Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume 1.
The true album art, hidden under the rather mundane cardboard sleeve.
I was introduced to this album in the baptism of fire that was joining my first band, about a year ago. I entered the house and once everything had been set up, we went through track 3, “Welcome Home”. Admittedly the practise did not go very smoothly (I was astonishingly poor at playing my part (and still am tbh), but the seed of Coheed & Cambria was planted. I eventually acquired my own copy of the whole CD, and was suitably impressed.
The first thing you notice is most definitely the vocals. Claudio Sanchez, despite being a veritable afro-bear of a man, has one of the eeriest, and also most high pitched voices I’ve ever heard. Some people may find this a bit of an acquired taste, but In my opinion it just adds to the uniqueness of the music. The music itself consists of heavy rock guitars, drum and bass, as you might expect, but the style has a very grand feel to it, and other instruments such as strings and piano also lend a hand in certain songs, such as the classical first track.
Although a newcomer to the series may not notice, there is a huge sci-fi story encased in all this prog rock. The Amory Wars, as they are called, are something akin to Star Wars crossed with Lord of the Rings, telling the story of Claudio Kilgannon (the similarity to the lead singer is most likely intentional) and his quest to bring down a galaxy spanning dictatorship by destroying all civilisation. The references to what is going on are slightly obscured compared to earlier albums, but a good listener shoud be able to work out what is going on (failing that, there is also wikipedia).
The thing that impresses me most is the consistency of quality between all 15 songs on the CD. The complexity of lyrics and chords never lets up, and the final five songs make up their own mini series of extreme progginess, each one well over 7 minutes in length. The album artwork is also very impressive (I obsess over such things in a CD purchase) with detailed and well coloured depictions of the major events in the story.
Although I can only imagine the naysayers who tar this album with labels such as “emo”, I myself was very pleased with my purchase, and would recommend it to just about any of my friends. A very clever and most of all, different piece to listen to.
9/10
