Coheed And Cambria - The Second Stage Turbine Blade
You can't really review the first Coheed And Cambria release without first addressing the vocals. This has to be one of the most polarizing lead singers in recent memory. If you took the effeminate, high register vocals of Geddy Lee from Rush and combined them with the high pitched vocal dynamics of Jeremy Enigk of Sunny Day Real Estate you're starting to get the picture. So this is definitely a love 'em or hate 'em type of vocals but they fit the songs well and judging from their subsequent success apparently more people like it than not.
So once you get past the vocals there's actually a lot to like about this watershed release as it still stands in stark contrast to many of their peers even three years later. Coheed and Cambria really pioneered the genre of emo epics, long multi-part songs laced with many different cross genre elements with prog and metal being two big ones. As such, most of the songs here are fashioned much like classical music with several different movements comprising a song. This sounds ambitious and it is. In the hands of a lesser band this would simply fall apart but these guys had all done time in various hardcore bands before starting this one so the musicianship is top notch.
As for their sound, they typically start off with a slow, off tempo prog rock opening before settling into the more standard mid paced muted metal down stroking that makes up much of the songs. But even this can be unconventional in the hands of this band as they mix in plenty of catchy rock riffs and stuttering starts and stops to keep you on your toes. Towards the end of the songs you can feel the tension mount as they build, both musically and vocally, into stunning cathartic crescendos that literally leave you spellbound. This is where the vocals and the denser, metal sound of the guitars really pay off as any other approach would not even come close to matching the intensity of the powerful passages found throughout this release. That's the core of their approach but there are little flourishes here and there, mainly piano and keyboards, that give it a bit more layered sound than the typical emo band but it's really the innovative songwriting and vocals that propel this album into the top ranks.
This release definitely marked the start of great things to come but this album is great in its own right regardless of the commercial success they found on later albums, especially because the song lengths on this one still hover around the five minute mark versus the sometimes overly long songs on later albums. Either way this is a must have release for people looking for innovative emo.
So once you get past the vocals there's actually a lot to like about this watershed release as it still stands in stark contrast to many of their peers even three years later. Coheed and Cambria really pioneered the genre of emo epics, long multi-part songs laced with many different cross genre elements with prog and metal being two big ones. As such, most of the songs here are fashioned much like classical music with several different movements comprising a song. This sounds ambitious and it is. In the hands of a lesser band this would simply fall apart but these guys had all done time in various hardcore bands before starting this one so the musicianship is top notch.
As for their sound, they typically start off with a slow, off tempo prog rock opening before settling into the more standard mid paced muted metal down stroking that makes up much of the songs. But even this can be unconventional in the hands of this band as they mix in plenty of catchy rock riffs and stuttering starts and stops to keep you on your toes. Towards the end of the songs you can feel the tension mount as they build, both musically and vocally, into stunning cathartic crescendos that literally leave you spellbound. This is where the vocals and the denser, metal sound of the guitars really pay off as any other approach would not even come close to matching the intensity of the powerful passages found throughout this release. That's the core of their approach but there are little flourishes here and there, mainly piano and keyboards, that give it a bit more layered sound than the typical emo band but it's really the innovative songwriting and vocals that propel this album into the top ranks.
This release definitely marked the start of great things to come but this album is great in its own right regardless of the commercial success they found on later albums, especially because the song lengths on this one still hover around the five minute mark versus the sometimes overly long songs on later albums. Either way this is a must have release for people looking for innovative emo.
