Year of the Black Rainbow

Coheed and Cambria have always been a band that I enjoyed. The Second Stage Turbine Blade was an album that I listened to a lot in 2002-3, which got me into the band and i've stuck by them although they have seemed to be trapped in the same sound for the passed three albums...until now. I'll admit, I've never followed the story much, and although I eat up conceptual music, I just like Coheed's music more because it's fun.

One thing that bothered me about the band's progression, or lack thereof, was the fact that although I didn't follow the album's storylines as closely as many others, I still felt the music was a terrible translation of the story and setting of the story. Pop rock songs, pop punk songs, the longer progressive ballads, and a few shout outs to Pink Floyd never really made me think of epic spaceship battles.

Finally, on the new record, Year of the Black Rainbow, the band has found some kind of fitting atmosphere. Claudio has finally purchased a delay pedal, and it sounds like the band gained a synthesizer player. All the music on this CD, besides one or two complete classic older sounding Coheed songs sound legitimately dark, nearly psi-fi-esque, and dedicated to a potential storyline with a setting in outer space.

Not only that, but the band just sounds HUGE on this CD. It might be due to the great Joe Baressi producing it, but this just sounds like a new mature, and confident Coheed and Cambria. There are at times TONS of layers going on in the songs, and I love the use of synthetic beats over the more melodic songs.

Lastly, Chris Penne's presence in this band is not a subtle one. Not only are the drums fantastic on this record, but he has seemed to have made the bassist much better as well. There are a slew of awesome drum/bass grooves throughout the songs. Penne knows just when to go nuts, or when to go more straight forward.

Overall, this is a great record for Coheed and one that definitely surprised me. I was expecting them to write yet another album that sounded exactly like the last ones, and then I would inevitably grow out of them. Luckily, it seemed like the band has progressed in the right directions for me. As for others who might be actual hardcore Coheed fans, they'll probably be upset with this disc.