One thing I have always liked about Coheed is their dedication to making an album that tells a story. This is something that bands just don't do a whole lot anymore. It is often difficult to listen to their songs without the rest of the album. I will admit I have not been a dedicated Coheed fan through the years. I could not tell you the story of the Armory Wars that the band's songs tell the story of, but I have always admired the band's dedication to a concept throughout their entire body of work and their ability to mix it up despite this dedication.
I had been meaning to check out this new album as I had been drawn to some of their stuff in the past, but kept forgetting to. I was in my A&R class one day a couple weeks ago and the subject of this album came up. A number of the students started commenting negatively on it, saying that it was the weakest album that they released to date and that they prefer the older stuff. The same stuff people like to say about new material that comes from many bands now days. I decided to check it out, for real this time. So, I added it to my offline Spotify playlist, and when I boarded the Megabus from Nashville to Knoxville this weekend, I started listening.
My personal opinion of this album is that it is awesome. There is the whole space theme and spoken word segments reminiscent of post-rock,and there is also the signature Coheed "epicness." Dynamically speaking, the album has all the highs and lows that it needs to take you on a journey, just as all of their other albums do. I'll admit, lead singer Claudio Sanchez's vocal style isn't the style I usually gravitate towards. That being said, it works perfectly with their hard hitting progressive rock style with metal tendencies. Basically, you need to check out this album, and I will go out on a limb and say that you also need to check out the second half of the release, "The Afterman: Descension", when it comes out in February 2013.
-Cory
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