YEAR OF THE BLACK RAINBOW

You've got to hand it to Coheed and Cambria for being the first "concept band" with all their albums (and associated comics) devoted to this one Sci-fi story. I can't even really begin to understand the details of the story, but that doesn't matter, the songs rock!

In some ways Coheed and Cambria are a perfect mix of Tool's foreboding high tension restraint and Mars Volta's everything including the kitchen sink post-Prog! I love how Coheed brings that certain heaviness to the table and also a bit of an alternative rock sensibility. Not your typical prog metal band by any stretch. I think they really hit the spot for Prog fans that want it hard, but don't want to hear the same old prog metal shredding, but still with some neo-prog fantasy metal that can kick ass.

I personally think each their first four studio albums get progressively better up to 2007's "Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow". A great album I'd give 5* . Each album shows growth, and changes in musical vision. "No World for Tomorrow" is when it all comes together, with the strongest, most immediate, and most commercial sounding songs to date.

Their latest, "Year of the Black Rainbow" serves as the first book or prequel to the five part series. Musically, its another step forward for the band. In fact, the most striking aspect of this album is how they've expanded their sonic pallet to create their most menacing sound to date. By and large the music is more ferocious, dark and less immediate than on the last album. This largely adds to the power of the music, as several songs are crammed with dense arrangements in an overall fierce package.

"Here We Are Juggernaut" is simply the best C&C song ever. There's a brutal momentum in this song ? without being hardcore thrash -- that packs a musical punch like I've seldom heard before. Which gets back to the overall point of their new sound, to be dark and foreboding, but not thrashy, or using the boring clichés overused in Prog-metal. In other words, this won't make your ears hurt.

Considering the power of their vision, it's a shame the producer didn't pull the plug on a couple of the songs. There's three songs that are not up to snuff, which would be fine if they put them at the end of the album, but unfortunately they're poorly placed tracks at #3, #6, and #10. But hey, that's what the skip button is for.

Another excellent C&C album!