My dearest Apollo, I’ll be burning Star IV

I’ve not been finding any time, let alone any will, to write here as often as I would want to, but now, and as the move to the new place finally winds down, and the dust is beginning to settle, I can see some sort of hope that things will get better, sometime soon, somewhere down the line. These first few weeks though, have really run me ragged. Between packing stuff, and then unpacking it, and still put in my work hours, has left me feeling completely drained. Invariably, I turn to my old demons at the end of the day, just so I can unwind and turn off the brain for a few hours. How did that old song go? ‘Problems with the booze, nothing left to lose’.

When I first decided to embark on this challenge, I knew that sooner or later I’d delve into the discography of a certain band - Coheed and Cambria. I’d known of them for at least twenty years or thereabouts, and I’d even had their whole discography - up to a certain point in time - in one of my defunct external hard drives. But I never listened to a single second from one of their songs. Never, ever. But for some reason… the fascination was always there. Most of their records revolve around a si-ci concept created by the band’s leader, Claudio Sanchez. That concept - dubbed ‘The Amory Wars’ - is a multimedia venture that encompasses not only the music itself, but comics as well. And on that respect, I also had a bunch, though not all, of the comics that were published, though I never did read them. So why did it stick with me all these years? And why now? The answer to the first question is a simple and weird one - I was afraid I’d like them. And you may wonder why that would be a bad thing - it’s not necessarily bad, per se, but with me… when I’m really into something, I don’t stop until I have EVERYTHING in my collection. So I resisted going down this particular rabbit hole for all these years. It had to be now - now, when I don’t want anything anymore, when I don’t need to have anything anymore - now it finally makes sense. And that answers question two.

But I didn’t start the week with them, no. I had a band in mind, and I wanted to say I’d be revisiting it, but not really - I’ve only known the one song by them.
Day 12 - Psychotic Waltz - 'A Social Grace'
We have to go back many many years, back to the time when music TV channels not only still played music, but they had individual shows for music genres. Way back in the 90’s, if you -wanted to watch a metal video, then it had to be either MTV’s ‘Headbangers Ball’ - which I found too commercial, but still had a pretty decent selection of videos - or VIVA’s ‘Metalla’, hosted by Markus Kavka. It was here that one day I chanced upon a song by this band - Psychotic Waltz - called ‘I Remember’. And for some reason I’ve always thought that this song was about Terminator 2, but I guess I was wrong. Now, I’ve always really liked that song, it even has some neat flute parts, but I never felt the urge to listen to more. And now I did. And I kinda regret it, because it just wasn’t that great. By the time the record finished, it had outstayed its welcome by half an hour. Nah, this is dull, I’m sorry. 3/10

Day 13 - Coheed and Cambria - 'The Second Stage Turbine Blade'
Day 14 - Coheed and Cambria - 'In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth : 3'
Day 15 - Coheed and Cambria - 'Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness'
Day 16 - Coheed and Cambria - 'Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow'

Day 17 - Coheed and Cambria - 'Year of the Black Rainbow'

Day 18 - Coheed and Cambria - ‘The Afterman : Ascension’ + ‘The Afterman : Descension’

And so my descent down the Coheed And Cambria began, and let me tell you - I’ve been absolutely loving it so far. They’ve been, by far, the very best I listened to this year, at least for this challenge. They’re billed as being Progressive Rock / Progressive Metal / Alternative Rock - and I can see why, although to my ears they have much more in common with European Power Metal - though not that sort of happy happy joy joy Power Metal, but the absurdly technical Power Metal. It’s hard for me to explain in words. Because I also hear a lot of classic rock here, and that’s a good thing, because it’s pulled off expertly.

I give TTSTB and IKSSE:3 a very strong 8/10. 

‘Good Apollo’, both of them, I liked even more - that’s a 9/10 for both. 

‘YOTBR’ was the first real disappointment, and from what I’ve read online, I’m not alone in this. I don’t want to say I loathed the first half of the album, but I really didn’t like it one bit. And then about halfway through, it gets really, really good. That first half, for some reason it didn’t even feel like I was listening to the same band. Then they return with a vengeance on that second half. And if that first half had been just as strong, I might have had a clear favourite. As it is… I give it a 6/10.

And then I cheated - I listened to two records in one day. And I’m so glad I did - the double offering of ‘The Afterman’ was a true delight to listen to. They’re quite likely just as good as the ‘Good Apollo’ records were. And I give them the same score : 9/10.

That’s it for this week. I’m hopeful that from now on I’ll be able to write more often - we’ll see.