Coheed and Cambria - "Year of the Black Rainbow"

Coheed and Cambria - Year of the Black Rainbow

2010, Sony

1. One

2. The Broken

3. Guns of Summer

4. Here We Are Juggernaut

5. Far

6. This Shattered Symphony

7. World of Lines

8. Made Out of Nothing (All That I Am)

9. Pearl of the Stars

10. In the Flame of Error

11. When Skeletons Live

12. The Black Rainbow

I feel like I'm writing this a little prematurely. I like to really explore a new disc and make sure that before I review it that I've soaked in it enough. Mainly that's because sometimes my opinion changes between the first listen and the fifth. I've listened to Year three times so far and, thankfully, more will be on the way. My first impression was that the hooks are a little more buried here. Whereas No World For Tomorrow had a bit tighter focus and more obvious hooks you'll have to work a little to get the hooks here. Though that's not really much of a stretch as Coheed CDs almost always tend to be growers. The other thing I've noticed is that while there's lots of cool riffs and progressive elements there's not much in the way of bouncy radio hits like "A Favor House Atlantic" or "The Suffering." "Far" comes the closest but you won't pick up on it the first few listens. "Here We Are Juggernaut," one of my favorite tracks is a monster tune with a great hook and lots of emotion. My ears also perked up during "Pearl of the Stars" because it's really different from anything the band has done before but still retains the Coheed sound. I've also noticed that vocalist Claudio Sanchez seems to be singing in a lower register - I don't think that's really bad, just an observation. I can't say I like this more than the Good Apollo discs but it's still a worthy addition to the Coheed discography.

Useless Fact: This disc is actually a prequal to the story contained within the first four albums. Still don't know what the heck it's about. There is also a deluxe edition of this album that includes a 300-some-odd page book written by Claudio Sanchez and comic/weird Star Trek book writer Peter David.