As the little band of heroes continues its journey aboard The Camper Velourium, the music takes a slightly heavier tone. One of my favorite things about this series is how the music becomes progressively heavier and more aggressive from "Faint of Hearts" to "Al the Killer." In the second part to this series, "The Camper Velourium II: Backend of Forever" is quite the middle-ground in terms of aggression. It's very fitting, considering that the Camper Velourium series revolves around Al, the pilot of this ship. The songs in the series, as I explained in my last review, are how Claudio explains and develops this character. In the previous song we discovered Al's disturbing sexual obsession with his sniper rifle. In this song, we see a slightly more human side to him.

Enamored by the presence of Ambellina, Al begins to think back to all his failed relationships. It isn't surprising for him to be captivated by the Prise. The Prise are often spoke about with reverence and respect, and are known to be enchantingly beautiful figures. However, Ambellina finds Al distasteful and keeps her distance from him, focusing solely on her mission to guide Claudio. The scorn and rejection from Ambellina drives a certain wedge into Al's already twisted mind. The song juggles between Al's desire to pursue Ambellina -- more out of lust than any genuine love -- and his equally strong desire to ignore his feelings.


Musically, it's important that the song is slightly heavier than "Faint of Hearts." As the listener gets more insight into Al's character, we find that the story is taking on a darker and more twisted tone. And yet, the song is not without its lighter moments. The opening riff is a series of arpeggio-like notes played in sequence from high to low, and then repeated again. This style of riff playing, if it could be called that, would become a staple in what could be called the Coheed sound -- although many fans and critics tend to point out that there is no Coheed sound at all, as the style seems to change very often. It is important, however, to note that this method of note playing is in fact seen in Coheed and Cambria's later records.

I sometimes think this song is a chance for the guys to just rock out and have fun. At times it seems chaotic and messy, complete with Josh's erratic drum beats. Travis and Claudio switch up between rhythm and lead in various parts of the song, and Mic's bass lines are equally oddly placed. However, there's a bit of beauty in how this "mess" is played out.

And with that, I end with a message to the American readers out there: Happy Thanksgiving!

In the second single from In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 ("A Favor House Atlantic" being the first, though not chronologically appearing on the record until later), the band delivers one of their most radio-friendly "pop" songs. Certainly, it's a different style from any single off SSTB, and appears after such heavier riffs as "Cuts Marked in the March of Men" and "The Crowing." Thus, when listening to "Blood Red Summer" for the first time after those previous songs, I was rather put off.

It took me some time to enjoy the song as many others have grown to enjoy it. In fact, it took me quite a while. I would skip over it many times simply because I didn't feel it flowed too well with the rest of the album. However, like so many of Coheed and Cambria's songs, it eventually grew on me. With catchy lyrics and melody, it's safe to say that if there's ever a Coheed song that's more sing along than any others it's this one.


Indeed, while Claudio's voice makes a return to high pitched -- and, in more crude terms from critics, whiny -- the vocal style is just as important as the music. The bridge has undoubtedly one of the most well known parts as Claudio continually chants "Woah oh!" a few times alongside repetitions of "What dd I do to deserve?"

From earlier songs, it's clear that the band is very much guitar-driven. On "Blood Red Summer" this is made even more prominent. Together, Claudio Sanchez and Travis Stever play rhythm and lead, respectively, in a perfect balance where neither overshadows the other. Instead, it's a perfect compliment. Taking together Josh's simple drumming pattern for this song and Mic's equally just as simple bass lines along with the guitars, the song is a bouncy tune. Quite truthfully, the best part of the song is the fact that it's so simple.

Conceptually, the song more of an info dump, as often happens in stories. The character Claudio, naturally unwilling to believe in the destiny that lays before him, chooses to at least take up the promise he made to himself to fight back against Wilhelm Ryan. With Ambellina nevertheless guiding him, Claudio meets up with with his uncle Jesse, who relays to him the events of the past years and what happened to his parents and siblings, as well as just why Ryan wanted to destroy the family -- he knew one of the children would have the power to destroy him. With Claudio having returned, Jesse has new found hope in a better tomorrow for the people of Heaven's Fence. Claudio, however much he tries to accept this, merely asks "What did I do to deserve this?"

Coheed and Cambria (the band, not the characters) deliver what is arguably one of the heaviest songs on this record, and it's important that it is. As musicians, it's important for the band to create different moods when necessary in order to obtain the right atmosphere. As a concept band, this is even more critical. With such an event as a young man being told he alone must overthrow the villain and take up the mantle of his universe's savior, "The Crowing" is one of the most story-oriented songs in Coheed's career. Driven by Josh's fast-paced and aggressive drumming, the combination of Travis and Claudio chugging to the same chords for the verses before Travis splits off to a fantastic bit of lead, and Mic's ever heavy bass, the song is not light-hearted.

Melody wise, the most interesting part of the song is the breakdown that starts around two minutes and fifty seconds into the song. During this interval, the band shows off the fact that their sound is changing. Where SSTB contained post-hardcore and punk influences, IKSSE and this song especially showcase yet another influence on the band, combining their post-hardcore roots with elements of hard rock. The "sound" of Coheed and Cambria has always been hard to distinguish because of the major differences from one record -- and sometimes even one song -- to the next.

What continually amazes me the most is Claudio and his singing. While his voice still cracks and gets incredibly high-pitched at times, it's very obvious it's changed even slightly since recording the previous album. While the instruments and percussion make me want to head bang and rock out, it's the vocals that truly make this song. "The Crowing" gives me chills every time I hear it. The best part of it, without a doubt, is the last chanting melody of Claudio's multi-layered vocals:

You may want to click on the image to get a better view of it, but this entire drawing was done in hatching and cross hatching. That is, every line, every form, every shade, and every mark on this piece of paper was done with short strokes of lines. The point of this piece, an extra credit project, was to demonstrate that I could give form and volume to a 2-dimensional space through hatching principles and ONLY though hatching, rather than using contour shapes and lines to create the image.

The subject was a corner of my living room as it looked back then (the giant hutch still remains, but the darker hutch next to it has since been removed). Much of the shading is off and incorrect, and as my professor pointed out there is not enough contrast. However, for a simple extra credit project, I'm most proud of how the forms came out. For me, the result looks very much 3-dimensional.

As I mentioned during my reviews of SSTB, Coheed and Cambria sometimes have the ability to take something that, thematically and conceptually, is a rather traumatic and horrifying experience and make it sound energetic and upbeat. For IKSSE, this kind of songwriting is especially noted in the fourth track -- "Three Evils (Embodied in Love and Shadow)." Like "33" from the previous record, "Three Evils" is the sort of song that feels like it should have been a single but never was.

The song opens up with a chugging rhythm of chords played by Claudio and then quickly kicks into a full playing band, with Mic grooving on bass along to the same notes as Travis and Claudio and Josh performing some ever quick snare, hi-hat, and bass drum work. It's almost impossible not to bob one's head in time to the music while that first verse is playing. Of particular note is Claudio's singing. Still as high as always, it's clear however that since the first album Claudio has more control of his voice.

The unfortunate thing about this song is that it's likely what gave way to some critics mislabeling the band as being "emo." Being a concept band, Claudio's lyrics reflect certain events going on in the story at that particular time and place. It's easy to certainly mislabel this song as emo and depressing when considering the final lines being screeched out at the very end: "Pull the trigger and the nightmare stops." However, when one considers the story and even Claudio's own admission, the band never intended this song to encourage suicide in any way. I say this again: the song is NOT about suicide or encouraging it.

Rather, the song continues where "Cuts Marked in the March of Men" left off. Sizer, in an attempt to gain some sort of affection from his "father" Jesse, sacrifices himself to the United Red Army. The URA takes him off planet to Shylos 10, where they perform brutal interrogation techniques upon Sizer, going so far as to blind him, drive drills into his hands, and even disassemble him in order to gain information on Jesse and his rebellion. Realizing he won't talk, the URA scatters Sizer's mangled remains across the surface of Shylos 10. The song is a back and forth narrative between the act of the URA torturing him and Sizer's thoughts.

Overall, the song is quite fast-paced. Despite it's lyrical content, "Three Evils (Embodied in Love in Shadow)" remains one of the catchiest melodies in Coheed's catalog. It was played many times during the band's tour in support of the album. As later records were released and the band played other songs in support of them, "Three Evils" saw itself being pushed back a little in favor of bigger hits. I'm happy to say, however, that the band has brought back this amazing tune at recent concerts. For such a simply composed song comprised of the standard verse, chorus, verse formula it remains high on many fans' lists of favorite Coheed songs, including mine.

As the song winds down to a close, we hear what sounds like running water in the background and what sounds like someone singing a tune. As these two sounds wind down, all of a sudden we hear a rather loud scream: the battle cry of The Crowing.

Stay tuned for the next review.