Thursday: Cynic - Veil of Maya

     Prog fans will likely already have heard about, and be lamenting, the apparent break-up of legendary band/duo Cynic -- I say "duo" both because the core of Cynic has always been Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert, and because it seems to be the friction between these two that has caused the band to implode.

     I don't know that I would want Cynic to continue in some other form, and if Sean and Paul's differences are really that irreconcilable then I don't know if I'd want them to even try to get back together as musicians unless there was truly some resolution for them personally. So: it seems that Cynic is dead.

     What better reason to throw it back to their 1993 breakthrough debut album Focus for your Throwback Thursday track. Blast some "Veil of Maya" and wonder at how ahead of its time this record was.

Exist - Self-Inflicted Disguise

     Do you like fusion-metal band Cynic? Are you eagerly counting down the days until they release Kindly Bent to Free Us in February? Is the wait until Valentine's Day just too goddamn long for you? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, then today's band might just be the methadone to keep you going until you can mainline some more sweet, sweet Cynic.

     Said band, Exist, even have a Cynic-al connection: frontman Max Phelps is a member of Cynic's current live line-up, as well as being the frontman for the current line-up of Death to All, the Chuck Schuldiner-tribute group organized by Death-alums and Cynic prog-nerds Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert.

     What all of this six degrees of separation stuff means for you is that Exist displays a lot of the same jazzy-sounding prog-metal goodness that can be found in Cynic's more recent work, making Exist a pretty tasty way to make it through the next couple of months. Have a listen to "Self-Inflicted Disguise" from Exist's debut LP Sunlight and see if it'll scratch that fusion itch for you.