IN KEEPING SECRETS OF SILENT EARTH - 3

Coheed and Cambria is a band that during a very concentrated time dominated the discussions about music among me and my friends. Was it emo, was it heavy metal, was it progressive? The opinions were as varied as there were people and although they all varied there was common ground in all of them; everyone liked Coheed and Cambria in their own way and held a specific album to be the superior of the then three releases.

For me it was always "In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth:3"(IKSSE) that stood out from the rest. While the later releases traced their way to a more progressive rock base and steered clear of the emo that lurks beneath the surface on both this and "The Second Stage Turbine Blade", IKSSE had a sense of "trueness" to it that none of their releases to date share. Yes, structurally and musically the later works of Coheed and Cambria are more mature, but IKSSE feels like the most "real" of all their albums.

The music reminds me of Rush before breaking free of their inherent early Led Zeppelin-like sound, and not just because Geddy Lee and Claudio Sanchez share that high pitched screechy tone of voice-- it's the sound of a band in transition; the creaking as its bones grow.

I can't, hand on heart, say that there aren't tracks that bother me on IKSSE or that it is not sometimes almost a straight out mediocre emo record, but, and this is a great but(hehe), there is much going on underneath it all.

If you like Coheed and Cambria you will already own this album and love it for its highlights and perhaps hate it for its weak parts. If you don't you most likely aren't familiar with the band or have no love for them. I think I'm stuck somewhere in between, I'm neither a fan nor do I dislike them, I think I value them as somewhat of a "filler" band with little relevance to the big picture of music today. However I still enjoy a listen of one of their albums now and again.

IKSSE has the most memorable melodies and vocals of all the records in my opinion. Summarizing this band perfectly before they began to cover the flaws and edges with drapes of progressive rock.

3/5