5/6
I’ve been eagerly awaiting this album since its announcement, hell since the release of their B-side last march. I confess my love for the story and my unabashed adoration of the band my have colored some of my criticism
For those that follow the band, this is the first chapter of The Amory Wars and a prequel to Year of the Black Rainbow (Which was a prequel to Second Stage Turbine Blade). I suspect author and frontman Claudio Sanchez wrote himself into a corner with No World for Tomorrow*. In an interview, Sanchez mention that when he was writing No World for Tomorrow, he wasn’t sure there would be a Coheed and Cambria anymore. Two albums and several tours later, I think it is safe to say they’re still around.
So, when you’ve ended a story, where do you go? There was nowhere to go but further back, to the very beginning.
The stories in Afterman: The Ascension are riddled with complexities that are absent from the plots themselves. The two stories: That of Domino, a boxer who becomes corrupted by drugs and greed and the story of Sirius Amory, a man driven to the stars by hubris, who unknowingly finds the star system where the Amory Wars happens years latter. They are elegantly paralleled down to even the music itself. Each has a signature musical style. Domino’s story, the story of a man at the bottom of society is gritty, with noisy, distorted guitar work and loud, violent fret squeaks. Sirius Amory’s story on the other hand is filled with airy, spacious high notes and understated precision. The slick feel of corruption is palpable in both stories, and vile, yet unmistakably appealing. Like in other albums, each story has a signature progression that marks the change of characters. Amory’s almost radar like ping, sits well along side the scraping screaming guitars of Domino’s story.
Amory’s sound is quite a departure from Coheed and Cambria’s usual sound. As a fan, I was much more prepared for Domino’s sound—the rugged, growling is quite common place on their other work. When the preview of he title track “The Afterman” was first released, I had to listen to it three times before I could make heads or tails of it. It was a completely different sound. I’d never quite heard anything like it before, from anyone, least of all Coheed and Cambria.
The composition of this album is simply perfect. The pieces of each story, and their contrasting sounds, balance perfectly only blending toward the end in a wonderful culmination.
I have raved about how expressive Sanchez’s voice is in previous reviews, I’m sure. He takes it a step further in Afterman: The Ascension It feels like he is two different people on this album, his acting is beyond brilliant. A maniacal, gremlin like sound hisses and cackles in Domino’s story where there is a wavering, haunted whisper in Amory’s arc. Sanchez’s talent for voice modulation further augments the juxtaposition of the two stories as well as their unmistakable parallels.
Brilliant album, though I was disappointed in how short it is, a mere nine tracks.. (A second half is due out in 2013). I am looking forward to their next show and February 2013’s release with great anticipation.
*The full title of the album is Good Apollo, I'm Burring Star IV: No World For Tommorow. However, it is most commonly referred to as simply “No World For Tomorrow.”
I’ve been eagerly awaiting this album since its announcement, hell since the release of their B-side last march. I confess my love for the story and my unabashed adoration of the band my have colored some of my criticism
For those that follow the band, this is the first chapter of The Amory Wars and a prequel to Year of the Black Rainbow (Which was a prequel to Second Stage Turbine Blade). I suspect author and frontman Claudio Sanchez wrote himself into a corner with No World for Tomorrow*. In an interview, Sanchez mention that when he was writing No World for Tomorrow, he wasn’t sure there would be a Coheed and Cambria anymore. Two albums and several tours later, I think it is safe to say they’re still around.
So, when you’ve ended a story, where do you go? There was nowhere to go but further back, to the very beginning.
The stories in Afterman: The Ascension are riddled with complexities that are absent from the plots themselves. The two stories: That of Domino, a boxer who becomes corrupted by drugs and greed and the story of Sirius Amory, a man driven to the stars by hubris, who unknowingly finds the star system where the Amory Wars happens years latter. They are elegantly paralleled down to even the music itself. Each has a signature musical style. Domino’s story, the story of a man at the bottom of society is gritty, with noisy, distorted guitar work and loud, violent fret squeaks. Sirius Amory’s story on the other hand is filled with airy, spacious high notes and understated precision. The slick feel of corruption is palpable in both stories, and vile, yet unmistakably appealing. Like in other albums, each story has a signature progression that marks the change of characters. Amory’s almost radar like ping, sits well along side the scraping screaming guitars of Domino’s story.
Amory’s sound is quite a departure from Coheed and Cambria’s usual sound. As a fan, I was much more prepared for Domino’s sound—the rugged, growling is quite common place on their other work. When the preview of he title track “The Afterman” was first released, I had to listen to it three times before I could make heads or tails of it. It was a completely different sound. I’d never quite heard anything like it before, from anyone, least of all Coheed and Cambria.
The composition of this album is simply perfect. The pieces of each story, and their contrasting sounds, balance perfectly only blending toward the end in a wonderful culmination.
I have raved about how expressive Sanchez’s voice is in previous reviews, I’m sure. He takes it a step further in Afterman: The Ascension It feels like he is two different people on this album, his acting is beyond brilliant. A maniacal, gremlin like sound hisses and cackles in Domino’s story where there is a wavering, haunted whisper in Amory’s arc. Sanchez’s talent for voice modulation further augments the juxtaposition of the two stories as well as their unmistakable parallels.
Brilliant album, though I was disappointed in how short it is, a mere nine tracks.. (A second half is due out in 2013). I am looking forward to their next show and February 2013’s release with great anticipation.
*The full title of the album is Good Apollo, I'm Burring Star IV: No World For Tommorow. However, it is most commonly referred to as simply “No World For Tomorrow.”
