This Is Not A “Hoax” – Violin Prog Metal CYDEMIND Share New Single From Upcoming Album, The Descent
Canadian instrumental progressive metal quintet CYDEMIND is back with a new song, “Hoax,” out now on all digital platforms. It is also the band’s first music video since their acclaimed prog metal version of Vivaldi’s “Winter” concerto.
The Montreal-based band is ecstatic to finally reveal some new music in preview to their forthcoming sophomore album, The Descent, to follow their 2017 debut, Erosion.
“Hoax is one of the first songs we wrote for the new album, so it’s been finished for a while!” says violinist Olivier Allard. “I think it took us 3 or 4 days to write that one (it usually takes 3 or 4 months to finish one!), so it all came up pretty instinctively.”
“It’s the most fun, summeresque song of the album, so we hope our fans enjoy it!” adds bassist Nico Damoulianos. “We’re also very proud of the music video; it fits the song perfectly and demonstrates very well how much fun we have playing it!”
As the name implies, “Hoax” is not the typical prog metal song you’re used to hearing.
“There are funk elements all over the place in this one,” explains drummer Alexandre Dagenais. “We like to brand Hoax as a Funk Metal song because it really is borrowing vibes from both genres. We always liked funk bands like Vulfpeck or Snarky Puppy, and we always felt like their music would sound well with a little metal injection. So it’s basically what we did!”
The music video was filmed in March 2022 in the Studios Frisson, Montréal, which is also where CYDEMINDrecorded the grand piano tracks for its upcoming installment. The video was entirely produced, directed, and edited by Vincent Allard, Olivier’s brother.
Watch the video for “Hoax” below, and learn more about CYDEMIND via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
Kevin Paquet (guitars) speaking
We are a Montreal-based quintet formed in 2011. We write and play music that is a blend of progressive rock, jazz, classical, and metal. We try to innovate and bring something new to the music world with our original compositions and cover songs. The fact that we have a violinist as a main figure helps us (we think) to distinguish ourselves from other bands of similar genres.
The band is composed of Olivier Allard (violin), Alexandre Dagenais (drums), Nico Damoulianos (Bass), Camille Delage (piano & keyboards), and Kevin Paquet (guitars). Olivier holds a Ph.D. in violin performance from the University of Montreal, while Camille graduated from the classical piano program at CEGEP St-Laurent in Montreal.
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
The Descent is our 2nd full-length album. It includes seven instrumental songs, mainly darker and more complex than what we released so far in our career. Like our first album, we tried to give a sense or a storyline to the continuity of all tracks, which can be hard to do without lyrics. That is why we tried to use some specific themes in more than one song. Obsessions is the best example, as themes of all the other tracks are depicted throughout the whole song, some more obvious than others. We thought it was a nice way to introduce the album with an opening act like this. Then comes more of a feel-good/funky song called Hoax. As the name suggests, you should not expect the album to respect that tone. On the contrary, the music gradually turns into something much darker and more complex. The 3rd song is pretty much a slap in the face to wake up everybody. And then everything turns into madness with Call of the Void and Hemlock, which will bring down all of our fans into hell with us until we reach Slumber. Finally, The Last Stone is kind of a candy track (“toune bonbon” as we would say in French) that will invigorate all listeners until they reach their last breath.
To summarize in one sentence, The Descent delves into the concept of obsessions and the abysses into which they can plunge the human mind.
Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?
Olivier (violin) and I, Kevin (guitars), are the main writers. Dage (drums) will, of course, write (or overwrite!) our drum composition to enhance and unify all instruments. We get inspired by all the music we listen to, and the fact that we like different genres reflects in our music. Of course, the main genre we listen to is progressive metal and rock, so bands like Haken, Symphony X, and Dream Theater are definitely a great source of inspiration. But jazzmen like Tigran Hamasyan and Avishai Cohen or jazz bands like Snarky Puppy also have an important place in our musical brains. And, of course, as Olivier has played numerous classical music pieces throughout his amateur and now professional career, our opus is clearly influenced by the music of the old age.
Do you have any upcoming shows you’d like to tell us about?
Of course! We will be playing at Plaza Theater (Théâtre Plaza) in Montreal on November 18th, 2022. The show is, of course, an event to promote the release of the album that will be done on November 4th. We will be accompanied by another Montreal prog band called Karcius, whose guitarist, Simon Lespérance, was also the guy who mixed our album. He will be the only guy in the venue not surprised by any drastic rhythmic change!
What’s your goal for 2022?
Our main goal is simply to reach as many people as we can so they can listen to the work we have done so far. The more people listen and enjoy our music, the more chances we have to bring it to them live, which is, from what we heard, a totally different experience!