A new Coheed and Cambria album came out earlier this week. Year of the Black Rainbow is the band's fifth studio effort as part of their sci-fi cycle, The Armory Wars, an entire concept discography (giant leaps beyond a mere concept album). The band brings an intriguing and entertaining record this time.
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**The next paragraph is for Coheed fans, or people interested in a small band history lesson. Skip to the next paragraph for more review of the album.**
The album serves as a story prequel to their other albums, and as such sparked my curiosity about what direction their sound has taken. The style of music, production, feeling, and attitude of their music has evolved significantly from their debut (Second Stage Turbine Blade, the second chapter in the series) to their second most recent release (No World For Tomorrow, the final chapter). I expected their sound to be much more reminiscent of SSTB because of the story proximity. I have long suspected that the end product of The Armory Wars would be an epic, sprawling box set to be listened to start to finish. If this were the band's intent you would expect the music to make a sensible arc. Black Rainbow throws that idea right out the window. The sound of the album is a logical (and predictable) progression of their sound, expanding upon sonic and stylistic themes they've built over the previous four albums. It in no particular way resembles any precursor to SSTB. I would say that it actually least resembles SSTB of all of their albums.
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Black Rainbow is a deeply layered and sonically vast album. The sound sprawls underneath heavy guitar riffs and Claudio Sanchez's characteristic high, pleasingly harmonic vocals. Coheed and Cambria return to their idiosyncratic musical style, but with twists and turns slightly different from previous albums. There is a more apparent blend of hard and soft, metal and pop through this album. To be more exact, there is a seemingly deliberate ebb and flow throughout. It took me a number of listens to pinpoint, but the balance adds a lot to this record.
Upon first listening to Black Rainbow I found myself tremendously unimpressed. Initially it sounds like the previous couple albums cut and pasted into a new environment. There aren't any stand out gems that had me headbanging in my car. There were passages through the middle and end of the album that even made me want to skip back and listen to the extremely catchy second act again (including "Guns of Summer" and the lead single "Here We Are Juggernaut").
However, I've had the album spinning non-stop at home, in the car, and on my mp3 player since Tuesday and it's growing on me with every go around. After the second listen I began humming along with some standout phrases. Immediately I identified "Guns of Summer" and "World of Lines" as great tracks. The former bringing a more progressive metal sound, the latter a more straight-forward pop influenced hard rock song complete with a sing-along chorus.
As I kept listening I realized that there are a handful of sing-along choruses here. There's enough power and energy to give rise to anthemic moments which are more catchy every time I hear them. The fun and poppy "When Skeleton's Live" and the heavier single "Here We Are Juggernaut" are the notable choruses. Coheed also returns to their unconventional take on ballads with "Pearl of the Stars" which is a listenable song, but aside from a great melodic-bluesy solo, not particularly impressive.
The most impressive feature of the album for me is Chris Pennie's drumming. I love the range of sound and tight, technical grooves that he put down here, his debut record with Coheed. The overall instrumentation of the album is impressive, and the production is great. My biggest beef with the overall sound is that it is somewhat inaccessible. I had to listen through the album before the music started to unfold for me. I appreciate the album now that I've gotten into it, but a lot of listeners will never give this album the time it needs to develop.
Another problem that I have with the album is that while it is a good album, and possibly the first Coheed album that doesn't have a lackluster track that I regularly skip through, it doesn't have any mindblowing songs. No individual track can hold a candle to tracks from their previous efforts. There's an abscence of an accessible radio/MTV-friendly hit, i.e. "A Favor House Atlantic". There's no epic on the level of "In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth:3" or "Welcome Home". Only time and a dozen more listens will tell if it can stand up as an entire album despite missing a standout single.
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The skinny:
* Pros: Technically impressive, excellent balance, well produced, growing on me slowly
* Cons: No amazing individual moments, moving farther from Second Stage Turbine Blade
Make an Assessment:
For me, being a Coheed fan, this is a great album with some flaws. I don't know how long this album took to write, but I wish they would have put more time into this record overall. Knowing how talented this band is, and listening to their sound mature for the past four albums, I expected to be more impressed. If you don't like previous Coheed albums this one won't change your mind. However, if you are a fan this is definitely worth buying. At the rate that I'm catching on to it in six months it might even be my favorite Coheed album.
Overall Review Score:
* Grade: B
* Score: 83% (and rising)
* If it were a movie: ★★★★
* My Feelings: "The truth is relevant, but not for looooooooong."
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