Not too bad actually

Is it better than Kindly Bent stuff?

Musically, yes.

Man, I'm so uninformed. I could have sworn this band was from Europe/Scandinavia

this is a lot better than kindly bent so that's cool

Pretty decent although I'm sorely missing the robot vocals/growls.

Pretty good at the start but it soon devolved to pretty dull meandering

"Humanoid" is a portrait of contrasts, like those between struggle and stillness, or the immediate against the limitless. Our Stargate is planet Earth — consciousness, the transmitter. We, sentient creatures of light, are alive now — on a sphere, floating in a galaxy fixed amidst the infinite. It's quite miraculous to be aware of this, and it invokes a sense of urgency and empowerment that is unlike anything else."

Ooo! This gives me a warm feeling in my pants!!!
But yes, missing the growls fo sho.

No more vocoder? Paul is actually singing now?

Music is typical Cynic but wow those vocals sound so under produced

Uh, love Masdival's trademark picking style. That was a bit underrepresented on Kindly Bent.

im totally fine with normal singing tbh

"wow those vocals sound so under produced"
That's something you don't hear every day

This actually sounds pretty cool. Vocals sound great, production is good enough.

That description of Humanoid is fucking cancer though.

ya this is pretty good. lack of vocoder is odd but Masdival has a great singing voice in general so I'll allow it.

Better than I expected

not bad. just not really original. they've been doing the same thing since coming back and it's a little samey from one release to the next

Yoooo this was unexpected but really sick!

The more I listen, the more I actually love this song! Could be about 5 minutes longer though.

yo wtf cynic is good again

Great song, fat bass sound. Keepin' it.

Pretty solid track, vocals could be better though.

This is solid, sounds like Cynic. Some really killer guitar work here.

this isn't fucking awful like Kindly Bent so two thumbs up

'not bad. just not really original. they've been doing the same thing since coming back and it's a little samey from one release to the next'

pretty much, I would call it diminishing returns but this is much better than Kindly Get Bent

Carbon Based Anatomy is sort of the oddball of the releases they've done in the last decade which is why it and Traced are easily two of my favorite Cynic releases

Its passable i guess.

Intro makes me think of jiggling tits. Not a bad thing.

meh

Bass slaps in this. Stand-out instrument for me. The vocals remind me of Tommy Roger's cleans from BTBAM. Mid-way the guitar really picks up and gets fun. I'm digging this track and I don't even really listen to prog metal anymore.

Masvidal* not 'Masdival' 8-)

Pretty slick.

this is pretty damn good, stoked for the album now!

Figured something was coming with the countdown on their social media. Pretty kewl track, 7/10 so far

I've got a soft spot for some of this band's work, but holy shit this was sloppy. Not a fan, they're capable of so much better.

drums make this more boring than it should be

please for the love of all that is holy let there be an instrumental version of this

Oh hell yes! This kicks ass!

Wait I thought this band was over

I'm liking what I'm hearing, better than expected

Dropped by to say that this is awesome!

Dug this.

Better than anything off Kindly Bent, good track.

OHHHH SHIT.

Its alright but wish it featured some old cynic vocal style. I give this song alone a 3.0/5.0

Vox actually have kind of a Traced in Air vibe

ehh

Missing the vocoder, but the track is not bad at all. Bass is sick.

I miss Sean Reinert, but it was aight.

Didn't notice Reinert's absence tbh.

This rules. Sounds to me like a modern take of the sound they had on Focus without the robot vocoder.

"Didn't notice Reinert's absence tbh."

Masvidal's asshole did

That was easy. Give me something harder next time...






...is what Paul said

'3.0 is accurate here. I'd give it a 3.4.'

awww round it to 3.5 for the poor guys

Y U gotta be like dat bloc?

You set me up

Wow. Can't say I ever expected music under that name again. And I thought I was up to date on the band's status. Can't say I miss Sean much either, as great as he is.

This certainly sounds like Cynic and beats everything from Kindly Bent easily.

It's just too bad that the song feels like it lacks a...I don't know, dynamism that keeps it from being very interesting? I just feel like I've heard this before and nothing has progressed musically.

Though I think this is a grower.

Still love Kindly Bent to Free Us along with their obvious classics

whoa

This was good. A nice blend of old and new ('old' being the sound of their initial return, the death metal of 'Focus' will probably never come back).

Better than everything on Kindly by far, but still not that good.

Hawks :[

I've maintained that I think this band sucks hard aside from Focus and The Portal Tapes, sorry Plebster hahahaha.

B-but it's Masvidal :[

Come on. Their debut was cool for the time because there was nothing like it out there, but the band were never going to top it. They didn't even want to be playing 'Focus' material by the time it was time to record it. So, it's time to look at the new era of Cynic as Cynic... that means no death metal (forget the token weak-growls on their comeback). So, based on that line of thought, Cynic are a occasionally above average alt. prog band... so, this song is pretty damn good for them. ;)

The main riff of Humanoid sounds like it was inspired by Prequel to the Sequel's riff at 1:30

Song rips. Wasn't expecting new Cynic to be this good after Kindly, but this is great. That bassline is sex

I think that's what it's taking me a while to discover, Willie. That these guys style is rooted in their comeback and will always be. And that they're not necessarily the second coming of christ that I thought they were when Traced in Air came out. Which kills me, because TiA/Cynic was my first "discovery" on Sputnik ten years ago. But I've been less and less impressed with their output as compared to their progressive peers. Oh well.

I really enjoyed Kindly, but this is a nice blend of that sound and TiA. Also, I'm glad they're doing away with the vocal distortions. There's still a hint of it, but it sounds much better this way.

edit: I saw the article about a new Portal song and immediately thought of the pre-cynic portal. Then I saw this after and was like "oh, word"

the drums are so fucking stale ugh but reinert is one of a kind

the bass is incredible as always, i feel the verse guitar riff is kinda sloppy sounding though, almost seems to go out of time when it ends on the single stroke instead of the double

I mean idk Focus is a Cynic album so idk how you can only look at everything post-Focus as a Cynic album....

But I get where you're coming from. I dig prog metal but everything after Focus is just not my thing. They're talented as hell but most of their stuff comes off as very cheesy to me tbh.

Glad they are back and Masvidal isn't deep in shit anymore... in Reinert asshole.

"The more I listen, the more I actually love this song! Could be about 5 minutes longer though."

Actually, I was thinking the opposite. Sean Malone does a damn good job on this song, and considering Matt Lynch's work on here and Nova Collective, I can't wait to hear what he does on this next project. Paul sounds kinda generic to me on here tbh. He almost sounds like a Daniel Thompkins knockoff and I think he was influenced by Masvidal lol.

I honestly think what explains many of the problems with this song is Masvidal's description of it. It's hilariously pretentious, but that comedy can't be dragged on for four minutes because I'll get close to total boredom.

Despite all of that, the track is decent and I'm actually quite optimistic about the next material. Especially with Cynic, it definitely sets up greater potential on the upcoming album.

Don't miss the vocoder at all you guys are crazy.

"Glad they are back and Masvidal isn't deep in shit anymore... in Reinert asshole."

Don't worry, he has Matt Lynch as his new chew toy

song was boring and uninspired

#novocoderno5

Yeah it's not amazing, but that intro was pretty jiggly