IN KEEPING SECRETS OF SILENT EARTH - 3

First there was Yes, followed by Rush, then came Dream Theater, and now Coheed and Cambria.

It seems like each decade has it's high-pitched-heavy prog to add to the mix, and here we find the next step. Like it or not, where Yes fused with psychadelia, Rush fused with rock, Dream Theater fused with metal, C&C have fused with Emo and punk, and it's quite a mix. All in all the album has soundscapes reminicent of the modern music of the new millenium, with with a flavor of the good old stuff. Amung the mix is some great tracks, KEEPING SECRETS... itself is a powerhouse that clocks at 8 minutes, and while the bulk of the remaining tracks sit clamly at 3-4 minutes, the pseudo-epic VELOURIUM CAMPER takes up a nice 15 minutes in it's entirety (I just wish it was one track, not 3). the latter mentioned track is also the album's standout, well constructed with a nice amount of flowing speed changes. The album does have it's downsides, likely the biggest is that nostalgia is mostly absent, leaving us with a very emo sounding record, where the C&C's predicessors have followed closer in the prog footsteps. Don't get me wrong, this is a theory that bands SHOULD be taking; new, fresh music. I just don't think emo is the right vein in which to pursue it.

I guess I kind of went on a tangent there.

Back to the album. For bringing prog closer to the mainstream of the new music machine C&C deserves some credit, I just hope their latter albums become more, well, progressive, but this is just a personal taste. 3.5 stars.

In the liner notes Josh Eppard the drummer and brother of Joey (the singer / songwriter for the band 3) says "And how could I forget Mr. Aidella (9th grade student advisor) who told me that I would never amount to anything playing music and that I should be a male nurse or something. F**k you !" I agree with the others who have reviewed this record that say this sounds like progressive punk music. Not as "noisy" or complex as THE MARS VOLTA but it is more melodic and easier to digest.

It opens with a PINK FLOYD-like moment as we can hear the phone ring and someone walking towards it to pick it up. It then gets orchestral sounding with piano before it stops and we hear what sounds like a nucleur explosion. The title track is up next and it is by far the best track other than the hidden song. The guitar style is in the Post-Rock vein as the other guitarist grinds away over top. We then get an explosion of sound. Claudio sings a memorable line "Man your battle stations" as a nice heavy soundscape is heard throughout. I really like Claudio's vocal melodies, they are so well done. Great tune ! "Cuts Marked In The March Of Men" features some good heavy rhythms, great drumming and vocal melodies.

"Three Evils(Embodied In Love And Shadow)" is an uptempo, catchy tune with more fantastic vocal melodies. There are some brief death-like vocals. "The Crowing" is a good track that opens with the sound of rain and a spooky atmosphere. Riffs come in followed by vocals and a grinding guitar melody. More atmosphere 3 1/2 minutes in with some steller drumming after 5 minutes. "Blood Red Summer" is a punk influenced tune, maybe a little immature sounding in my opinion. The vocal melodies are a nice 3 minutes in. "The Camper Velourium" suite is divided into 3 sections of over 15 minutes of music. The third part is my favourite, especially the more uptempo sections of it. "A Favour House Atlantic" has lots of energy while "The Light & The Glass" starts off quietly with acoustic guitar and fragile vocals. The sound gets fuller 2 minutes in until we have riffs a minute later. A calm section doesn't last long before the power returns.The last vocal line is where the name of their next album would come from.

The hidden track is called "2113" in reference to Claudio always hearing how he sounds a little like Geddy Lee from RUSH. And it is also the longest song on the album, and the best in my opinion. It is also instrumentally a lot like a RUSH song although it's no "2112". Still it has crisp drumming with time changes and a real nod to Lifeson 5 1/2 minutes in with the guitar melody. Nice. 3.5 stars.

This is a good sign seeing this band on Archives (at least in Related genre). It means that we don’t lock ourselves in Retro-Prog and agree that Prog hadn’t died on December, 31, 1979. Prog is progressing, taking new forms and expressions, blending with other styles and genres, and sometimes the result can be amazing. In CaC case I should say COULD be amazing.

COHEED AND CAMBRIA play some kind of a EmoProg (?), with clear influences from METALLICA and pop-punk. What makes them different from many other bands is their level of musicianship, recognizable vocals (can annoy others but I like them) and unconventional (in Emo world ;) ) way of arranging and songwriting (long tracks, numerous tempo changes and wide usage of complex signatures). On the other hand, CaC fails to hold my attention during the whole album. They sound very samey on this release (as well as on the previous one), and I choose to listen to some songs from it (“In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth- 3”, “The Crowning”), not the whole thing which I’ve listened to 4 or 5 times. And it was hard task, believe me! Somewhere in the middle attention slips away, all songs ae becoming very close to each other and only epic (split into 3 separate tracks) and closing “The Light and the Glass”, a masterpiece in its own, made me awaken again.

I believe that CaC have a huge potential. They’re pretty popular and it helps to enlarge the amount of attention given to Prog in some way, and this is positive. They are able to overcome those flaws they have for now and become more challenging and fascinating…if they want to.

This is not really a progressive-rock album but may be a related one.

The album starts off with its best song, the tile track, which is full of progressive elements and makes us believe that we're in for a great ride. Sadly, things go downhill afterwards.

I see two problems with this album: one, the voice is not original. To be honest, I don't know which band came first, COHEED AND CAMBRIA or THE MARS VOLTA, but whichever came second, its vocalist emulates the other one to almost a copy/paste degree. I can't see many differences between the two. That overly-exaggerated, punk-ish, teen-angst-like vocal tone of both bands is impossible to forget.

The second element I dislike about this album is the fact that, after track 3, it becomes an emo-pop-rock- punk record, with barely a prog element. Most songs after track three are short, with very similar riffs and vocals and choruses, and all of them sound like a collection of tracks taken from MTV's current hit program. All is useless energy, repetitive music, with anger and desperation that serves no purpose. Maybe it's my disdain for emo-punk music that makes me judge these tracks a little bit harsher than they deserve, but I just feel dissapointed when I hear an album with such a terrific start get lost in the midst of prom-night-party music.

The musicians are very capable and this band could have a lot of potential if they got rid of the emo sound. I'll give the album 3 stars because of the promise it shows and because of its redeeming features. But COHEED AND CAMBRIA could be much better than it actually is. At least for my taste.

After a very satisfying debut, Coheed and Cambria return with an almost 70-minute album, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, complete with high-budget production, and even some speculation that it syncs with a Lord of the Rings movie (it's no Dark Side of the Moon, but there are some neat, mostly lyrically, things here and there). The gritty sound is gone, and a crisp prog rock/metal/pop sound trancends here. For brevity's sake, as well as my time's, I will avoid doing the track-by-track analysis.

The album opens with a telephone ring, footsteps, and the sound of a woman picking up the phone and saying hello, and then immediately moves into an orchestral version of a motif that was introduced on the band's debut. After some noises that resemble a gust of wind and fire, the sound fades as we here a man say Hello Apollo, where should I begin? And thus begins the third chapter in the saga. This album has some killer, dynamic mini-epics: the title track, "The Crowing," "The Light & the Glass," and "21:13," which is this album's bonus track. These pieces show off the band's songwriting abilities while avoiding pretention and technical bravado. These guys can do it, but they show great restraint here. It would be nice to see some flair, but we have other bands for that. Coheed and Cambria puts emphasis on melody on top of a solid rhythmic foundation. We see some overt pop songs in "Three Evils," "Blood Red Summer," and "A Favor House Atlantic," but they are all quite good songs, and in the context of the rest of the album, as well as the concept, they help create a diverse yet coherent record. Three of the tracks in the second half of the album are part of a mini-suite called "The Velorium Camper." The tracks don't go together musically, but the purpose of the suite is to focus the group of songs on a subplot. This type of structure will appear at the end of each of their next two records. They are unified only by their lyrics. The first song is a 70s rock song complete with cowbell, the second is a song that is dark but melodic, and the third is a melodic punky song again with a dark feel. The other track, "Cuts Marked in the March of Men," is a short but well constructed song.

The key to enjoying this band might very well be to take them as they are and not what you hope/expect them to be. They are melodic, dynamic and memorable. Even if they did have the potential to do more, this remains to be a fantastic album in itself. Maybe they will evolve into that band we all see in them, but that doesn't make this album bad by any means. I personally think the variety of styles works for them, and in fact if I want a fix of well constructed pop music, I can get it here among other great songs. I would rather listen to these pop songs than a Rush pop song any day. Great stuff start to finish. I'll give it 4 1/2 stars again, but this time I'm rounding up.

'In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth' - Coheed & Cambria (8/10)

Coheed & Cambria aren't the only band to have a foot in both the 'emo' and prog genres of music. Bands like The Fall Of Troy write music that both appeals to the 'scene' crowd and uses complex musical techniques. While I don't necessarily consider Coheed & Cambria to be an emo band persay, this album definately has the most traits of being 'emo' of all of their music. Songs like 'Favor House Atlantic' reflect an inate awareness of the crowds that make money, but 'In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth' is far from being a mainstream record. There is enough solid music on this album to appeal to many prog fans. Although a prog fan might enjoy the 'Good Apollo' duology more than this record, it's a very sensible record that combines catchy hooks with some solid guitar work and some progressive approachs to songwriting.

The song that actually got me into this band in the first place is on this album, and might be why 'In Keeping Of Silent Earth' is my most listened to album by Coheed. I can remember listening to 'The Crowing' on ProgArchives quite a long time ago, and recognizing the talent of the band almost instantly. It is the most progressive track on the album, and is something of a mini-suite, a la 'Paranoid Android,' or 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' It's one of Coheed & Cambria's best songs in my opinion, and demonstrates their compositional talent very well. The title track is also very epic and cool, and will also appeal to prog fans above the rest.

While there's not enough time to review every song on this album, each song is sure to bring something of it's own to the table. 'In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3' is a very solid album, and although I can't imagine all prog fans loving the rather emo-styled music, that isn't to say that it lacks inspiration. Four stars.

After enjoying "Good Apollo", which is the album that followed this one in the order of albums released by the band, I decided to explore the music further. I took a chance and took a step backwards in time to this album. Again, this album is still based on the same story as "Good Apollo" which is a huge concept story. One advantage of going backwards in their discography, is that I can clearly see how they have progressed. This album has a lot more leaning to the punk and emo sounds that the band evolved from, and it is also not very progressive when compared to "Good Apollo". The tracks are pleasant enough I suppose, but it definately is not as interesting. But you have to at least give some props to the band for the amount of progression from this album compared to the next album, which is something I sort of understood by reading other reviews.

Because the music is more mainstream and poppier on this album, the vocals are probably more annoying, almost sounding boy band-ish in some places. But you can hear some intellect in the music too, especially in the album centerpiece "The Velourium Camper" which is a 3 part suite, and this is the redeeming suite of the album, the remainder of the tracks being just too straightforward and pop sounding. The band, however, is very talented and would continue to strengthen their songwriting skills and so I don't judge the band so much off of this album than I do off of "Good Apollo", which is a very strong 4 star album. This one, unfortunately does not reach that status as it is simply a good mainstream album with some great hooks and interesting passages. So, I would have to say this one is not bad, it's just not really great either. But it is a great example of progression when you compare this album and the next one. 3 stars.

After a somewhat shaky, yet overall competent debut album, Coheed and Cambria end up improving upon every aspect with their sophomore effort, 'In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth - 3'. The emo pop punk element of their debut has been toned down significantly, paving the way for a more mature, more progressive, and far more grandiose sound. This album in general is much more fitting to the description often given to the band, being far more powerful and epic.

The albums splits itself quite cleanly between the more progressive tracks such as the title track and '2113' and some more accessible, pop oriented ones such as 'Blood Red Summer' and 'A Favor House Atlantic'. These more progressive songs are where most of the best material on the album can be found, with the title track being amazing riff after amazing riff, changing tone at multiple point and displaying Claudio's great vocals. Another example is the 3 piece mini-epic 'The Camper Velorium' showing a gradual descent into darkness through adding dissonant riffs and creepy vocal harmonies, perfectly blending the two contrasting musical sensibilities of the band by also throwing in some extremely catchy elements that display some of the peak of the commercial sound achieved on the album. To contrast this, the pop oriented tracks are more of a mixed bag, with 'Three Evils (Embodied in Love and Shadow)' being wonderfully energetic and containing an incredible outro, while some songs, especially 'Blood Red Summer' being somewhat too saccharine for my tastes, 'Blood Red Summer' containing the cheesy "hey hey hey" vocalisations that make this song almost downright embarrassing .

'In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth - 3' also applies the technique that continues becoming more prominent on later albums of reprising sections from previous songs, usually to signify certain plot points. This technique is especially noticeable on '2113' with the reprise of the intro to the debut's 'Time Consumer', which definitely added quite a lot to the song overall. The production is also crystal clear here, with each instrument able to be heard with ease, displaying how well Coheed works as a single unit, each instrument being made prominent only when it needs to be, along with how well each person can play, the prime example being the great drum fills in 'The Crowing'.

This is definitely one of the most consistent Coheed albums, with almost all of the songs being of very high quality and with most of the low points still being serviceable. The growing maturity of the band can be seen here in the form of the longer, more powerful compositions and the overall improvement the band has made on every front, performance, emotion, production, everything. This is where I would recommend newcomers of the band to start from, being one of the best albums the band has made while also giving a great general impression of how the band sounds.

Best Songs: In Keeping Secrets With Silent Earth - 3, The Camper Velorium suite, 2113

Weakest Songs: Blood Red Summer, A Favor House Atlantic

Verdict: An improvement over the debut in every way, and the best entry point into the band's discography, walking the line between pop and prog in a way that can appeal to both crowds. Recommended to anyone who won't run away at the mention of pop-punk music.