Cynic announce reissue of path to Focus demos Uroboric Forms

US progressive rockers Cynic have announced that they will reissue Uroboric Forms through Season Of Mist on November 17.

The set is a collection of demo recordings that collect demos recorded by the band from 1988 to 1992 ahead of their groundbreaking debut album Focus which was released on Roadrunner Records in 1992.

These include the band's 1988 demo, simply entitled '88 Demo, which was recorded by Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert on a boom box while they were still in school, the band's 1989 demo Reflections Of A Dying World and the self-explanatory '90 Demo and Demo 1991, the latter finally securing the band their deal with Roadrunner.

"Hearing these demos is akin to looking at old pictures of yourself or reading historical diary entries and realising you’re a different person now," says Paul Masvidal. "Sometimes seeing those old pics or hearing this work can even feel embarrassing, as if they’re someone you don’t care to know anymore, but it’s who we were, and I’ve come to embrace how genuine the work actually is. There’s an earnestness in these recordings that’s particular to a space and time, and it will never happen again. We now have evidence exposing the roots of an artist’s journey and there’s nowhere to hide. That’s the beauty of it."

Masvidal has been out on the road with a new line-up of Cynic, performing Focus in its entirety along with tributes to the late Reinert and also bassist Sean Malone, who both died in 2020.

The current line-up features Masvidal alongside Max Phelps (Exist, Death to All) guitars and vocals, Brandon Giffin (The Faceless, The Zenith Passage) bass, Matt Lynch (Nova Collective, Intronaut) drums and percussion and Zeke Kaplan on keyboards.

The new reissue of Uroboric Forms includes a 7" that has alternate versions of the title track and The Eagle Nature and will only be pressed once.

Pre-order Uroboric Forms.

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.