The Afterman
I've always wanted to take the time to delve into Coheed and Cambria's album, The Afterman. Surprise, surprise! This double-album follows Claudio Sanchez' Amory Wars storyline. However, what is the actual concept behind this album – that is something I have never truly and fully understood. To delve into this, I found a digital copy of the “coffee table book” provided with the deluxe version of the CD.
In brief, the album is about Sirius Amory going beyond Heaven's Fence and exploring the keywork, the “blazing sapphire light” and “glowing beams that envelop the worlds of Heaven's Fence”. The sapphire light connected by the 7 Stars of Sirius and holding the 78 worlds in position. Purpose being to “unlock the mysteries of humankind”. What he finds in his journey instead is the afterlife for departed souls. A high-level song by song summary of the concept is as follows. |
| 1 | Coheed and Cambria
The Hollow
The name of the song is derived from the fog that accumulates in the bottom portion of of Meriwell, Sirius' spacecraft. The song is about “the feeling of anxiety about not wanting to head out into a great new world alone” - wondering if the keywork will incinerate him and fearing “could this be his final breath”. The spacecraft's computer, All Mother, tracks his vitals and talks to Sirius as he walks out of the spacecraft into the Keywork. |
| 2 | Key Entity Extraction I: Domino the Destitute
Once floating in the “wondrous blue”, an eerie whisper appears that enters his subconscious, and he views human shapes squirming within the blue haze. All Mother analyzes and determines that these are human souls. Domino, a hopeless soul, possesses Sirius – both find themselves in a “vast maze” of torment. Domino takes him through his personal decline and ultimate suicide, with Sirius finally “severing the possession”. Domino's scream, as channeled via All Mother, causes the spacecraft to explode in space, leaving Sirius stranded in the Keywork. |
| 3 | The Afterman
Sirius's wife, Meri, finds out through a news blast that Sirius is feared dead due to the explosion. She chooses to remain in disbelief and awaits Sirius “to defy the odds again, like he always does, and return home”. |
| 4 | Mothers of Men
Sirius deduces that “an individual's persona in life, echoes as positive or negative energy in death” within the keywork beams. The keywork, due to both positive and negative energy, sows unrest as souls yearn for individualism and are angered due to this eternal co-existence. This results in the creation of “The Mono”, a mundane monochromatic purgatory where prior lives continue to play out. Sirius explores “The Mono”, finding that it can be peeled away yielding a perfect Utopia beyond of “full, stunning color”. |
| 5 | Goodnight, Fair Lady
This song is named after a “low-key pub” where Meri visits, thwarts a local lowlife perp, and meets her future love interest. |
| 6 | Key Entity Extraction II: Holly Wood the Cracked
second entity ensnares Sirius. Holly, a “wannabe starlet”, reveals her memories of idolizing, trailing, and ultimately murdering her adored celebrity idol (Madame Crisis Maroe). Before Sirius can escape, a new/third entity arrives. |
| 7 | Key Entity Extraction III: Vic the Butcher
Vic, a megalomaniac army lieutenant general, ensnares Sirius. Viewing heinous war crimes in the past, Sirius finally witnesses the “true epitome of Vic's terrible crimes”. This includes burning down a building with Vic, his wife, and “hundreds of other residents and a nursery school” to the ground. Sirius, co-existing with Vic, won't light the fire in the memory – enraging Vic. All Mother notes Sirius' waning vital signs. |
| 8 | Key Entity Extraction IV: Evagria the Faithful
Sirius is rescued by a truly good soul from the Utopia (an incomprehensible “second level of the afterlife, where everything is ideal and incredibly peaceful”). Evagria shares with Sirius her “strong and caring” life, her acts to “bring people together through compassion”, and her lamented death. |
| 9 | Subtraction
Sirius achieves clarity, realizes a deep absence for his wife Meri, and questions that, should he die, his maze would “lead up to the moment he deserted his wife?” Further, the keywork is more understood: one level of consciousness “allowing unresolved souls to exist eternally within a bland maze that echoes their living energy”; and a second level of consciousness (Utopia) for “enlightened souls who transcend the maze”. |
| 10 | Pretelethal
As Sirius is held in the “safety net of Evagria”; Domino, Holly, and Vic are “clawing at her light” and “trying to break through her to get to Sirius” who can help free them. Sirius becomes “too weak to retaliate” and the “walls are closing in”. Evagria's energy begins to fade. |
| 11 | Key Entity Extraction V: Sentry the Defiant
Sentry, one of Vic's victums, enters the fray to save Sirius. Sentry merges with Sirius's body, which “provides him sustenance” allowing Sirius to become strong. Sentry and Vic fight. Sirius finds the traumatic memory in Sentry of being hanged by Vic, and attempts to convince Sentry to “stop fighting back and to let go of this worldly grudge”. Upon Sentry understanding that “this moment does not define you”, Sentry becomes enveloped in light and crosses over to Utopia. Evagria consumes Sirius again, moving him from the three entities, and shows him “the way out” of the keywork. Upon leaving, it has been 547 days (although only a week in his mind). All Mother plots their course back to the Morlunus Space Station and Sirius subsequently returns to his home planet to share his story. |
| 12 | The Hard Sell
Upon discussion with a mentor and the Prise; Sirius decides to “keep that truth to himself” and instead, during a press conference, describes the “energy of the keywork and its relationship to the colony”. His mission earns him the “first of an award created in his name” The Amory Award”. |
| 13 | Number City
Sirius and his wife Meri are involved in a car accident, where both are “ejected from the vehicle”. Although Sirius is “knocked nearly unconscious and is in critical condition”; Meri took the “much harder hit” and “her heart stops”. |
| 14 | Gravity's Union
This track reveals the prior discussion between Sirius and Meri where, due to Sirius' prolonged absence and assumed death, Meri has moved on. Although Meri loves Sirius and is proud of him, she has “cultivated a relationship with Colten”, from the bar, and is 3 months pregnant. At the hospital, Meri suffers a miscarriage. |
| 15 | Away We Go
Meri passes away. But before she dies, and between “unconsciousness and cognizance”, she has a single fluid experience where she relives one of her first meetings with Sirius. A “warm glow begins to emit from Sirius' mouth” before he disappears and she takes her “first step into the maze” (the Mono). |
| 16 | Iron Fist
Sirius leaves the hospital and is devastated. He laments that he did not put Meri first and give her “the child she always wanted”. “He realizes that none of the things he's accomplished matter as much to him as Meri”. |
| 17 | Dark Side of Me
Sirius realizes that he has remained “an island his entire life” and “kept Meri at arm's length”. He is confronted by Colton, who asks him “Why” and states that “if you loved her, you would've stayed up there” and “would have let her go”. All Sirus can do is shout “I'm Sorry” over and over. |
| 18 | 2's My Favorite 1
2's my Favorite 1: Sirius returns with All Mother in a new spacecraft to the keywork. He returns to “locate his wife”, “give his wife what he couldn't in life”, and “help her transcend” to Utopia. To Sirius, this is what love is. |
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