ALBUM REVIEW: Cynic – Ascension Codes


It’s been a rough road for Cynic frontman Paul Masvidal over the last year or so. With the sad and untimely deaths of bass player Sean Malone and former drummer Sean Reinert, it would have been reasonable to assume that any new music produced under the Cynic name would cast a bleak shadow indeed.

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Bassist Joe Lester to Miss The Intronaut Tour After Surgery


Intronaut just released their amazing new album Fluid Existential Inversions via their new label Metal Blade, and started their tour with Cult of Luna and Emma Ruth Rundle. Sadly, on the eve of the touring bassist Joe Lester ruptured his Achilles tendon and will likely sit out the tour, or most of it. In the meant time the band has been performing as a three-piece with Lester’s bass lines played through the PA. The band addressed the situation online at the start of the tour and on stage in New York. They also hilariously had a blow-up balloon in Joe’s likeness. The band is also performing with touring drummer Matt Lynch (Cytnic, Trioscapes). We wish Joe a speedy recovery! Continue reading


Nova Collective – The Further Side


Nova Collective offer quite a dream meeting of minds in the world of Prog, and have been a hugely anticipated entity since their inception reveal a couple of years ago. Helmed by Between The Buried & Me bassist Dan Briggs and Haken guitarist Richard Henshall, the instrumental project was formed out of Briggs’ admiration for Haken’s then creative apex The Mountain (InsideOut), which (long story short), culminated in the sharing of musical ideas between the two and an eventual collaboration. Continue reading