Coheed and Cambria - Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness
Released Sept. 20, 2005
on Columbia/Sony
Coheed and Cambria’s progressive rock albums serve as an outlet for the fanciful, epic stories born in the mind of front man Claudio Sanchez.
The lyrics on Good Apollo continue with the saga detailed throughout the band’s first two albums, an intergalactic tale involving a doomed married couple, their children and the fate of humanity.
The band even released a 116-page graphic novel to accompany the CD and further explain the complicated plot, adding to Sanchez’s Bag On Line Adventures comic book series.
Even if you ignore the whole science-fiction aspect of the ambitious band, the songs are well crafted and often both technical and catchy. The music on the album is just as dramatic and detailed as the story, using more strings, keyboards and references to classic rock than before.
I’ve seen Coheed and Cambria three times, one of which they played a double set. I’ll admit that when I bought a ticket for the Tampa date of the band’s upcoming headlining tour, I was more excited about the opening bands: The Blood Brothers, Dredg and mewithoutYou. But it seems that this time around, Coheed is finally taking its grand ideas to the stage for a show worth sticking around for.
In an article on MTV News last month, Sanchez revealed that for this tour the stage show will reflect the storyline:
We’re incorporating set pieces from the graphic novel…We have this huge guillotine with these wings that are going to unfold as the show goes on, outward — kind of like a vampire would. And the blade will come down. It’s going to be awesome.The tour kicks off tomorrow in Atlantic City, N.J., and wraps up on Nov. 17.