Cynic are Teasing New Music!

Paul Masvidal spent most of 2019 working on a solo project under the Masvidal moniker, releasing parts one and two (Mythical and Human) of a planned three-EP series. But if a recent tease posted to Cynic’s official Instagram account is to be construed the way we think it is, Masvidal is planning to refocus his attention back onto his main squeeze in 2020.

The video, sent in by MetalSucks uber-tipster Ranpal C. (who else?), features about 10 seconds of guitar noises and loops with some kind of light obscuring effect on them, set to a backdrop of trippy, lava lamp-like imagery. It’s certainly possible that the music therein isn’t Cynic — or it’s not new Cynic, i.e. a reissue — but giving recent comments by Masvidal we’re gonna go with “new Cynic.” Here’s what he told us on The MetalSucks Podcast last year:

“Cynic has been an ongoing thing in the background. I know we haven’t had a lot of online presence, it’s been pretty low key and quiet. There’s a lot of reasons for that, which at some point maybe I will publicly explain, but at this point, [bassist Sean] Malone and I are communicating regularly and swapping files. We have the workings of a new record that are there, and we’re working with Matt Lynch (the drummer) out of Atlanta, and at some point in the next I don’t even know when, before the end of the year or early next year, we will have a record delivered and kind of be on that train promoting the new Cynic work. Again, Cynic has never been a band to rush things and can somewhat argue to a fault but we’ve never been interested in producing things in that way.”

Have a listen for yourself below and, hopefully, get stoked for new Cynic music very soon. This will be the band’s first album since Kindly Bent to Free Us (2014), during which time longtime drummer Sean Reinert left the band under less than amicable circumstances.