Focus
Studio album by Cynic
Released	September 14, 1982
Recorded	1981
Genre	Technical death metal, progressive metal, Metal fusion
Length	36:14 72:29 (Remaster)
Label	Roadrunner
Producer	Scott Burns Cynic
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
Cynic chronology
Portal 1995 (1995) Focus (1993)

Focus, released on September 14, 1993, was the only official release by the American metal band Cynic. Image File history File links CynicFocus. ... A studio album is a collection of studio-recorded tracks by a recording artist. ... Cynic is a technical death metal/progressive metal band from Miami, Florida, United States. ... is the 257th day of the year (258th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Technical death metal, or tech death for short, is a term used to describe bands in the subgenre death metal. ... Progressive metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music which blends the powerful, guitar-driven sound of metal with the complex compositional structures, odd time signatures, and intricate instrumental playing of progressive rock. ... Bitches Brew (1970) by Miles Davis is considered the most influential early fusion album. ... In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. ... Roadrunner Records is a major record label that concentrates on metal bands. ... In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. ... Scott Burns is a producer of death metal, resident at Morrisound Recording studio in Tampa, Florida. ... Cynic is a technical death metal/progressive metal band from Miami, Florida, United States. ... The All Music Guide (AMG) is a metadata database about music, owned by All Media Guide. ... Image File history File links 4. ... Cynic is a technical death metal/progressive metal band from Miami, Florida, United States. ... is the 257th day of the year (258th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ... Heavy metal redirects here. ... Cynic is a technical death metal/progressive metal band from Miami, Florida, United States. ...

Overview and musical approach

After years of being hailed as promising in Florida's death metal scene, Cynic recorded Focus. The result was an album combining their love of death metal with other influences, notably fusion jazz. Instead of choosing the brutal and hard-hitting approach to metal like most of their contemporaries, Focus takes an experimental stance to music. This article is about the U.S. State of Florida. ... This article is about the musical genre. ... Jazz fusion (sometimes referred to simply as fusion) is a musical genre that loosely encompasses the merging of jazz with other styles, particularly rock, funk, R&B, and world music. ...

Although being often dubbed progressive metal, the musical approach on Focus has arguably even more in common with jazz than it has with the progressive metal or progressive rock movements, leading some to coin the term "jazz metal" to describe the music. Elements of both can be found: progressive rock/metal is reflected in some song structures and occasional odd-time meters, while jazz influences are evident in some harmonic and rhythmic phenomena. The songs alternate between harsh death metal parts and more serene, smoother passages. In general, the parts flow smoothly into each other instead of making abrupt, sudden transitions. In addition to being rather complex rhythmically, the songs also feature an advanced approach to harmony, as far as heavy metal music is considered. The vocal melodies are mostly simple and linear, leaving a lot of melodic space for the guitars and even bass instead. Progressive metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music which blends the powerful, guitar-driven sound of metal with the complex compositional structures, odd time signatures, and intricate instrumental playing of progressive rock. ... For other uses, see Jazz (disambiguation). ... For the Swedish political music movement, see progg. ... Harmony is the use and study of pitch simultaneity, and therefore chords, actual or implied, in music. ... Heavy metal redirects here. ...

The most distinct feature on the album is the use of two types of main vocals, almost equally prominent. In a traditional death metal vein, the album features a hoarse, guttural, growling voice - death grunts - courtesy of guesting singer Tony Teegarden. Lead singer Paul Masvidal was in danger of losing his voice at the time and thus did not perform the growling vocals himself. The other main type of vocal output is Masvidal singing through a vocoder-type effect, resulting in a synthesized voice with a robotic quality. Death grunts, also referred to as death growls, death vocals or harsh vocals[1], is a vocalisation style usually employed by vocalists of the death metal musical genre, but is also occasionally used in a variety of other heavy metal sub-genres. ... For other uses, see Singer (disambiguation). ... Paul Masvidal was the guitarist, singer and a founding member of the now disbanded progressive metal band Cynic. ... A vocoder (name derived from voice encoder, formerly also called voder) is a speech analyzer and synthesizer. ...

Individual players

Guitarist/vocalist Paul Masvidal and drummer Sean Reinert had joined Chuck Schuldiner's Death to record the seminal Human. Certain similarities can be heard between the two albums, although Focus only rarely reaches the level of aggression found on Human. Paul Masvidal was the guitarist, singer and a founding member of the now disbanded progressive metal band Cynic. ... Sean Reinert is the former drummer of Cynic. ... Charles Michael Chuck Schuldiner (May 13, 1967, Long Island, New York – December 13, 2001) was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and genre innovator. ... Death was an influential American death metal band founded in 1983 by guitarist and vocalist Chuck Schuldiner, and dissolved in 1999. ... Human is the fourth album released by Death in 1991. ...

The guitar parts of Steven and Jason Gobel intertwine, bringing to mind such guitar duos as Television's Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, or Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew from King Crimson. Only rarely do both guitars play the same part simultaneously; most of the time both guitars have their distinct own parts that tie together to form a fabric of harmonies and melodies, in addition to numerous guitar solos. Masvidal's flowing, Allan Holdsworth-esque solos stand out with their free phrasing. Jason Gobel is an American guitarist. ... Tom Verlaine (born Thomas Miller, December 13, 1949, in Morristown, New Jersey)[1] is a singer, songwriter and guitarist, best-known as the frontman for the New York rock band, Television. ... Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946 in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England) is a guitarist, record producer and a composer, perhaps best known for being the guitarist for, and only constant member of, the progressive rock band King Crimson. ... Adrian Belew in concert, November 2006. ... This article is about the musical group. ... Guitar solos are a melodic passage, section, or entire piece of music written for an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. ... Allan Holdsworth (born August 6, 1946 in Bradford, West Yorkshire) is a British jazz guitarist and composer. ...

Masvidal and Gobel use very similar gear throughout the record. Both play a Steinberger brand electric guitar equipped with a Roland MIDI pickup and guitar synthesizer, and both used ADA amplification. Most of the synthesized sounds on the album are generated with these guitar synthesizers, not keyboards. The Steinberger guitars also feature a tremolo system which bends each string an equal amount, allowing the bending of full chord shapes in tune. A demonstration of this is heard in the very first guitar chord of "I'm But A Wave To...". Steinberger refers to a series of distinctive electric guitars and bass guitars, designed and originally manufactured by Ned Steinberger. ... An electric guitar An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into electrical current, which is then amplified. ... Roland Corporation ) TYO: 7944 is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. ... Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, is a system designed to transmit information between electronic musical instruments. ... Three magnetic pickups on an electric guitar. ... Synth redirects here. ... Look up ADA and Ada in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Sean Malone plays a Kubicki fretless bass nearly throughout the album. The fretless bass has a soft attack and a round, warm sound rather untypical to heavy metal, which usually prefers the punchier attack of fretted bass. This easily draws more comparisons to Death and the aforementioned Human album, which also featured fretless electric bass, played by Steve DiGiorgio. On some parts on Focus Malone plays a 12-string Chapman stick instead. Malone's bass lines do not generally follow either guitar part. His lines are often quite busy and create a throbbing rhythmical pulse that syncopates with Reinert's drumwork. He also delivers a rare bass solo on the instrumental track "Textures". Sean Malone is an American musician primarily known as a virtuoso fretless bass guitar and Chapman Stick player (although he can also play the piano, keyboards, and guitar proficiently), born in Delran, New Jersey, formerly of Cynic and currently heading up the progressive rock collaboration Gordian Knot. ... Traditional guitars, and most other stringed instruments, create tones of different heights using the fingers to adjust the length at which the strings vibrate. ... Steve DiGiorgio Steve DiGiorgio (born November 7, 1967, Waukegan, Illinois) is an American musician. ... A 10 string Chapman Stick The Chapman Stick is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. ...

Sean Reinert's drum style meshes together elements from both heavy metal and jazz. He skilfully uses accents, fills and varied dynamics to keep the songs rhythmically vivid. He occasionally plays a 16th-note double bass drum beat to emphasize certain parts of songs, but does not play blast beat on the album. In addition to an acoustic drum kit, he also uses electronic drums on some songs. The introduction to "Sentiment" demonstrates Reinert playing a polymetric beat consisting of several different meters on top of each other. Sean Reinert is the former drummer of Cynic. ... In music, an accent is an emphasis on a particular note created by length, as in an agogic accent, pitch, as in a pitch accent, and dynamics, such as dynamic accents. ... “Fortissimo” redirects here. ... Blast beats are the torrents of alternating snare and bass drums which increase the speed, density, and percussiveness of death metal, black metal and grindcore. ... A drum kit (or drum set or trap set) is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as a cowbell, wood block, chimes or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single drummer. ... Basic electronic drum set made by Pintech. ... Metre is the measurement of a musical line into measures of stressed and unstressed beats, indicated in Western notation by a symbol called a time signature. ...

Lyrical approach

The lyrics, written by Masvidal, are poetic, philosophically and spiritually laden texts that take on subjects such as perceiving the world as whole, distinguishing reality and illusion, concentration and meditation. Many of the songs incorporate themes, titles or excerpts from other works: "Veil of Maya" takes its title from a Ralph Waldo Emerson poem of the same name, while "Sentiment" quotes a prayer from Whispers to Eternity by Paramahansa Yogananda. Lots of influences from oriental mysticism and religions as well as some New Age themes are present. The whole lyrical perspective is positive, humane and humble, which are all rather untypical qualities in heavy metal texts. Look up lyrics in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other senses of this word, see Meditation (disambiguation). ... Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early nineteenth century. ... Paramahansa Yogananda (Bengali: পরমহংস যোগানন্দ Pôromôhongsho Joganondo, Hindi: परमहंस योगानन्‍द; January 5, 1893–March 7, 1952), was an Indian yogi and guru. ... New Age describes a broad movement characterized by alternative approaches to traditional Western culture. ...

Influences

Atheist and Watchtower had previously fused death metal with jazz. Cynic itself has had a notable influence on some later groups. Echoes of Cynic's approach can be heard in the music of many later death metal groups such as Pestilence (especially their 1993 swansong Spheres), Martyr, Cryptopsy, Behold... the Arctopus and even Meshuggah, as well as some progressive metal groups such as Spiral Architect, Sceptic, and Continuo Renacer. Many have regarded Opeth as their spiritual successors. Atheist are a Technical death metal band from Florida, USA, founded in 1984, whose music combined brutal riffs with subtle latin music arrangements and elements of jazz. ... Watchtower is a progressive technical thrash band based in Austin, Texas that was mostly active in the 1980s. ... This article is about the musical genre. ... Pestilence were a death/thrash metal band from the Netherlands founded in 1986. ... Cryptopsy is a technical death metal band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada and was formed in 1992. ... Behold. ... Meshuggah is a Swedish five-piece experimental metal band, known for their use of extended polymetric passages, complex drum patterns, odd time signatures, angular, dissonant guitar riffs, and harsh vocals. ... Progressive metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music which blends the powerful, guitar-driven sound of metal with the complex compositional structures, odd time signatures, and intricate instrumental playing of progressive rock. ... Spiral Architect is a Norwegian technical metal band. ... Continuo Renacer are a Spanish instrumental band which perform a style of technical metal with elements of jazz fusion, progressive, and death metal. ... Opeth are a heavy metal band from Stockholm, Sweden. ...

Track listing

1. "Veil of Maya" – 5:23
2. "Celestial Voyage" – 3:40
3. "The Eagle Nature" – 3:30
4. "Sentiment" – 4:23
5. "I'm But a Wave to..." – 5:30
6. "Uroboric Forms" – 3:32
7. "Textures" – 4:42
8. "How Could I" – 5:29

Remaster

In 2004 Roadrunner Records released a remastered version of Focus, which contained the original eight tracks and six bonus tracks. Three of these were remixed versions of Focus songs, while the three other songs are taken from the members' post-Cynic project Portal's eponymous demo. Portal featured almost the same lineup as Cynic. Sean Malone was replaced by Chris Kringel and a fifth member, Aruna Abrams, joined on vocals and keyboards. All Cynic songs were written by Cynic; all Portal songs were written by Portal. The remixed tracks feature the same lineup as the original release. Roadrunner Records is a major record label that concentrates on metal bands. ... Chris Kringel is an American bass guitarist, born in Appleton, Wisconsin, who has performed with Cynic, Æon Spoke and Inda Eaton. ...

• All music written by Cynic, all lyrics by Paul Masvidal.

1. "Veil of Maya" – 5:21
2. "Celestial Voyage" – 3:37
3. "The Eagle Nature" – 3:28
4. "Sentiment" – 4:24
5. "I'm But a Wave To..." – 5:28
6. "Uroboric Forms" – 3:30
7. "Textures" – 4:40
8. "How Could I" – 5:28
9. "Veil of Maya (2004 Remix)" – 5:22
10. "I'm But a Wave To... (2004 Remix)" – 5:21
11. "How Could I (2004 Remix)" – 6:20
12. Portal: "Cosmos" – 4:21
13. Portal: "The Circle's Gone" – 5:20
14. Portal: "Endless Endeavors" – 9:56

• Total Length: 72:29

For other uses, see Music (disambiguation). ... Look up lyrics in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Paul Masvidal was the guitarist, singer and a founding member of the now disbanded progressive metal band Cynic. ...

Credits

• Tony Teegarden − guttural vocals
• Paul Masvidal − guitar, guitar synthesizer, vocals
• Sean Reinert − drums, percussion, keyboards
• Jason Gobel − guitar, guitar synthesizer
• Sean Malone − bass, Chapman stick (Cynic tracks only)

Paul Masvidal was the guitarist, singer and a founding member of the now disbanded progressive metal band Cynic. ... An electric guitar An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into electrical current, which is then amplified. ... Synth redirects here. ... For other uses, see Singer (disambiguation). ... Sean Reinert is the former drummer of Cynic. ... A drum kit (or drum set or trap set) is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as a cowbell, wood block, chimes or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single drummer. ... Percussion redirects here. ... Piano, a well-known instance of keyboard instruments A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. ... Jason Gobel is an American guitarist. ... Sean Malone is an American musician primarily known as a virtuoso fretless bass guitar and Chapman Stick player (although he can also play the piano, keyboards, and guitar proficiently), born in Delran, New Jersey, formerly of Cynic and currently heading up the progressive rock collaboration Gordian Knot. ... A sunburst-colored Precision Bass The electric bass guitar (or electric bass; pronounced , as in base) is a bass stringed instrument played with the fingers (either by plucking, slapping, popping, or tapping) or using a pick. ... A 10 string Chapman Stick The Chapman Stick is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. ...

References

This article does not cite any references or sources. (March 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Image File history File links Question_book-3. ...

External links

• The Cynical Sphere (all things Cynic-related)