Listening Group Week 6: Good Apollo... Volume One by Coheed and Cambria

[Kdestiny]

My tastes in music are based on how I enjoy all forms of entertainment. I love things that take me on an adventure. I love things that shows me an emotional journey of some sort. That is why I have chosen my personal favorite album of all time.

Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness by Coheed and Cambria



One of the most interesting things is that their albums follow the graphic comics of the Amory Wars. Each of their albums tells a chapter in this science fiction craziness which uses the lyrics of the songs as a narration. It’s a really epic journey that I haven’t read yet but the story is really fun and something that I would definitely recommend if you are really into the lore of other pieces of pop culture/entertainment.

This album does bring me back to a bit of a nostalgic time in my life without seeming to be of its time. I think this will still hold up many years from now and I don’t tire of jamming to it.

The flow of the album is really something as well that is truly underrated I feel. It has a really nice intro with strings and it has something that we’ve heard before (“Welcome Home”), some oddly touching stuff (“Always and Never”/“Wake Up”), and just track after track of stuff that is so darn catchy and are bangers (“Once Upon Your Dead Body”/“Ten Speed”/“The Suffering”). You get to the end and you are met with a really epic ending sequence with the Willing Well I-IV.

The lead singer, Claudio, has one of the most unique voices I have ever heard, and their story and their passion I feel seeps through. I can’t recommend this, or the rest of their stuff enough because each of them especially those involved in this sci-fi story (everything they've done except The Color Before the Sun) is some really great stuff. This I feel is their crowning achievement and hopefully you can understand why!

[Donald]

Yes! I love this album. Gonna listen to it now.

[The Beer Monster]

Just listened to the first couple of tracks in the car (left work early, cos I’m a fucking rebel), this is going to be a long hour and 11 minutes.

[Canuck]

Yeah. I'm really not a fan of Coheed and Cambria. I recognize some songs on here, and what new stuff I am hearing isn't doing any favors.

[The Rosk]

Just listened to the first couple of tracks in the car (left work early, cos I’m a fucking rebel), this is going to be a long hour and 11 minutes.

Annnnnd he’s back!

- - - Updated - - -

I’ve literally never heard of these so will listen tomorrow on my commute. Cheers kdestiny

[Grimario]

This is very much more up my alley compared to the first five weeks and it's an album I have listened to before.

I've tried to get into Coheed and Cambria for the best part of a decade. I love the music but I can't get over the vocalist sounding like he's a very minor style change away from joining Wheatus and belting out Teenage Dirtbag.

I will gladly give it another whirl though.

[The Beer Monster]

Positives first. They can play musical instruments proficiently, possibly up to a grade 8, that is much better than I can do, so really well done to them there.
Now, should they be playing them while also singing along, that’s the question. Well if Jason Biggs is still making movies and it’s still 2001 then hell yes they should be, those movies need soundtracks.
Are they a poor mans Panic! At the Disco?
Yes.
Do I like Panic! At the Disco?
No.
When did bands of this type start using that whiny voice, and who told them it was a good idea?
This album has IMO a slightly wanky concept and name, the album I’ve picked has a slightly wanky concept as well though so I can’t really slate that.
Im sorry but this was a really tough listen. This style of music grates on me and this unfortunately didn’t win me over.
Really quite proficient at musical instruments though, let’s not forget that.

[The Rosk]

fucking hell.

Well, I started listening and was intrigued, but then @Alex called me about Charlie Austin and then I had to stop. Will listen at lunch in full.

[Kdestiny]

I am starting to wonder if BM doesn't actually like music.

[Kdestiny]

This seems to be going well

[Grimario]

This is very much more up my alley compared to the first five weeks and it's an album I have listened to before.

I've tried to get into Coheed and Cambria for the best part of a decade. I love the music but I can't get over the vocalist sounding like he's a very minor style change away from joining Wheatus and belting out Teenage Dirtbag.

I will gladly give it another whirl though.

I pretty much echo my earlier sentiments. Love the music, don't like his voice. I love wanky concept albums (whatever TBM*) but just can't get past his voice.

I think Welcome Home is my favourite track simply because the music has a pretty epic feel to it.

Edit - just wanted to add that Wake Up really works with his voice. I think because it's softer and slower, it just works.


*I think I have settled on my choice now, just to irk TBM more for wanky concepts.

[Kdestiny]

I am good with that

the wanky concepts I mean

[The Beer Monster]

The whole concept of my band of choice is wanky.

[Pablo Diablo]

I've done my first listen through kdest. Will be giving it a second go with the lyrics. I will say that the album is different than I expected.

[Peter Griffin]

As someone who has never heard of this group, Track one had me extremely worried as what I was in for, Track two didn't really help matters, But once track three got going things picked up somewhat.

However this is not my thing whatsoever, But if everyone had the same tastes the world would be hella boring and I can at least appreciate why someone would be a fan.

That said I did enjoy welcome home and Mother may I was ok

[The Rosk]

An interesting one. Only listened to it once and will do again with lyrics.

Very tight band. Their slower stuff gripped me more than the heavier stuff at times, felt the album worked better when the styles mixed from song to song like when Wake Up hits in the middle after a few quite similarish sounding songs. Really enjoyed the opening three songs, set an interesting space for the rest of the record. The Suffering also stood out for me, and The Willing Well II has my son dancing

Gonna give it another go tmrw.

[Melly]

Will listen asap!

[The Rosk]

Alright chaps and chapette, two days left to get your feedback in - very interesting choice and one that I've listened back to a couple of times now.

@JP @Matthew @MikeHunt – also due last week's feedback @Morrison – also due last week's feedback @Simon @BBF @wardy @Donald @Cewsh @Melly

[Mik]

Bit of a mixed one for me. I thought that some of it was pretty cool and some was pure shit. Great start with Keeping the Blade, I thought that was a lovely piece of music.

Didn't mind Always and Never or Welcome Home.

From Ten Speed on it started sounding like My Chemical Romance lite and it lost my interest.

I didn't actually mind Wake Up or The Final Cut, but the rest of them might as well have been the same song for me.

It's not really my kind of music to be honest.

[MMH]

Will be Tuesday when i listen to this fully. My dad is in hospital (again) so time is a bit tight.

[Melly]

Three tracks in...I had no idea what to expect. First song was beautiful. His voice is like Adam Lambert/Panic at The Disco to me.

[Melly]

Ok....basically not my cup of tea. His voice really is grating, I should NOT have said Adam Lambert previously as he's great. Too pop punky for me.

[The Beer Monster]

Is he though?

[Donald]

This album wasn't as great as I remember it. I've heard the big songs from time to time over the years, but it must be 5+ years since I listened to the album in it's entirety. I think everyone knows Welcome Home, especially us wrestling fans as it was the theme to NXT back in the day. That is an epic sounding song and I love it dearly. I also enjoy Wake Up and the Suffering a lot. The rest of it though tends to sound the same. Not a bad album, probably my favorite that's been mentioned so far in this series. Also I'm going to be seeing them in a couple of months so it's good to get familiar with their music once more. I'll give it a 7/10 rating.

[Pablo Diablo]

So my only exposure to them before was Welcome Home, not from NXT but from Rock Band, so I came into it expecting that to be what the majority of the songs were like. Welcome Home is and always will be a banger. Unfortunately I was greatly disappointed with the majority of the rest of the songs. Like most people I think the biggest issue I had was with the lead singers voice. For some reason on Welcome Home it fits well, but on other songs it just doesn't do it for me. I think that being the first album choice where I knew well a song from it may have hurt how my feel of the album going into it. It just really wasn't what I expected. Sorry kdest, wasn't for me. Should have gone with the Hamilton soundtrack

[Kdestiny]

Don't tempt me Pablo

[Canuck]

Not much changed by listening to a full album. The voice just isn't easy listening for me.

[MMH]

Back in the days where you made mix tapes (or mix CDs for you younger ones) Coheed and Cambria were always one of the bands recommended to me when searching for songs to jog my memory etc.

I never really got round to listening to them and I think I got them mixed up with a couple of other bands back then, one that had a woman singing whose name escapes me and I always imagined them to be along the same lines of Mercury Rev or someone like that.

So this was an intriguing listen for me.

The opening song Keeping the Blade is like something off a prog rock concept album. It's a bold decision to open with this instrumental, from there we go into Always & Never which is pretty much what I imagined Coheed and Cambria to be. More of a folky song, not bad but my god the child noises are annoying.

Wait..is that the old NXT theme? Well I never knew that was Coheed and Cambria, you learn something new every day. I enjoyed this one because I knew it, never heard the full version but its very late 90's goth rock. I know it came out in the mid 00's.

Speaking of Wresting Ten Speed sounds like a Japanese ring intro tune. Its OK.

From here the middle part of the album all sounds like the same song. Its one decent long song but it could do with a bit of mixing up. I think the problem is they love that twiddly electric guitar sound and the singers voice never seems to change.

Dont love Wake Up but do like the music in the last minute or so.

Everything else just melds into one song. The Suffering is a bit heavier which suits me but I don't really have anything of note to say about the rest of the album. The last song had some nice wah wah guitar in, almost Marillionesque.

So yeah..... how to sum this one up. It's alright, I dont think there is anything bad on this album, however I don't think there is anything particularly good either. I did enjoy the final part of Wishing Well the Final Cut as I was finishing my review I suppose. I would never moan if anyone put one of these songs on the jukebox as it is easily listenable to but the album is too long and too samey throughout most of the album.

Meh. Heard worse.

[wardy]

Just back from holiday, I'll do a review tomorrow soz.

[BBF]

One of my best mates at uni liked this kind of music. Coheed, Billy Talent and the like but it never really struck a chord with me. I listened to this a couple of times over the past week and I still feel fairly similar. I don't know best to describe it but its too.....wehwehwehweeeeeeeeeh. Not whiny but just not deep enough (as in the voice isn't rich enough?) if that makes sense.

I wouldn't go out of my way to listen but its fairly inoffensive. Although in the interest of fairness I can see how this type of music might be classed as similar to my choice in that if you grew up with it then it becomes a lot more personal to you.

[Donald]

Billy Talent, man haven't heard them in ages. Gonna go listen to some today. Thanks for the reminder

[wardy]

Finally got round to listening to this a few times, sorry. Was on holiday n that.

This is really not my kind of thing. To me, the majority of the album sounded like a more complex versions of the stuff emo girls listened to at my school in the early noughties. In saying that, I did enjoy the first couple of tracks.

Keeping the Blade was a nice wee instrumental intro and Always & Never (my favourite) reminded me of Hide & Seek by Imogen Heap in that it was quirky and artificial sounding, yet sweet and easy to listen to. By the time the third song was about half way through, I had an idea which way the album was going. I didn't actually mind Welcome Home. I liked the guitar bit that was constant throughout most of the song but it's been done a million times before in Kashmir by Led Zeppelin and more recently in Wake Up by RATM. After that it just wasn't for me, although I did kind of enjoy the Thin Lizzy style guitar in From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness, even if the song was mostly pantaloons.

Anyway, I'll be sticking Always & Never in a playlist. Cheers kdestiny.

[Morrison]

finally getting the time to actually type something out for this. apologies for the delay, but wasn't spending much time on my pc and typing shit like this up on my phone would drive me insane.

the early 2000's on this forum gave me a lot of material to sift through and digest when it came to new music. there was a pretty active, core group of posters in the music forum with a lot of different tastes. you had hack, adamy, mdub, aussie_outlaw, pete cash, pretentious ass house of pancakes, TRO, jojo the rabid monkey, quietstorm and more. it was my favorite part of the forum for quite awhile, cause i'd always hop on after school and be treated to new shit to listen to, whether it was different stuff from people i already knew that was coming highly recommended, or an artist i had never heard of but sounded interesting and worth trying. taking a look back, it looks like in august 2003 i was frequenting the metal thread and trying to cast a wider net with that genre, and i can only imagine it was during this time, thanks to the general discussion taking place amongst the metal heads, that i learned of and listened to dream theater, more specifically their album from 1999, metropolis pt. 2, scenes from a memory. being a huge pink floyd fan by then, i was no stranger to concept albums that were looking to tell a story, but there was something very different about scenes from a memory in comparison to anything floyd put out. much larger in scope, with a more tight, structured framework to tell it's story. obviously prog-metal is a different musical beast compared to the kind of rock genre's pink floyd were dabbling in, but they still managed to have some fluctuation in tone and intensity, just like floyd would, to illustrate the emotions of the varying story beats. it ticked off a lot of the boxes of interest and excitement for me at that moment, and i remember spending a lot of time listening to it in bed while trying to fall asleep. why i was listening to prog-metal to fall asleep to, with noise-cancelling headphones to boot, i couldn't really tell you, but it worked well enough at the time. i can't say that i kept up my fandom of dream theater heading into new material they released, as even the album they released in 2003, the year i discovered them, had little to no impact on me, and i really couldn't tell you much of anything about the rest of their back catalogue before metropolis pt. 2. that album was just one of those revelations that you were yearning for at the time that have little influence over the rest of you.

going into this album being fully aware of the band's running 'concept discography' they had going for their first handful of albums, the first three songs of good apollo immediately brought up scenes from a memory to my mind. right off the bat with "keeping the blade" you get the thematic overtones and the creation of atmosphere continues into "always & never" before kicking into the higher energy "welcome home." it's a wonderful mixing and blending of genre's and styles that sets a good stage, but unfortunately for me, the promise of the opening trio just kind of gets lost heading into the rest of the album. i agree with mik when he says after a certain point, all of the songs blend together and sound the same, which is cohesive, but if your not a fan of the instrumentation or vocals anyway, it just becomes a bit of a bore. i'm pretty open when it comes to vocals, but singers who go for these kinds of performances sound oddly forced, and because they're pushing and coming off nasally, it ends up lacking any genuine power. there's just not enough variety, musically and vocally, for me, and that in turn makes me less invested in the story, cause it just comes down to the lyrics of the songs to dictate the emotions, and at that point i might as well just read a book and use my imagination. and once we get into the "willing well" suite of songs, each of which is over 7 minutes, i'm just kinda tapping out by that point.

regrettably, this is the only album selection so far that just failed to connect on any meaningful level with me.

[The Rosk]

I never knew how great Morrison was.
@Simon @JP @MikeHunt @Cewsh (x2) you're overdue bitcheeeesssss.