Kindly Bent to Free Us

Pitchfork 4.0/10 Mixing technical death metal and thundering jazz fusion, the Florida band Cynic's 1993 debut, Focus, still sounds like future music, and their post-reunion LP, 2008’s Traced in Air, thrived on a similarly ambitious mix of power and prowess. But did they really need to make a third record?

Metal Injection 9/10 I've never actually looked forward to the time around Valentine's Day, until 2014. If I'm giving anyone a heart-shaped box this year, that thing will have a copy of the freshly purchased Cynic album, Kindly Bent to Free Us in it. I personally feel like this is a much more grand gesture of love than