Review: Coheed and Cambria's Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV

Yes, the singer is a guy. I know, it confused me too at first. Moving on…

Concept albums are nothing new, musical theatre done on the small scale in the studio. Winger, Rush, Pink Floyd, to name a scant few are all architects of such works. Coheed and Cambria’s Good Apollo (full name Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume I: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness) is also a concept album, but there’s a bit more to it that makes Coheed a unique presence in the musical world; not content with making concept albums, they have embarked on a concept career, with each of their albums telling a different chapter in a vast, overarching sci-fi story penned by lead vocalist, guitarist, and part-time wookie Claudio Sanchez. It gets a little confusing, and I’ll address the lyrical aspects last.

Musically, Coheed and Cambria isn’t progressive, but there’s much more complexity than a cut-and-paste rock and roll ensemble to be found. The way the guitars and bass interact is like the four-part chorale writings from the likes of Bach, with massive chords being played across all three instruments to create a sound not unlike the depth found in classical music. Very rarely will any one song be a sequential power chord chug, seventh and ninth and thirteenth chords in most every imaginable inversion and variation will be found, thanks in part to the constantly energetic, sometimes hyperactive bass, and constant two-guitar counterpoint riffage. The music flows effortlessly through keys, through time signatures, and vocal melodies that never feel juxtaposed against the instrumentation. All in all, the music is very deliberately constructed. Every note has a specific place and a reason for being there

Across the soundscape of Good Apollo we are shown their proficiency in numerous styles of rock, from the metal-tinged Welcome Home, a crushing, sinister, hateful symphony to the radio rock friendly The Suffering. There’s the tender, beautiful, soulful ballad Wake Up, and the thirty-six minute long suite of songs called The Willing Well that ends the album. If you’re looking for some consistently skilled, polished-to-hell rock, you will find it here. I could go for pages about the intricacies to be found in each of the songs, for there is a staggering amount of shit happening here, but I will move on to the lyrics.

First off, don’t try to understand them. Nobody understands them, not really. Claudio’s sci-fi story is a giant allegory for his personal life, and the events therein are meta upon meta upon meta. Thematically, the album is about Claudio’s girlfriend leaving him, and this really pissed him off, because Good Apollo is an extremely dark, extremely bitter and violent and hate filled album. So he put himself into his story, as ‘The Writer’, an omnipotent god-figure who writes the story of the people in the universe (I told you it was meta), gave The Writer a horrible, unfaithful liar of a girlfriend, and sat back as The Writer killed her over and over again. This is where the lyrics get their twofold strength

Firstly, the songs are so impossible to understand, and there’s no way for a casual listener to know what context within the very confusing story a particular song is written in. Therefore, every song means whatever you think it means. Any listener can take any song from the album and make its words fit their life, or their situation however they wish.

Secondly, the words are very emotionally charged, and the writing is verbose, yes, but only for the sake of subtly layering narrator and scene into the limitations of verse-chorus song structure. It’s a deeply confessional album of hurt and anger and violence and vengeance written by a very hurt and very angry man who didn’t want to admit his own injuries, so he gave his voice to his characters. Because of this form of expression, all the extremes are brought to light. These characters don’t weep over lost love, they kill the bitch with a shovel, hate, poison, writhe and scream. No subtlety here, only raw power in these words.

It’s very difficult to write about this album that I am a great fan of without sounding like I’m gushing, but I really think it’s that good. There’s always some new little thing to discover each time through, and it’s quite simply some very balls out rocking. His voice takes some getting used to, but if you’re willing to give Coheed and Cambria a shot, you’ll discover a quartet of dedicated, talented musicians.