Cynic - Ascension Codes.

In the wake of the loss of two key members, this may well be the last Cynic album to grace us mere mortals.

Freedom to expand and explore. It's been a key tenet for Cynic since day one and they are still going deep into the hidden consciousness with ‘Ascension Codes'. This is a tough one to pin down in terms of genre but it still serves as both a progressive showcase and song-driven affair. Paul Masvidal has crafted such a layered and orchestral effort yet he doesn’t forsake a good hook which we really love. In the wake of the loss of two key members, this may well be the last Cynic album to grace us mere mortals.

‘Ascension Codes’ is punctuated with ambient interludes that serve as an astral bridge between the songs. ‘Elements and their Inhabitants’ and ‘Mythical Serpents’ are as heavy as this album gets, with rich guitar swells and double-bass blasts over Masvidal’s half robot, half humanised vocoder oratory. Cynic like to test your patience with how they build their songs but when you arrive, it's like a veil lifting from your eyes to reveal a shimmering webway of crystalline fractals. ‘DNA Activation Template’ is lush in terms of sound and texture, flowing towards a grandiose finale.

So is this an album of bangers or a listening experience? The answer is most definitely the latter; ‘Ascension Codes’ is intended to be listened to as a whole. There are glints of death metal but Cynic have always transcended the genre, album closer ‘Diamond Light Body’ propels us through the stratosphere into the ether, away from archetypes and boxes to a new plane. We say buy the ticket, take the ride. Let go of this earthly body and drift on nebulous tides