although the new release is sure to stay true to the Cynic vessel, there will be a plethora of fresh ideas and atmospheres.
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