Album: The Afterman: Ascension
Artist: Coheed and Cambria
Genre: Progressive Metal
Suggested by: The Identity Matrix
Familiarity: None. Been meaning to listen to this band for a while, though.
1. The Hollow - Dark and brooding modern classical piece, with some spoken word thrown in. I hear their entire discography is a semi-continuous saga. I'll have to look at this one, and then hopefully check out the others in sequence. Great so far, though.
2. Key Entity Extraction I: Domino the Destitute - First big and "hairy" track on this album. First opportunity to hear Claudio's voice. Not sure what to think yet, it sort of seems like an acquired taste. Very modern metal sound. Meh, I don't know what to think. Elements of prog metal have become such an integral part of modern metal that it's sometimes hard to distinguish them. Now I remember where I've heard these kind of vocals before, it's sort of a 30 Seconds to Mars kind of thing. Hmm. Not really my style of prog metal, so I can't say I really enjoyed it a ton. It's sort of generic, hopefully we get some different stuff.
3. The Afterman - What's this? Sounds like something from the Hot 100, not a prog metal band. Doesn't even sound progressive at all. Strings were a good addition to this song. Meh, too much pop influence to really do anything for me. I don't dislike it, but I don't like it either.
4. Mothers of Men - Lyrics seem to be representing specific themes in this one. I like that, at least. The music, on the other hand, is pretty revolting to me. It's just so depressingly cheesy. Can't give it more than a yellow at this point.
5. Goodnight, Fair Lady - I don't know if it's just that they're late in their career, but this band sounds more poppy than proggy. It's almost like listening to Genesis post-Duke. It's like, alright, there's certainly a hint of some prog in there, but this is really mostly a pop rock band. Really getting tired of this garbage.
6. Key Entity Extraction II: Holly Wood the Cracked - Alright, I enjoy this one quite a bit more. Better songwriting and lyricism. Still not really tickling me, but much better than the last few songs. Maybe a bit of industrial influences towards the end.
7. Key Entity Extraction III: Vic the Butcher - This song retains the mechanic squeals from the end of the last song. Lyrics in this one are a bit cringeworthy, especially the "Hang 'em up, hang 'em up now." That's not the best way to use lyrical repetition. Musically, this one is a bit more back to the, hate to say it, metalcore-like song structure. But even some metalcore songs manage better songwriting. I want to like it, but it's really hard. Bit on the keys at the end is good, though.
8. Key Entity Extraction IV: Evagria the Faithful - Welcome back to generic love song central. Where we eschew progressive themes for a love song. Blegh. All the "Ooh"s thrown in are a bit counterproductive. Given a very emotional singer, they may work well. Unfortunately, the lead of Coheed is not an emotional singer. That doesn't mean he's bad, it just means his performances don't feel honest. I really think a different singer could have saved a lot of these songs, but Claudio's Bruno Mars-like vocals do not work well with prog. If this even counts a prog.
9. Subtraction - Don't know what they could possibly take away from this album. Hopefully the title is a fake-out. Wait, excuse me? Totally different band now. Drum machine and acoustic guitars, this song is very different from the others. The vocals actually fit with the music now. Much better closer. Again, still nothing magical, but good nonetheless.
My god, is this what progressive music has become? Pop music? This album is a bit of a hit or miss. They do retain the poppy elements throughout the album, but within that there are clearly more inspired and less inspired songs. I was expecting a lot more from this album, and I'm now a bit disappointed, but even without those expectations, I believe this is merely a mediocre album. There's some good, and some bad, but what it has doesn't amount to "spectacular". Sorry, but I'm not getting much out of this.
OVERALL RATING: 5.5/10