Cynical Existence - Dying Light

It has become fairly well known to myself and others that Cynical Existence has an ever evolving style. Should you start from the band's roots with Come Out And Play, you will see a structure change from EBM focused aggrotech all the way to the modern, electrometal dance music that came to be with last year's We Are The Violence. 2016 shows off another refined version of Cynical Existence with their latest album Dying Light. This album will be coming out on Advoxya Records in early 2017 and features fifteen tracks with remixes from Freaky Mind, Ironclad, and Cutoff:Sky. 

Cynical Existence's new album mainly has two modes about it: Hard, in your face electrometal/dance music that grills you with energetic guitars and beats, and mid-tempo aggrotech still fueled by guitars. When I speak of the electrometal/dance tracks, you should look no further than the blazing introductory track 'Edge of Sanity', and - for the majority - the vocally clean 'Hate By Design'. Those tracks will get your feet stomping in no time. And if you're digging those sounds, don't forget to check out 'Utopia Burning', 'Thank You', 'I', and the final track on the album 'End of the Line'. 

For those of you looking for the older era of Cynical Existence mixed with their new electrometal styles, then I suggest you take a gander at tracks such as 'Through My Eyes' and 'Wasteful Scum'. 'Through My Eyes', though still having some metal influences throughout, have the noisy synth walls and aggressive beats that Cynical Existence has become known for. 'Wasteful Scum' was the first single that was released for Dying Light and is a great blend of hitting beats and crunchy guitars. Other songs you should definitely check out if you're into this style are 'As the World Stops' and 'We Will Burn'. 

The one song on the album that was mainly electronic based revamped with a ton of angst and anger is 'Fuck Your Crew'. Whether it's an attack on someone Cynical Existence absolutely despises or just a fun sing-along-song is up to perception, but this is perhaps the fastest song on the album. The other song I would like to give a special mention to is 'As I Break Down'. The track had wonderful dual vocals and had passionate and emotional work all about it. Good job on that one. 

Harsh EBM/Aggrotech act Freaky Mind kicked off the remix section with their version of 'Fuck Your Crew'.  They added in their own vocals, stripped any metal elements, and turned it into a straight Harsh EBM dancefloor hit. Ironclad, on the other hand, embraced the metal bits of 'Through My Eyes' with grace and gave the track a melodic industrial metal twist. Cutoff:Sky was the final remixer on the album and curated a clean, harsh electro version of 'Static' with plenty of synths to boot. 

I know I said this in my previous review of Cynical Exitence's We Are The Violence, but this new reimagination of their brand has me hooked. It's hard for me to pick a favorite between We Are The Violence  and Dying Light as both are very well done. What I can say is that I'll probably be having plenty of fun car rides blasting this on the now frozen roads of my town. Two thumbs up for Cynical Existence!