Kindly Bent to Free Us

Over four years in the making, 'Kindly Bent to Free Us' is a new apex in the evolution of progressive rock visionaries CYNIC. The album's eight tracks are rich, vibrant, and evocative, and the mark of a band that are masters of their craft. As "True Hallucination Speak", "The Lion's Roar", and the title track personify, CYNIC 2014 is transcendent. Without a doubt, 'Kindly Bent to Free Us' is CYNIC's tour de force and yet another crescendo in the band's illustrious, ground-breaking career.

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?

Playing against this seeming lack of approachability, Cynic deliver Kindly Bent to Free Us, an album that, while most definitely in the realm of prog rock, has the kind of open, unpretentious air that makes Rush such an easy-to-love band.

Cynic has been in a constant state of flux since the release of their 2008 album Traced in Air.

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

Cynic - Kindly Bent to Free Us review: Kellogg’s called, and they want their damned motto back.