Band: Coheed & Cambria
Album: Second Stage Turbine Blade
Release Date: March 12th, 2002
Rush??? I don’t think so…
There have been a trillion mixed opinions about Coheed and Cambria. Some will whine about the genre (whether they know it or not) like there is no tomorrow. Some will claim that they are amazing progressive rock that shouldn’t be missed. But the others (like me) will just call them great music and worry about labels later.
Coheed and Cambria began a project in New Jersey under the original name “Shabutie”. Their goal as a band was to tell a story in the form of a Homeric Epic. A Homeric Epic is a long narrative poem, usually having to do with a male hero. These poems started in the 600B.C. times and those of you familiar with Greek Mythology, “The Odyssey” was a classic Homeric Epic. Well anyway, they played at the usual nightclub gigs and became famous in the underground scene. It wasn’t until their second album, “In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3” was released that they made it big.
Second Stage Turbine Blade is the bands first cd and it rocks. It combines pop/punk with acoustic and even throws in some metal elements. No pounding bass lines, just really fast paced songs with some screaming here and there. In my opinion, it’s the best album of 2002. So finally, here’s the review for…
Coheed & Cambria – Second Stage Turbine Blade
Second Stage Turbine Blade – This track is mainly an intro to the album. It’s just ambiance and its all distorted. What it is, is piano and strings and it lasts :48 seconds. There really isn’t much to say about this at all.
Time Consumer – This song starts of pretty slow. It has some pretty cool drum fills in the beginning, with noises. Then Claudio joins in. His voice carries the song nicely. As for most, this is the first time you’ll hear his voice. Don’t be creeped out by the pitch. You’ll get used to it as time moves on, you will learn to love it. Anyway, this song has a pretty simple guitar riff, but the real great thing about this track is the vocals. Claudio does and extremely good job here. In the bridge you hear the title repeated quite a few times. By the way, this is the first step in the world of CoCa. This song pretty much describes them. It’s really progressive, with some really good singing and drums. Anyway, as this track closes out, I’m left wanting for more. That’s a primarily good feeling now, because a great track is up next.
Devil In Jersey City – This helluva track starts up and you hear the words “Shabutie” giggled as the song begins. It’s a pretty misleading track because it’s like a child’s voice then tossed into heaviness. The verses in the song are adrenaline pumping while it slows down a little for the chorus. To put it in a sentence, this song is all about being out late and getting raped as your left helpless with your boyfriend knocked out. Well if you know the whole story, then you know what I’m talking about. Anyway, the chorus is “Don’t let them scare you, when you’re DOWN / On the floor bleeding. I swear, you’ll be home really soon.” As the bridge kicks in, there is some really light guitar. Then Claudio says some words and suddenly, there is tons of screaming that kicks in with the chorus being repeated over and over again. As quick as the song started, it fades out into our next track.
Everything Evil – This song starts of pretty slow. But Claudio is pretty much screaming in the silence, as the only noise is light guitar. There are seriously like, no instruments until a minute and a half in. Then the REAL song starts up. Some really great vocals provided by Claudio and swift guitar lead the chorus like piece of the song. Then it’s back to the slow [verse?] Sorry, this song really jumps around a lot. Anyway, as the song moves on, it gets heavier. If you know the story, this is when Coheed “Al – CaPWNs” Josephine with the hammer. As the song comes to it’s final run, you hear some pretty nice screaming with the really fast guitar behind it.
Delirium Trigger – This is probably the heaviest song on the album. It is loaded with screaming and deadly lyrics. This is a lovely repertoire of music but the song gradually moves into a slower paced track. But please, trust me that it doesn’t end like that. In the last :45 seconds the song comes back for an extreme meltdown. Claudio is literally screaming his heart out as the song hits it’s lovely conclusion and mends perfectly into the next track.
Hearshot Kid Disaster – This is a song that starts out with a cool guitar riff. Then Claudio gives an uneasy scream that kind of makes you shudder. It’s like a little girl after she dropped her ice-cream cone in the sand :p. Ahh, I cant bash Claudio on that because his screaming is pretty damn cool here. In the chorus, the vocals are at their best. In the middle the song slows down a lot and the guitar plays some of the coolest riffs I’ve ever heard. Then you hear the bassist screaming, “PLEASE MAKE IT STOPPPPP!!!!!!” This is a cool effect in the song. It makes it sound really epic (well, most CoCa songs sound this way). In the end, this is one of the better tracks on the album. I have no complaints here.
33 – This is one of my favorite songs on the album. It is really fast paced and the guitar riff is really awesome. It sounds like a frantic chase scene. This is CoCa playing pop/punk at their finest. Actually this song is about getting Patrick to the hospital after getting minorly owned by Coheed (disregard this comment if you don’t know what I’m saying). This is one of the shorter songs on the album, only coming in at about three minutes. As it ends, it leaves me wanting more of 33.
Junesong Provision – This track begins with some talking and then a soundbyte from the game “Dead To Rights”. This song is all about being dead and having a bunch of loose ends that you never tied up. It goes over the feeling of losing those you loved. This song is played in acoustic. The lyrics are really good, and when the plain guitar gets boring, you’ll hear some pretty random noises that come out of nowhere. This track is really beautiful and shows the other side of Coheed and Cambria. It shows that they are extremely talented musicians that could play pretty much everything they wanted to. The song ends and leaves you with a tingly feeling inside.
Neverender – This song starts off with some heavy metal guitar and really cool bass. The vocals are sang slow, but the guitar keeps it’s pace, even through all the slow vocals. This is not my favorite. It’s just kind of boring in my opinion. The slow vocals kind of ruin it. Well, the instruments are still great. The pinch-harmonic sounds really good in the chorus. It has that whine on the guitar that gives goose-bumps. As you hit the bridge, the vocals speed up a little. Claudio switches to yelling and it sounds good with the already cool instruments. I guess you could say towards the end, the song gets a lot better. As it fades away, we hit the final song on the album.
God Send Conspirator – It starts off fairly slow but picks up with the steady guitar pace that carries it. Claudio has some really cool points in this song. His vocals standout at certain parts of the song. At times, he’ll scream but five seconds later it’s a whisper. So I guess the vocal variation is really good here. The drums also standout more than usual in this song. The fills are stunning as the song hits its bridge and the guitar is louder than ever. Oh yeah, this song is twelve minutes long. Just kidding, well, sort of. Five minutes of it is music while the other Eight is piano and acoustic. The acoustic is played very well although it sounds just like Junesong Provision. I guess this is sort of like, an extra track.
Final Thoughts
- The vocals are really unique in Coheed and Cambria
- They sound a little like Rush.
- The whole album is conceptual, and the story is fantastic.
- Where is this band going next???
4.5/5
