It is hard for me to remember another band that has as strange as Cynic’s biography. Formed in the end of the eighties of the last century and with only one album, released in the beginning of the nineties, they are one of the few that manage to build at that time and in long period afterwards a myth about their existence. Recognized as one of the most original, innovators for their time, with "Focus" they made everything that many bands didn’t do even after dozens of years working. It may look unbelievable, but 15 after their debut, Cynic are again all together and their status is really “active”. Like the reunited At The Gates and Carcass, the Americans decided to write a new page of their history – they released "Traced in Air" and went on a big tour for promoting it. The interest about the disc and the noise around the reunion predetermined the great expectations about the album, unjustified by its content. If we can determine the genre of the early Cynic as technical (progressive?) death/jazz metal, now it is more like only jazz. It won’t be strange if you ask yourself if these are the same musicians as from 1993, the ones that made a unique combination from the heaviest genres possible, showing the abilities of experimenting to the conservative metal scene. In "Traced in Air" Cynic are also odd but by a different way. They show that they didn’t forget to play well on their instruments, but while they were growing up (getting old?) they left the rougher, the clumsy and heavy sound in the past. The heaviness and the complexity of "Focus" here is hardly perceptible – on its place we find a well-arranged sound and mellowed by time musicians who build a slightly different face of themselves – airily, even acoustic ("The Space For This", "Evolutionary Sleeper"), which becomes more aggressive and progressive in the end. Paul Masvidal is singing so softly and peaceful that we can not recognize him. With deep sorrow I mark my great disappointment from Cynic’s reunion. I can’t give a good rating for an album which in its (only) 35 minutes is trying hardly to convince me that the band doesn’t want to play metal any more.