(Indie) Coheed and Cambria - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
 

[b]Artist:[/b] Coheed and Cambria
[b]Album:[/b] [i]In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3[/i]

Claudio Sanchez - Vocals/Guitar
Travis Stever - Guitar
Michael Todd - Bass
Joshua Eppard - Drums

Before listening to the music, you should know the background behind this project. Coheed and Cambria was originally named Shabutie (what Claudio says before "Devil in Jersey City" on [i]Second Stage Turbine Blade[/i]) and the albums are not albums in a traditional sense. Like Pink Floyd, Cursive, and such, Coheed and Cambria create concept records. The similarity mostly ends at that surface. CoCa's work thus far has been written as part of a science fiction story that lead singer Claudio Sanchez is working out as we speak. There is no end to the story as of yet and the albums are merely parts. The music itself is equally inspired by punk and metal. One could say that CoCa is indie's version of prog, but that would be entirely wrong. The songs are structured to provide maximum effect at all times, with equal vocal inflection and instrumental intensity. It is also mostly guitar-driven. Now, onto the music itself.

[b]As the lyrics are part of a story, I will not comment on them specifically.[/b]

[b]The Ring in Return [/b] - This serves as an introductory piece. A telephone rings. Footsteps are heard and a woman answers the phone. From there, a piano interlude is played, a piece that will be familiar to those who have heard [i]Second Stage Turbine Blade[/i].

[b]In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3[/b] - The first track proper. It starts with guitar and tension grows as a feedback-esque background riff is played. The drums come in, subtly. Then the metal riffing comes, continuing through the verse, as the drums become more powerful. If you've never heard Claudio's voice until now, it will become immediately recognizable and, despite it's high pitch, fits the music very well. Minimal background screaming accompanies the chorus. A solo caps off the first part and then the beginning of the song is recapitulated, returning to the chorus (complete with anthemic "oh-oh-oh-oh"s) and ending the song. It is a strong proper song to set up the rest of the album, especially after the opener.

[b]Cuts Marked in the March of Men[/b] - Starts off with a riff that sounds like it's taken from a Castlevania soundtrack. This and the preceding track are mostly somber, lyrically, but the music truly drives it from becoming too much of a downer. Not the best track on the album, but still very good. The verse riff is memorable.

[b]Three Evils (Embodied in Love and Shadow)[/b] - A more pop-punk influenced song. It's infectious, using instrumentation that should not be unfamiliar to anyone who's ever heard a pop-punk song. Don't get the wrong assumption, though. CoCa manages to keep the song strong lyrically. Also, the end part is likely to get stuck in your head for a while, moreso than even the other parts. Excellent use of backup vocals. The juxtaposition of this with the next track is delightful.

[b]The Crowing[/b] - Driving guitars, bass, and drums set this song off. The chorus sets off the metal-influence with arpeggiated chords and light riffing to match the wistful lyrics/singing. The second half gets more intense and very metallic, complete with palm-muted riffing and pinch harmonic repetition, setting up another vocal display on top. A spacey feeling throughout another interlude, with a slight ATDI feel. The end comes first as an uncertain part, but then turns into a threatening revenge for the rest of the song, especially vocally.

[b]Blood Red Summer[/b] - Another juxtaposition of styles. A very bouncy song where the bass and lead mix up with each other in a surf-like fashion, octaved by guitar while the rhythm chugs along. The style is familiar but fresh at the same time. Backup vocals work well, mostly. The bridge is another part likely to get stuck in your head after a listen or two. It sounds like CoCa suddenly turned into a teenage Cheap Trick tribute band, but not in a bad way. Some may be turned off by this song, but that's all a matter of stylistic preference. CoCa makes a habit of matching its two strong points of being catchy and intense.

[b]The Camper Velourium I: Faint of Heart[/b] - Another riffy song. It's catchy in its own right but is also a slight song of longing. One of the less memorable moments on the album and I have little to say about it.

[b]The Camper Velourium II: Backend of Forever[/b] - The drums punctuate the power chords in the intro while the lead guitar palm mutes somewhat menacingly, with the vocals matching the intensity. You can feel the insanity building up throughout the duration of this song in the vocals, lyrics, and instrumentation.

[b]The Camper Velourium III: Al the Killer[/b] - This is where everything is unleashed lyrically. A slight piano part introduces the madness. The lead vocals are entirely backed by an insane, deeper tone doubling the words. The prechorus makes use of distanced screaming, as does the "response" part of the chorus. A highlight of the album, this song is perfectly devious and the instrumentation works incredibly well with the lyrics.

[b]A Favor House Atlantic[/b] - More lighthearded than the previous song, it sports another catchy chorus and a nod to early metal in the verse. The drums are bombastic in parts and simply another part of the soundscape in others. Another good track.

[b]The Light & The Glass[/b] - Much more laidback and quiet than any of the other tracks, even the introductory track. It has a certain lullaby-like quality until it drifts away to where the distortion kicks in in a nice transition. Even the Alannis Morissette-like "Liar" part fits in very well when the song returns to its lullaby-like beginnings for a moment, then picks back up where the distortion left off. More metallicness comes around the five-minute mark. The song then dies off in a keyboard drone as the voices echo away appropriately, again recapitulating the piano part from the intro, this time on a synth-xylophone.

[b]2113[/b] - The secret track! Number 23 on the cd, it encompasses much of the musical ground of CoCa. The bass has a dark mood to it, further exposing the malignant vocals as the lead guitar plays repetitive fills. That turns into another poppish-part, which then turns into a slow, menacing part. A lighthearted guitar part randomly appears, which also turns dark. This pattern continues until the very end. Again, for those familiar with [i]Second Stage Turbine Blade[/i] will recognize the very end of this song. At a running time of 9:46, this song summarizes the musical territory of the entire album.

Wow, that was a long review...

[i]In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3[/i] is another expectedly vibrant release from Coheed and Cambria. Anyone into intense lyricism and nigh-perfect instrumentation should give this a try.

[b]Final Rating:[/b] 4/5. Some lyrics were a bit blasé and the instrumentation wasn't entirely original. Still, an excellent album and a worthy follow-up to their first cd.

Fantastic review. I just got the chance to see CoCa last Thursday (With Thursday and Thrice) and they were as expected, amazing. Fantastic review. SSTB was a great album, as this one is. Keep up the good work.

-Mike

I wanna get that album now

All of Roller Queen's reviews are good and really detailed. Keep up the good work! :thumb:

that was a good review. Coheed and Cambria are a great band, i love claudio's voice.

[QUOTE=korn_field]Fantastic review. I just got the chance to see CoCa last Thursday (With Thursday and Thrice) and they were as expected, amazing. Fantastic review. SSTB was a great album, as this one is. Keep up the good work.

-Mike[/QUOTE]

whoa, you are so lucky. i wanna see them live soooo much. I live in australia so that'll probably never happen... i saw thursday once though, they were awesome live.

Great review man! :thumb:
The Crowing is such a fantastic song, if they only sold this album where i live... :upset:

I think I might prefer [i]Turbine Blade[/i] to this one, but I'll have to see.

Wow! Nothing like a thread coming back from the dead.

They seem to be getting bigger now, though. I was flipping the channels a few months ago and they had the "The Devil In Jersey City" video on MTV2's "Headbanger's Ball". Just last night, the video for "A Favor House Atlantic" was on the REAL MTV. It's almost frightening.

They're decent live. If you're looking for a band that nails the album absolutely perfect, you'll be disappointed. Claudio regularly shies from the microphone when he's playing and lets the crowd scream out for him, but he can still do the tight riffing while singing, too. I saw them a few weeks ago at the Troc in Philly and they did an encore jam of "Everything Evil" which was excellent.

And DFelon's right. The sound's much more diverse on this album. [I]SSTB[/I] had the same general feel to a lot of the songs which helped the album feel more like a one-sitting experience (even if the second track starts with a drum beat very reminiscient of ATDI). This album covers more ground. The Cheap Trick-esque "Blood Red Summer", the metallic "Al The Killer" and the pop-punkish "A Favor House Atlantic" are good tracks in their own right but none sound too out of place in the order of the album or in concern to the story.

Sorry to be shoveling a ton of praise on CoCa, but it seems that they're an accessable band. I have a friend who only listens to heavily-distorted hardcore, thinks Every Time I Die is "whiney" and only goes to shows to punch people in the face or spinkick a row of people and he digs them. I'm just spreading the love. :thumb:

Be careful when singing along to CoCa. My voice is noticably higher from singing along all the time. :S

Beautifully done man, beautifully done. CoCa is one of the greatest bands ever, and IKSSE:3 is one of the greatest albums of all time. I've only really been interested in CoCa for about 2 months, but I've already become a Hardcore fan and can't wait to see them on Warped Tour this year. Plus their gonna be selling (for the first time) the Comic-Book version of SSTB on the tour, and there isn't a chance in hell that I'm not gonna buy it.
BTW, your reviews you made on each track were perfect. I fell that same way about all of those songs. However, I'm not entirly sure if you were saying that you liked Three Evils and Blood Red Summer or not... personally, I love them both.

There was a video for one of their songs on MTV; I think it was "Favor House Atlantic." I was surprised by the light-heartedness and fun of the video because I thought this was another one of those high-concept indie bands that takes itself very seriously. Still, I was a bit annoyed by the singer's voice, not the kind of high-pitched that you'd find from Geddy Lee or Cedric Bixler, but slightly more of an AFI voice that I don't like.

Yeah that video caught me off guard, too. They're not so serious live. Their driver (?), an obese guy, came out to play the cowbell during "The Faint of Heart". They seem like another intense band with the lyrics and the music but they really just have fun live.

Besides, can you really be intimidated by a guy as big as Claudio when he sings that high?

Mabey...

I downloaded "Faint of Heart" off of WinMX, and it's a good song. I wanted "The Crowing" because the CDNow sample sounded intriguing.

I like this band. Their video shows they have a sense of humor (a must for bands I listen to), and even though they sound like emo, they have good guitar work. That's what makes them unique, and being unique is another big deal for me. Maybe I'll even buy this album, that's how good it sounds!

NOW I'm listening to "The Crowing," and it's great! I need more metal in my emo anyway (because I still don't like emo).

crap, i wanted to review this album.

coheed and cambria IMO are easily one of the best acts out there today. awesome album. it ranks as one of my favorites of all time

[QUOTE=KommieKanada]crap, i wanted to review this album.

coheed and cambria IMO are easily one of the best acts out there today. awesome album. it ranks as one of my favorites of all time[/QUOTE]


Same here i was just about too review it but then i found this one

[QUOTE=unknownsk8er88]Same here i was just about too review it but then i found this one[/QUOTE]
:lol: same here

This is my favorite band. I recently started hearing them a couple months ago. My friend introduced me to it. Once i heard A Favor House Atlantic and The Crowing i started liking Co&Ca. Then i heard this whole album and i could never stop listening to them.
Some of my other friend think it sucks but I dont give a sh*t what they say i like it and thats all that matters. I can't wait till i buy their first album this week. :thumb:

[SIZE=1]Coheed and Cambria rules![/SIZE]

great review. the first time i heard this band i wanted to hate them so much. but then they grew on me, Claudio's voice fits the music very well. he could have opted to just scream like so many other bands, but instead he uses his voice to its full potential making this band a cut above the rest. this is a group of amazingly talented musicians. the first cd is really good too. can't wait to see em live again.

Yeah I heard "Devil in Jersey City" from their last album when it came out and I couldn't STAND it but my friend recommended their new album when it came out and I've been hooked since. Sorry for beating you guys to the punch, but this review's been up since November. It's never a problem to submit your own reviews so long as they stay in the thread, though. I'm glad you all enjoyed.

Claudio is a respectable lyricist and guitarist. If you can get past the vocals, there's not much to dislike about the band unless you hate metal mixing with pop punk. I'm glad you're digging them, Wideload.

The Ring In Return scares the crap out of me. Other than that, this album is amazing. The lyrics are pretty good in most of the songs, and the riffs are catchy too

I love this album but when I saw them at Warped on thurs. I was really dissapointed. Maybe if Claudio got in better shape to tour they would be better live. He seems to lose his breath really easily while he is singing so he ends up only singing about 70% of the song. I am sorry to say that they had the worst performance at Warped. As for the album it gets a 11/10. If you want to check some good live check out either Flogging Molly or the masters of punk rock itself BAD RELIGION.

I bought the album of Amazon, as Interpunk doesn't seem to ship to Oman. It's really great, I hope to pick up SSTB this summer too.

if anyone here is curious about the story in the lyrics, i made a thread explaining them in the pop-punk forum

This is a really unique band, and I'd love to get the album eventually. Sort of like prog-emo or indie-metal. Or how about "emo but with good guitars and drums and also the lyrics are about something other than the singer's self-important personal problems!"

[QUOTE=RollerQueen]blasé*¡nd [/QUOTE]

whats that japanese letteR? anyways...very good cd, i like CoCa very much. the lead singers voice is cool

Great review, very descriptive. The one part I disagree with you on is your opinion on Faint of Hearts. I thought it was a great song, hilarious live (the RV driver was awesome!)
Oh well. I saw them live, and yes, Claudio does run out of breath a lot, but he plays some hard stuff while singing, so I can't really blame him (You know that palm-muted riff on Backend of Forever? That's Claudio playing!! And the harder riff on FoH and Everything Evil, too)

Other than that though, they were great live. In Keeping Secrets was awesome live, they had the crowd chanting along when they repeated the intro and everything. Blood Red Summer, I don't think one person wasn't singing along for that song, and the jam thing on Everything Evil was great! They're probably my favorite band right now, and one of my favorite bands of all time.

I liked SSTB more than this at first, but this album grew on me and now I can't stop listening to it. Plus the solo at the end of The Light in the Glass is amazing.

And the Favor House Atlantic video is probably my 2nd favorite of all time (Next to Weezer's Keep Fishin' video, of course)

I doubt I'll buy any Coheed album because I can't stand the voice, but I'll pick up his book when it's finished.