(The following is a pretty silly tale about how I think silly things about things and these silly things get turned around by other silly things. Although it was a fairly silly adventure, it was a life experience that, in the end, turned out to be more worthwhile than silly.)
My crazy fangirlism for progressive rock band Coheed and Cambria started in 2004, when one of my high school friends had introduced me to a variety of random music while I gave her rides home from work. At first I was completely put off by lead singer and mastermind Claudio Sanchez's unique singing voice and songwriting style, but then it started to grow on me. Yes, I became quite addicted to this music. I had never really felt any sort of attachment to anything fictional prior to this. Yet, this music, and the storyline within, held something of more significance than just words and sounds juxtaposed together into something recognizable.
I simply had to find out more.
One day, I decided to venture forth on an epic journey through the vast reaches of the Internet to gather more information on the wonders of the music of Coheed and Cambria. It was then I confirmed my suspicions about Coheed and Cambria's music. This music was more than just music; it was also the basis for a science-fiction storyline that was to be published as a series of comic books and novels.
Claudio Sanchez is a flipping genius, I thought to myself.
Prior to this I had never imagined anyone who could successfully translate a story, and more importantly a concept of a universe, from a musical-based format to a graphic-based one. (Of course, I was young then, and didn't understand the workings of the world. Maybe if I had a bit more imagination and like, thirty times more faith in the minds of modern artists...) The barriers that previously existed in my mind had shattered at that moment, and I would never look at music the same again.
From what I had gathered, each album corresponds to either a series of comics (for example, Second Stage Turbine Blade), or with a novel (Year of the Black Rainbow). I'm not going to bore anyone with the gritty details regarding the entire plot, but the musical, written, and graphic forms detail the trials of the Kilgannon family and the other denizens of the fictional universe of Heaven's Fence. It's an adventure that goes beyond the music and into the depths of the imagination. If you're looking for a different twist of science-fiction, you definitely won't regret checking this out.
If I've piqued anyone's curiosity, I'm fairly certain you can satisfy that by visiting:
http://theamorywars.com
http://coheedandcambria.com
Thanks for posting this. It seems I need to down load some of their songs.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome.
ReplyDeleteThat said, as a little bit of a warning/disclaimer/whatever, it's quite a leap from anything else I have in my playlist (well, Mars Volta is probably the closest thing that I have). His voice is a bit... girly. And the lyrics might be a little bit explicit at times. It's definitely not something for the easily offended or very young I would think.
I did forget to mention that Claudio has a small side project going. It's called The Prize Fighter Inferno and through that he tells the story from the perspective of a different character in the series (Jesse, also known as Inferno). Musically, it's more electronic-sounding.