GOOD APOLLO, I'M BURNING STAR IV, VOLUME ONE - FROM FEAR THROUGH THE EYES OF MADNESS

Coheed And Cambria is a group that is profoundly influenced by Science Fiction space operas, Progressive Rock,80's metal, 70s classic Rock and various guitar hero tropes (frontman Claudio Sanchez plays a double necked Gibson using his teeth and behind his back, without a shred of irony.)

Sounds like Progarchives wet dream right? Well there is a catch: C&C's music is also heavily based on a layer of pop. Indeed, in many cases their sound is interchangeable to the Post-Grunge sound that was so lucrative trough the 00's. On their latest albums the Punk sound is long since abandoned, but early in their career, songs like "A Favor House Atlantic" gained them a strong fanbase among Emo's and created some serious split personality problems on their records.

Beginning with this record i think Coheed And Cambria began to reassess their earlier Punk sound into something much more integral. There is nothing inherently wrong with mixing Prog with a more commercial genre of music, as long as the latter does not encroach on the former. King Crimsons experiments with New Wave from 1980 and onward are just as appreciated as anything before that by most fans. The newfound complexity in C&C's music is brilliantly showcased in the opening, where the ice cold strings of "Keeping The Blade" is contrasted with the warm classical guitar of "Always And Never". We are then thrown headfirst into the thundering metal tune "Welcome Home" wich features some serious guitar. The rest of the album consists of extremely solid hard rock tunes (and one ballad) with special mention going to "Ten Speed (Of Gods Blood And Burial)", "Apollo 1 The Writing Writer" and "Mother May I". This is both the albums strong and weak point. Strong, because these are some superbly written and performed rock songs and weak because are not superbly written and performed PROGRESSIVE rock songs. The Prog returns first on the ending suite "The Willing Well" and it delivers. All four of the songs except "The Final Cut" have a strong Rush influence and make good use of shifting time signatures and polyrythms. "The Final Cut" is a guitar showcase where Sanchez and Stever duel against eachother and it is amazing. To summarize, "Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness" was not the greatest prog album of 2005 (That title goes to The Mars Voltas "Frances The Mute") and it was not even the greatest Alt Rock/Metal album of 2005 (both Strapping Young Lad and System Of A Down released far superior albums that year) but it is such a well written and memorable album that i must give it 5 stars anyway. Recommended for classic rock fans and new ones alike.