it's umm...weird, but still very good. the production is of course MUCH cleaner on this one, which might not be a positive thing because i thought Focus' washy sound was actually part of it's charm. the "death" vocals are more of an afterthought than an actual part of the music, personally i could have done without them. the instrumentation is all amazing, and you can tell that they've been hanging more on the jazz fusion side of things than metal. the vocoder vocals benefit from advances in synthesizer technology. like Focus, it's dense music that might take a while to sink in.
if you're expecting it to be "true metal" or even early 90's throwback metal, then you'll be disappointed, but if you're a Cynic fan you knew that wasn't in the cards, and you're most likely hoping these guys keep the tradition of being themselves.