Quite a leap from The Cure, no? Both are equally brilliant though. Coheed are probably the ‘youngest’ band that’ll appear in these little features of mine, and they’re also the band I’ve known about for the shortest amount of time, yet, according to my last.fm, are up amongst my most listened to bands. Make of that what you will…

Even though the first album was released back in 2002, I only got introduced to Coheed in November 2007. I like my rhythm action video games. I’m all over stuff like Guitar Hero, Ouendan and Amplitude so I just had to import Rock Band. Fantastic game and it included the quite frankly epic, Welcome Home. I’d never heard it before, but I just couldn’t stop playing/listening to it. One of the most intriguing things about the song, was the voice. So with my interest piqued, I tore myself away from Rock Band and headed to Youtube to see and hear more…

Two hours later and I’m still trawling Youtube watching numerous live performances and just generally being amazed at how good they are live, and wondering how the hell I’d not heard of them until now. The next day I went out and bought all four albums, and I didn’t listen to much else for quite a long time.

At first, I just took the songs at face value and that’s fine, you know? You don’t always have to read into the lyrics, but to not do so to Coheed, is doing them a massive disservice. Not because the lyrics are deep and meaningful, or because they portray human emotion so well (that’s not to say some songs don’t), but because across the albums, you’re being told the story of The Armory Wars, written by lead singer Claudio Sanchez. This itself may not sound too interesting, but when you factor in his brilliant vocals, the amazing guitar work and the fantastic drumming, it all gels together to make it all ground breaking stuff. It certainly beats an audio book.

I don’t want to go too much into the story here as that’s not the point of the post, so I’ll just point you over to Wikipedia and Cobalt and Calcium if you want to read deeper into the story.

So, four albums. My personal favourite is the 2nd, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3. The title track is beyond epic. I remember watching live footage of it on Youtube and getting a shiver down my spine when that guitar riff kicks back in. I can happily say it felt just as good hearing it live for real a couple of weeks later. I’m finding it hard to put into words why I love the song. It’s the whole thing, the instruments, the shouts of “Man your own jackhammer!” the crescendo when you think the song is finished, the “Waiting for you to say… I love you too” line. It perfectly captures everything brilliant about Coheed and Cambria and condenses it all into one 8 minutes and 12 seconds epic track.

It also goes to show just how flexible they are too. It’s not all heavy guitars, shouting and progressive rock. Another personal favourite for me, from the 3rd album, is Wake Up. If it wasn’t for his instantly recognisable voice, you’d probably think it was a different band altogether. I could listen to it over and over and never get tired. Certain lines are just stupidly touching and tug at the heart strings.

“I’ll do anything for you
Kill anyone for you

So leave yourself intact
‘Cause I will be coming back
In a phrase to cut these lips
I love you”

It’s the way he delivers the ‘I love you’ line too, in fact all of the lines, it’s just so believable and listenable. See, I’m wanting to go into the back story now to explain the point of view that Claudio wrote the song from but I’m resisting, just. I just find it stunning how he can write it out to fit around the fictional characters yet people can still glean meaning from it themselves.

Devil In Jersey Cityand Everything Evil are two stand out tracks from Second Stage Turbine Blade, the 1st album. They follow each other and the story they both tell is rather twisted, but just goes to show the depth that Claudio and Co can write and perform at. I’ve resisted long enough, I’m going to delve into the story of Everything Evil (and ever so slightly into Devil In Jersey City).

If you listen to the beginning of the song, you can hear someone walking across a wooden porch, opening the door, and closing it behind them. This would be Josephine entering the Kilgannon home.

When she enters the house, she runs and throws up in the kitchen sink (after all, she just got raped, so she’s probably not doing so well). Her mother, Cambria, comes in and the two hug. Now Coheed (also not doing so well since he just killed his youngest children) enters, beckons for Josephine, and, when she approaches him, hits her on the head with a hammer. Now, Josephine’s fiancee, Patrick, follows Josephine in and witnesses this, and immediately retaliates back to his car and drives away. (Patrick and Josephine are the people in Devil In Jersey City).

Now, the Red Army (I realize that, by now, if you don’t know a thing about the story, you will be quite befuddled) invades the Kilgannon residence, and Mayo, the leader, tells Coheed that he has not completed his work since Claudio is not home (he’s been fooling around with his girlfriend, Newo, and quite lost track of time since he was supposed to be home be 2 a.m. and it is now past that time). Coheed asks what Mayo will do to Claud, and Mayo tells him to ask Cambria, who pretty much figures out Mayo’s entire plot, and she and Coheed wig out and kill a few soldiers before they’re shot by tranquilizers and hauled off.

Some members of the Red Army stay behind to drench the house in gasoline, and it is now that an Onstantine Priest enters the house and kills them before they can light the house on fire.

Claudio comes home, much too late, and finds Josephine’s body on the kitchen floor in a pool of her own blood. As he kneels beside her, his Crowing powers or whatever bring her back to life momentarily, and she explains her being raped, but not her death since she doesn’t really know she’s dead. Then, she tells Claudio to run and he sees the reflection of the Priest in her eyes, and she dies again (saying “Claudio… dear Claudio… you’ll make it if you believe). Claudio fights the Priest, then discovers he can walk through walls and can become invisible and gets the hell out of there.

Confused? I was. You don’t need to know all that, you can still listen to the song and enjoy it, but for me, part of the appeal is listening to the lyrics and being told the story. It’s not all laid out for you, some of it involves reading between the lines and filling in gaps but that’s great. It means each and every Coheed and Cambria fan will have little parts of the story individual to them. I far from know the full Armory Warsplot line, but maybe that’s why they have such an appeal to me? Each time I listen to them I’m learning more of the universe Claudio imagined. I’m involved in someone elses thoughts, and I’m able to interpret small parts of the story myself. It’s all involving and all encompassing.

I wish god damn it we’ll make it if you believe…

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