Paul Masvidal, Suicmez, Dominic "Forest" Lapointe (Beyond Creations virtuoso bassist), Gene Hoglan or Sean Reinert on drums and Tim Aymar or Mikael Åkerfeldt on vox as a prog band would be insane >:)
A genius and gentleman ... blesses to Paul. Chuck's the one person I greatly miss, yet never met. That's how powerful Chuck still is ... Veil Of Maya ... WHAT A CYNIC VERSE RIFF !!! Wow ...
Paul did session work in LA, along with Aeon Spoke, for example t.v. show theme songs like Third Rock, That 70's show and others. He also did some music therapy work for dying people and even has a patent on a device for vocally disabled hospital patients, so he's been very busy with music. It was a 15 year gap between Cynics first two albums, but he didn't miss a beat. Sean did session work also, and continued being the severely educated drummer and composer that he is!
Wowww....it's kinda weird when you haven't seen someone other than the earlier days when Paul Masvidal was young as hell with his long black hair in MorrisSounds Studio recording Death's album "Human" and go from that to just now for the first time seeing him in the future he looks basically the same just a lil older and a haircut lol he was one loyal dude too!! He had his band Cynic but had off time to record with Chuck and his band Death but Chuck & Death's manager were constantly begging Paul Masvidal to completely join Death and drop out of Cynic because they needed a permanent position on guitar and enjoyed him as a person and his playing was Soo good but Paul stuck to his guns and said nah he couldn't up and leave his main band "Cynic" probably even realizing he would of been maybe better off in Death but then again maybe he was scared of such a commitment looking at Chuck's past record with having issues with former bandmates for idea differences and because of Chuck backing out of shows last minute after they had already been setup but regardless us Death fans are lucky to have Soo many amazing albums from Scream Bloody Gore to The Sound Of Preserverance!!
Portal isn't exactly a demo. It's sort of a side-project Cynic created, aside from their Progressive/Technical Death Metal style. To me, it's considered as a Cynic album and a hell of a female vocalist on the album! Hell, why not, it's their second freaking album after Focus, how about that! This band is beyond genius, it's bizarre!
I passed on the DTA tour when I had the chance to see it. I don't regret it either. nothing against any of the musicians who participated... but no chuck, no death. I'd rather just accept not being old enough to see death live than try to chase the dragon
