Artist Profile: Coheed and Cambria

Coheed and Cambria were formed in Nyack, New York back in 1995. The group consists of Claudio Sanchez on lead vocals and guitar, Travis Stever on guitars and backing vocals, Michael Todd on bass and backing vocals, and Chris Pennie on drums. The band got its name from two protagonists that appeared in The Amory Wars, which was a science fiction story written by Claudio. The band later created a story arc around these two characters that would be all tied in to all the studio albums that they would later create in a storyline called The Amory Wars. The band released their debut album on Equal Vision Records titled Second Stage Turbine Blade in 2002. The album contained such tracks as "Devil in Jersey City", "Time Consumer", and the title track. The band later appeared on the Vans Warped Tour which helped broaden their ever expanding fan base. Their next album, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 was released in 2003. This was the album that helped introduce Coheed to the mainstream audience and the album contained such blistering tracks like "A Favor House Atlantic", my favorite Coheed song "Blood Red Summer", and "The Crowing". The album eventually went Gold, selling over 500,000 copies in the process. After that, the group signed with Columbia Records to release their major label debut Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness in 2005. This effort was almost equally as successful as the prior one, containing tracks like "Welcome Home" and "The Suffering". This album was the first part of the end of The Amory Wars storyline that would be continued on their next effort Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV: Volume Two: No World For Tomorrow, which came out in 2007. This album contained such gritty tracks like "The Running Free", "Feathers", and "Mother Superior".

The band then released a prequel to the four part The Amory Wars storyline titled Year of the Black Rainbow, which came out last year. Some notable tracks that came from this disc include "The Broken" and "Here We Are Juggernaut". Coheed and Cambria was one of the first bands I listened to that introduced me to the progressive rock genre and the whole album storyline format that permeates another one of my favorite prog rock bands, The Mars Volta. You don't really need to pay attention to the storyline to understand what is going on, all you need to do is let the music do the talking for you and after listening, the whole storyline element will start to make much more sense.