No, not that Portal.

Here’s a pretty major lapse in my metal education: I somehow had no idea that there was a Cynic “off-shoot” project called Portal, which combines the talents of Paul Masvidal, Sean Reinert, guitarist Jason Gobel, bassist Chris Kringel, and vocalist Aruna Abrams. There’s even some demos already up on YouTube (like the one above), so really, seriously, total shame on me for not knowing about this. But, hey, I’m excited to learn about it now!

The group apparently demoed ten songs together seventeen years ago (!!!), and those songs will finally see the light of day in March, when Season of Mist releases The Portal Tapes. Here’s a statement regarding the release from Mr. Masvidal himself:

“I never thought this day would come. A couple demos we’d record after Focus, under the name ‘Portal,’ would develop a life of their own, and somehow become part of Cynic‘s larger discography. As an artist, it’s an amazingly unpredictable journey, to see these quiet labors of love, find their way, in their own time.”

The Portal Tapes come out March 27 in North America and March 23 in Europe, and the release will be limited to five-thousand CDs and just one-thousand vinyl copies. We’ll post pre-order info as soon as we get it so none of you miss out. If the aforementioned YouTube demos are any indication, this is definitely gonna be worth owning — which is not at all shocking.

-AR

[via The PRP]

A week ago, just a few days before they closed the The Metal Suckfest and a mere twenty-fours before their first proper performance with their new line-up, Cynic performed an extremely rare, extremely intimate acoustic set at one of our favorite NYC haunts, Idle Hands. I have no idea what the final head count in the bar was, but I know that the vast majority of the world’s Cynic devotees did not get to experience this truly special event.

Luckily, our friends from Metal Injection were there, and they caught it on video! You can check out the performance of “Veil of Maya” and “Evolutionary Sleeper” below; if you head over to Metal Injection, you can also check out a new interview with Cynic’s Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert, which was conducted outside of a synagogue. Just a fun fact for ya!

Cynic’s new EP, Carbon-Based Anatomy, comes out on November 15 via Season of Mist; if you don’t buy it, you’re a loser. Just sayin’.

-AR

If Carbon-Based Anatomy, the new EP from Cynic, is any indication, then the band’s 2008 reunion released, Traced in Air, was just the tip of the sword in terms of what we can expect from their future. While distinctly Cynical, Anatomy doesn’t really feel like anything the group has ever previously released; guitarist/vocalist Paul Masvidal and drummer Sean Reinert sound somehow looser and more free than ever before, like a now-wholly autonomous artistic unit with no one to please but themselves. The results are mind bending and achingly gorgeous, if perhaps too brief to satiate the desires of Cynic devotees clamoring for new material.

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UPDATE, 12:08 P.M.: The band’s new single, “Carbon-Based Anatomy,” is now avail for free download here!!! Thanks to The PRP for gettin’ the scoop!!!

Ever since we announced Cynic would headline Night 2 of The Metal Suckfest we’ve been seing a bunch of emails and comments wondering just who exactly would be playing bass and second guitar in the band’s live lineup since bassist Robin Zielhorst and guitarist Tymon Kruidenier (both of Dutch fusion metal outfit Exivious) parted ways with Cynic in December 2010. Truth is we didn’t even know ourselves, but we figured Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert would find suitable replacements in time; and, of course, they have.

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A song can be like the Kennedy assassination: Your first knowledge of it is an event, so you can’t help but forever remember the moment when it came barging into your once-perfectly sane life. The song changes you a little and takes on an aura (or whatever) that stirs you physically for years. It’s a personal thing, but as a confident professional, I’ll limb out and share one: Foreigner’s “I Want To Know What Love Is.” That song was the end of innocence for me; music was no longer purely magical, a series of neat sounds emitting from a crappy clock radio. To my young ears, music had grown horns, all malevolent, capable of harm and cynicism, darkly powerful, and unwilling to compromise. As such, I can instantly recall the view as I stared down at the now-menacing clock radio as I would a dog that had mauled my face unantagonized. This song, I thought, makes life fucking horrible. I eagerly await the day that radio programmers extract the dagger from my nards by cutting it from rotation. Permanently.

Sigh. It was a lonely feeling facing off with the awful choir reprises and pug-faced pseudo-silk of middle-aged Foreigner. But I would rebound years later, when local college radio unleashed upon me Death’s “Suicide Machine,” from their Human album.

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So yesterday, Cynic posted a message on their Facebook page in which they announced the departure of bassist Robin Zielhorst and guitarist Tymon Kruidenier from the band. The reasons are not typical, which is to say, there were no so-called “creative differences” or “disagreements about the direction of the band,” no one is suing anyone or fucked someone’s girlfriend or anything like that. The reason is simple and logistical: Zielhort and Kruidenier live in The Netherlands, while Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert live in California. So there’s no drama here whatsoever.

And not only is there no drama here, but this isn’t even really bad news. Here’s why:

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Sean Reinert is quite the accomplished drummer; aside from his job as the skinsman in Cynic, Reinert’s talents have long been appreciated and worshipped by drummers the world over. If you can remember all the way back to Spring of this year (long time ago, I know) you’d also remember that he played drums on Avalanche of Worms, the instrumental record composed by Daath’s Eyal Levi and Emil Werstler.

Of all of Reinert’s many accomplishments “instructional DVD” hasn’t been one of them until now. And you can be a part of it; the cleverly named It’s About Time, which is being presented by Sick Drummer Magazine, will cover topics requested by you, the fans. All you need to do is record a video of yourself asking Sean a question about his playing and upload it to YouTube as a response to this video on the SickDrummer YouTube Channel, and if you are selected your video will appear on the DVD.

I can’t imagine how my life might’ve been different if the now-standard technology that makes this possible were available to me as a kid. Asking Zakk Wylde a question to be included on one of his instructional videos?? Ohmigod, I would’ve freaked.

-VN

Eric Guenther may end up being the unsung hero of Dååth’s forthcoming, self-titled album, which Century Media will release on October 25 (pre-order it here). He’s not even technically a member of the band; his main gig is being the guitarist/vocalist for From Exile (read my love letter to that band here). But as he did for Levi/Werstler’s Avalanche of Worms earlier this year, he has made some truly invaluable contributions to Dååth. His synths aren’t of the “Dead on the Dance Floor” variety; they’re far more subtle, adding layers of sound and atmosphere that up the record’s epicness quotient, increase its replay value (I guarantee you, you’re not gonna pick up on everything Guenther is doing the first time you hear the album), and increase the music’s insistence that it be listened to with a good pair of earphones. Praise for Guenther’s augmentations may get lost amidst all the insanity that the rest of the band brings to the table, but without his presence, Dååth would be a completely different record.

I sat down with Guenther this past June, when I was in Atlanta visiting Dååth in the studio. He’s an incredibly smart guy (read the guest blog he wrote for us this past April here), and I think his approach to his particular job on the album was just right. Check out the full transcript of our chat after the jump.

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I’ve already expressed my love of Levi/Werstler’s Avalanche of Worms (read my review here) so many times I’m running out of synonyms for “awesome,” so let me just put it this way: it’s one of the best albums of 2010 thus far. And as much praise has been heaped on Emil Werstler – whose day job is playing lead guitar for Daath – he deserves more. If you love great guitar playing, you need to hear this record, and then you need to bow down before Werstler with a cry of “I’m not worthy!” He is, simply put, the man.

Emil recently took time out from the writing and recording of the new Daath album – which, if all goes according to plan, will be out in the fall – to answer some questions for MetalSucks via e-mail. After the jump, learn how he started playing guitar, how he first hooked up Eyal Levi, his secrets for writing a great guitar solo, how he thinks the lessons of AOW will spill over into the new Daath release, and more.

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I often get asked by fans, students and interviewers, “Do you have any advice for an up and coming musician who’s starting out?”  In lieu of my normal response of “Well, you need to practice, practice, practice and of course be prepared to sacrifice a normal social life because you’ll always have to put your music first if you really and truly want or expect to succeed!”, I’m going to examine and explore one of the most overlooked and yet vitally important aspects of being a professional musician – the business side of things. After all, it is called the “music business” right?

I mean, don’t get me wrong – there is something almost transcendental to performing live, and there is almost nothing I would rather do. The same thing with writing and creating: we slave over the process for hours and hours to achieve the best possible result because we love the process and have something completely unique and personal to share. But, we must allocate a certain number of hours to our business needs. I mean let’s not kid ourselves here – we do need to make money in order to keep making our music. We need to buy new drumheads and drumsticks.  We have to replace that cracked crash cymbal that broke last rehearsal. We need to pay for rehearsal studio rent and gas to get there. The list goes on and on, and if you’re in a band… forget it!!! You’ll need to finance PA gear, staging gear, lighting rigs, monitor rigs… it never really ends. So how do we fund our ever-hungry music habit?  Better yet, how do we get our MUSIC to fund our music habit? (The musical equivalent of nuclear fission.) Well, the best way to maximize your income and opportunities is to get educated in how the music business works.

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Tomorrow, Levi/Werstler’s debut album, Avalanche of Worms - which we’re currently streaming right here – will finally be released! To celebrate, Axl and Vince and the rest of the MetalSucks staff are taking the day off to enjoy 4/20 properly – by getting really high and playing the album on repeat at eardrum-destroying volumes.

But lest we leave you in the lurch, we called up Eyal Levi and Emil Werstler and told them that since it’s their fault we can’t work on 4/20 because they made such a kick-ass record, they would have to take over MetalSucks for the day. Luckily, they agreed! And so tomorrow it’s gonna be all Levi/Werstler, all the time.

In addition to doing a whole bunch of blogging themselves, Eyal and Emil have also enlisted the help of the rest of the Avalanche of Worms posse – including Cynic drummer Sean Reinert, From Exile keyboardist Eric Guenther, bassist Kevin Scott, and AOW mixer Mark Lewis – to come up with some really, really entertaining stuff. So come back tomorrow to see what they have in store for you, oh beloved readers. It’s gonna be killer.

-Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks

In case you didn’t read Axl’s four-and-a-half out of five horns rave review of Avalanche of Worms, the debut album from Levi/Werstler, we’ll sum it up for you: “Avalanche of Worms is a trippy, freaky, cinematic, vivid narrative that unfolds in multiple dimensions at once.” Axl also said that the album “is really is best enjoyed in a single sitting, as one large piece of work.”

Which you can do right now! We’re streaming the entire thing below before its release tomorrow on Magna Carta. And it’s already 4/20 in some parts of the world! So sit back, light up, and enjoy Avalanche of Worms…

[this promotion has ended]

I know I’m gonna get shit for the review I’m about to give Levi/Werstler‘s Avalanche of Worms. Eyal Levi writes for this site! Sure, I could remind you that I’ve been pretty openly a non fan of Daath’s first album, The Hinderers, or tell you that we never even met Eyal until after we’d already heard (and were blown away by) Daath’s second album, The Concealers. But what’s the use? You either believe I’m unbiased or you don’t. So fuck me and don’t listen to it, if that’s how you feel. Your loss.

So, with that out of the way…

I have to admit that it’s only recently that I really sat down and examined Jorden Haley‘s cover art for AOW as anything more than a collection of abstract shapes. It’s really psychedelic, dude: either black clouds are raining hot pink goo (It is snot? Blood? It’s definitely too thick to be water.) on a trio of semi-skinned faces (the noses and giant, Pac-Man pupiled eye balls are perfectly intact), or the faces (One each for guitarists Emil Werstler and Eyal Levi and one for drummer Sean Reinert, perhaps?) are snotting/bleeding/whatever onto the black clouds. I almost wish there was no text on the cover, so you wouldn’t know which way is up, ’cause the piece looks just as cool no matter which direction it’s facing.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a perfect marriage of cover art and music. Avalanche of Worms is a trippy, freaky, cinematic, vivid narrative that unfolds in multiple dimensions at once.

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Actually, there is no doubt that a preview of another new Levi/Werstler track has been posted. I just wanted to see how many times in a row we could phrase a headline as a question. Sorry.

ANYWAY, as I said, Levi/Werstler HAVE posted another preview of another new track, this one called “Casting The Molten Sea.” An like the other previews we’ve heard, it sounds pretty sweet – but it’s too short a taste! WE WANT MORE, GOD DAMN YOU!

Oh well. More we shall have on 4/20, when Levi/Werstler’s debut album, Avalanche of Worms, comes out on Magna Carta. In case you’re the one person who doesn’t know, the album also features drums by Cynic’s Sean Reinert, which is just that much more of a reason to get excited for the release. Pre-order that shit here.

-AR

We’re a little late on reporting this, but there’s a sample of another new Levi/Werstler track, “Obsidian Fissures,” now streaming on their merch page. It’s maybe twenty seconds of the song, which is to say it’ll pretty much give you sonic blue balls. But that’s only because it’s so awesome.

Levi/Werstler’s debut album, Avalanche of Worms, comes out April 20 on Magna Carta, and features drums by the great Sean Reinert, of Cynic fame. While you wait (and pine for a longer taste of “Obsidian Fissures”), you can watch another clip of Emil playing some of “Dura Mater” below. You can also download some free guitar tabs here, so that all of you shred nerds can start trying to learn some of this shit.

And, finally, it’s worth noting that Eyal and Emil are currently accepting questions via their MySpace, Facebook and Twitter pages; they’ll answer the best ones in an upcoming video.

-AR

I know that there are lots of reasons why the Levi/Werstler project may never get to do a live show (or, better yet, a tour, even): there’s the usual considerations about the costs (financial or otherwise) of being on the road, and the Daath boys are hitting the studio in the not-too-distant future to record their new album, plus you’d have to coordinate their schedules with that of Cynic’s Sean Reinert, who plays drums on the album – and that would probably be a major pain in the tuchus. Still, I hope against hope that they somehow end up on Prog Nation, or something awesome like that. It would be kind of a shame if videos like this one were the only chance fans ever have to see these dudes play some music from Avalanche of Worms:

I have no idea what that song is called, but I’m ready to hear the rest of it now.

We are going to continue to remind you all that Avalanche of Worms comes out 4/20 on Magna Carta pretty much until it’s out. You can pre-order it here.

-AR

If you’re like me and you love watching great guitarists play because you yourself are a terrible guitarist but you just love the grace it takes to be a good guitarist, than you will enjoy this clip of Emil Werstler playing some of “Dura Mater.” The song is the first taste of Avalanche of Worms, the debut solo/side/not-really-sure-what-to-call-it project from Daath’s guitarists (with Cynic’s Sean Reinert on drums!):

If for some reason you still haven’t listened to the complete stream of “Dura Mater,” well, you’re depriving yourself of awesomeness, and you should go listen to it now.

Avalanche of Worms comes out 4/20 on Magna Carta. And while we’re on the topic, you should also head over to Noisecreep for a pretty cool interview with Emil and Eyal – they talk about Avalanche and also explain a little bit more why Kevin Talley (who I can assure you is still very much the drummer for Daath) sat out a chunk of the band’s 2009 tour.

-AR

If you’re a regular reader of Eyal Levi’s blogs for this very site, than you’re already aware that he and his fellow Daath guitarist, Emil Werstler, have been working on a new, non-Daath record with Cynic drummer Sean Reinert. Well, hey, guess what? The album has a name now, Avalanche of Worms, and an oh-so-appropriate release date of 4/20 on Magna Carta. And as if all of that weren’t exciting enough, they’re already streaming a new track, “Dura Mater,” on their merch page (scroll down – the player is on the lower right hand side).

The track, it should go without saying, rips. It certainly has a Daath-y vibe to it – the long instrumental intro of the song “Translucent Potency” from The Concealers comes to mind – but it’s definitely not Daath. The music has been taken to a whole other level here. It’s shreddier and proggier than anything we’ve heard these fellas do before, but not at the expense of good songwriting – there is structure here, and strong hook. I dunno… it’s just good music, dude. I’m loving it, and can’t wait to hear the rest of the album. (It also bodes really, really well for the next Daath record – if this is the kind of growth Eyal and Emil are showing, the future can only be full of good things.)

You can stream “Dura Mater,” and pre-order Avalanche of Worms in a variety of sexy packages here. The project also now has an official website, a MySpace page and a Facebook page, so you can stay up-to-date on all their latest news. And, of course, we’ll give you more info as we get it…

-AR

If you loved Daath’s The Concealers as much as we did – and both Vince and myself included the album fairly highly on our 2009 year-end lists – than you’ll be as excited as we are to learn that there’s a buttload of activity going on in the Daath camp right now. For one thing, guitarist/MetalSucks columnist Eyal Levi and guitarist Emil Werstler have completed a solo/side album with Cynic’s Sean Reinert playing drums, and while we haven’t heard that record yet, we know people who have, and those people have good taste, and they assure it’s awesome. As though there were any doubt that it would be.

If that wasn’t enough, Daath have no apparently begun the songwriting process for their next release. I’m so stoked to see where Daath go from here, I can’t even tell you – The Concealers was a major evolutionary leap forward from the band’s first album, The Hinderers, and I’d wager we’re gonna get something pretty different once again. In fact, the band has said as much.

But why take my word for it? Here’s a lengthy statement from the band giving you the skinny on all their various goings-on:

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Are you ever going to write again? Is your column at Metalsucks over? Where the fuck have you been? Why don’t you hang out? You better be ditching me for a really good reason! You’re in town? Why didn’t I know? Etc. Etc. Etc.

At first I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. If I did, I would’ve told everyone in my life that I was going to have to disappear for about a month or two but I was not expecting this to be such a gargantuan undertaking. But it is. When the questions as to my absence started coming in I didn’t make much effort to answer them because I figured the workload was going to lighten up a little. It hasn’t. Friends, fans, family members, band mates, business partners, ex-girlfriends, and more have all been hitting me up asking where the fuck I’ve been. When Vince wrote me and asked me where I was I figured ok, its time to come out of the cave for a moment.

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