We've finally arrived at "The Willing Well" series. The last four songs on From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness are hands down the most progressive sounding of not just this album, but perhaps of Coheed's career. Clocking in at over seven minutes each, "The Willing Well" series takes up a good chunk of the album's running time at a near half hour. There's a lot going on in these songs, both musically and conceptually. With such strong vocalizations from Claudio Sanchez, the work of all the band members, and the ever continued twisting of the story, "The Willing Well" songs prove as some of the best work the band has ever written.

Within the concept, the Willing Well is where the two worlds -- the Writer's world and the world of Heaven's Fence -- collide. As depicted on the front cover of the album's lyric booklet, the Willing Well is literally a portal between the worlds, a portal that exists in each and allows communication and travel between the two. Though the Writer doesn't realize this yet, he will soon, and it will be through this portal he will finally have the ending he so desires.

The first within this series is "The Willing Well I: Fuel for the Feeding End." This title is quite literal. As the Writer's world and Claudio Kilgannon's world collide, the Writer contemplates his final decisions to create an ending for the story and relieve him of his suffering. In a sense, these thoughts and decisions are "fuel" for the final end. The final stages of the album -- and ultimately the entire story -- are coming together. During the song, the narration travels back and forth between the Writer and Claudio. Being parallels of each other, the two share similar thoughts as they dwell upon their similar destinies -- both will bring about the end of Heaven's Fence and the Keywork, but for different reasons; the Writer feels compelled by grief over his failed relationship with Erica Court, and Claudio is compelled by fate. Because the two are parallels, they are also experiencing the same feelings for Ambellina. Just as the Writer would wish to spare Ambellina the fate he has in store for her because he loves her character, Claudio has fallen in love for the fallen Prise. All in all, the song acts as a bit of character development rather than focusing on particular action.

From the beginning, the song is heavy and a bit fast paced. Even the opening synthesizer indicates something a bit heavy. I can't quite describe how the opening riff sounds, but for some reason it just sounds like an internal conflict. It's not quite the kind of song that indicates physical confrontations, and so this is part of what makes Coheed and Cambria terrific songwriters. The most noteworthy moment of heaviness is within the chorus, with Claudio adding a sort of growl to his vocals in "Little maggot off the Westside of your sin/Run little maggot til they learn of what you did." 

"Fuel for the Feeding End" changes pace, timing, and melody so often it's hard to imagine it's one cohesive song. Elements of this sort of songwriting were seen off In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 in its title track and "21:13", but not quite to this extent. And even then, I don't feel that this song is the most progressive tune of "The Willing Well" suite. However, it's still enough to toss the listener around wondering if they've moved on to the next track or not. I feel this helps to reflect the inner turmoil going on through the characters' minds.

One of the most amusing things I've found in the song is the repetition of "Feliz seria que hora" after the chorus. Assuming my translation is correct, this means "Serious happy hour." Taking this into context, I find this funny especially since nothing about this situation should be remotely funny or happy. Still, I know Coheed and Cambria consists of some funny people so this could just be for Claudio's own amusement. I won't pretend to understand it.

From the start, "The Willing Well" promises to deliver on epic progressive rock tunes. As we progress through the rest of them, it becomes clear that Claudio Sanchez's head has only begun to form some dark and twisted thoughts for his story.