Oh....Your.....God........
Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV:
Volume 1. From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness,
Follow-up to the Gold In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3,
"The Year's Most Fearless Rock Album" (The New York Times),
in Stores Tuesday, September 20
The intricate title of the third album from Coheed and Cambria, Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV: Volume 1. From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness, intimates the density and complexity of the music it contains. The LP (set for release Sept. 20) is the first to be recorded by the New York-based rock act since last year's signing with Columbia Records. Its predecessor, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 (originally released on indie Equal Vision), was recently certified gold by the RIAA following Coheed's dramatic breakout last year. The strikingly original band?Claudio Sanchez (vocals, guitar), Michael Todd (bass, backing vocals), Travis Stever (lead guitar, backing vocals) and Josh Eppard (drums, backing vocals, has generated a deep well of fanatical fans as well as across-the-board accolades by the press, so one might say that Coheed has set the bar extremely high for itself.
But fear not. The band's growth is mind-blowingly apparent on GAIBS4V1. With its staggering rock riffs, epic jams and catchy hooks, this is an album that's sure to open the ears of new fans while keeping the loyal flock genuflecting at Coheed's altar. "There's a lot of classic-rock influence on this record," Stever revealed recently to Alternative Press. "Pink Floyd, the Police, Black Sabbath?we all listened to this shit growing up. The old elements are still there; we're just evolving as a band."
The upcoming album is also the first half of the third installment of the band's daringly ambitious prog-rock/sci-fi opus recounting the exploits of young Claudio Kilgannon, who is out to avenge the death of his three siblings and parents (Coheed and Cambria). The saga began with the band's 2002 debut, Second Stage Turbine Blade, and will eventually end with a prequel, where the fans will find out how it really began. Not to be outdone by George Lucas, story creator Sanchez plans to someday make a movie from it all.
Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV: Volume 1 has a twist, though: This one steps outside the story and focuses on the writer of the tale, and how the goings-on in his own life affect the outcome of the story he's in the midst of telling. "With the past records, the story of Coheed and Cambria is very fictional," Sanchez recently explained to MTV News. "[Volume 1] takes you for kind of a loop, and we now see the story from the writer's perspective, and how the writer's reality is going to affect the outcome of the story. [This album] is probably the most personal Coheed record of them all. There will be songs about things that happen on a normal day for someone that drives them to a point of destroying something they love. And then, of course, there will be long epics that go back into the concept, and now we see it from the character's perspective and how the character takes dealing with the writer. It's like, 'Wow, none of this really exists. It's just a story and you have to do what the writer says.' It's going to be pretty interesting."
Preceding the new album will be a 32-page comic loosely based on Second Stage Turbine Blade and published by Sanchez's graphic-arts company, Evil Ink, with an initial run of 40,000. The provocative comic book will be featured at this summer's annual San Diego Comic Con, which will host a Coheed booth and a performance by the band. There will also be signings at L.A.'s Golden Apple, Bill Haley's Universe in New York and Chicago Comics. The year will culminate with the publication of a lavish, 112-page graphic novel encompassing the full Good Apollo...IV story.
The band's summer tour of the U.S. and Canada (dates below) will include three special shows in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago; during each, they'll play 40 minutes acoustically, following it with a full rock show. Coheed and Cambia will also appear at festivals in Japan and Europe, where they have rabid followings. On Aug. 6, they'll perform at the Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York's Central Park as part of the Summerstage Performance series, and they'll perform this fall at CMJ Music Marathon.
Coheed and Cambria's epic storytelling, majestically crafted songs, impeccably taut musicianship and intriguing personae have been dazzling the critics since word about the band's exploits first started spreading three years ago. The New York Times' Kelefeh Sanneh, who's championed the band from the getgo, called Silent Earth: 3, "the year's most fearless rock album," while noting that the group "draws from the grand, ornate tradition of progressive rock, but its songs are lean and fluid and (mostly) hummable." CMJ Music Monthly heralded the album as "a beautifully complicated chuck of heavy, filled with melodic-pop sentiment and heartfelt lyrics." Coheed was hailed in Alternative Press as the "#1 Band You Need to Know in 2004" and was singled out as Blender's "Next Big Thing" last year.
Volume 1. From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness,
Follow-up to the Gold In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3,
"The Year's Most Fearless Rock Album" (The New York Times),
in Stores Tuesday, September 20
The intricate title of the third album from Coheed and Cambria, Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV: Volume 1. From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness, intimates the density and complexity of the music it contains. The LP (set for release Sept. 20) is the first to be recorded by the New York-based rock act since last year's signing with Columbia Records. Its predecessor, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 (originally released on indie Equal Vision), was recently certified gold by the RIAA following Coheed's dramatic breakout last year. The strikingly original band?Claudio Sanchez (vocals, guitar), Michael Todd (bass, backing vocals), Travis Stever (lead guitar, backing vocals) and Josh Eppard (drums, backing vocals, has generated a deep well of fanatical fans as well as across-the-board accolades by the press, so one might say that Coheed has set the bar extremely high for itself.
But fear not. The band's growth is mind-blowingly apparent on GAIBS4V1. With its staggering rock riffs, epic jams and catchy hooks, this is an album that's sure to open the ears of new fans while keeping the loyal flock genuflecting at Coheed's altar. "There's a lot of classic-rock influence on this record," Stever revealed recently to Alternative Press. "Pink Floyd, the Police, Black Sabbath?we all listened to this shit growing up. The old elements are still there; we're just evolving as a band."
The upcoming album is also the first half of the third installment of the band's daringly ambitious prog-rock/sci-fi opus recounting the exploits of young Claudio Kilgannon, who is out to avenge the death of his three siblings and parents (Coheed and Cambria). The saga began with the band's 2002 debut, Second Stage Turbine Blade, and will eventually end with a prequel, where the fans will find out how it really began. Not to be outdone by George Lucas, story creator Sanchez plans to someday make a movie from it all.
Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV: Volume 1 has a twist, though: This one steps outside the story and focuses on the writer of the tale, and how the goings-on in his own life affect the outcome of the story he's in the midst of telling. "With the past records, the story of Coheed and Cambria is very fictional," Sanchez recently explained to MTV News. "[Volume 1] takes you for kind of a loop, and we now see the story from the writer's perspective, and how the writer's reality is going to affect the outcome of the story. [This album] is probably the most personal Coheed record of them all. There will be songs about things that happen on a normal day for someone that drives them to a point of destroying something they love. And then, of course, there will be long epics that go back into the concept, and now we see it from the character's perspective and how the character takes dealing with the writer. It's like, 'Wow, none of this really exists. It's just a story and you have to do what the writer says.' It's going to be pretty interesting."
Preceding the new album will be a 32-page comic loosely based on Second Stage Turbine Blade and published by Sanchez's graphic-arts company, Evil Ink, with an initial run of 40,000. The provocative comic book will be featured at this summer's annual San Diego Comic Con, which will host a Coheed booth and a performance by the band. There will also be signings at L.A.'s Golden Apple, Bill Haley's Universe in New York and Chicago Comics. The year will culminate with the publication of a lavish, 112-page graphic novel encompassing the full Good Apollo...IV story.
The band's summer tour of the U.S. and Canada (dates below) will include three special shows in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago; during each, they'll play 40 minutes acoustically, following it with a full rock show. Coheed and Cambia will also appear at festivals in Japan and Europe, where they have rabid followings. On Aug. 6, they'll perform at the Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York's Central Park as part of the Summerstage Performance series, and they'll perform this fall at CMJ Music Marathon.
Coheed and Cambria's epic storytelling, majestically crafted songs, impeccably taut musicianship and intriguing personae have been dazzling the critics since word about the band's exploits first started spreading three years ago. The New York Times' Kelefeh Sanneh, who's championed the band from the getgo, called Silent Earth: 3, "the year's most fearless rock album," while noting that the group "draws from the grand, ornate tradition of progressive rock, but its songs are lean and fluid and (mostly) hummable." CMJ Music Monthly heralded the album as "a beautifully complicated chuck of heavy, filled with melodic-pop sentiment and heartfelt lyrics." Coheed was hailed in Alternative Press as the "#1 Band You Need to Know in 2004" and was singled out as Blender's "Next Big Thing" last year.