IN KEEPING SECRETS OF SILENT EARTH: 3

Punk meets Prog? Maybe, but the result is fantastic.

Coheed and Cambria create here a dark atmosphere through the entire album. No song is "bad." By virtue of that, however, In Keeping Secrets of The Silent Earth: 3 is by no means a "Masterpiece of Progressive Music." Nice, catchy melodies and riffs combined with a rich, comic book-esque story line makes for a lot of music geek factor, but not a monstrous prog feeling. The prog feeling comes and goes. While songs like The Title Track and"The Crowing" Coheed and Cambria seem to be stepping out of the "Van's Warped Tour" fan base's music--- striving for something more. Easy to listen to songs, like "Blood Red Summer" and "A Favor House Atlantic" are very accessible- not always a bad thing-- but they get boring. As I mentioned, no song is bad, but no song is a true masterpiece of prog either. This is a nice, well written album with few flaws, but it falls short of the masterpieces of the year (De-Loused, To Watch the Storms, etc...)

Anywhere else, this album gets 5 stars. But ranking it on the basis of a prog necessity, it can't get any more than 4. The brilliant moments come and go, but the album holds strong when heard together. Far from a prog masterpiece, but definitely a nice addition.