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

OK, to give Coheed and Cambria full credit, repackaging what is fairly standard progressive metal fare and selling it to the alternative rock crowd quite as effectively as they did with this album is no mean feat. The post-hardcore and emo influences that informed the band's early works are now dialled way down, to the point where they are discernible less as fully expressed musical approaches and more as a certain touch to the production aesthetic; scratch the surface of the packaging, though, and what you have here is essentially a rather boisterous performance of material which wouldn't be entirely out of place on one of the edgier, heavier Dream Theater albums.