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Rating: Okay, here we are. I've been waiting for this album for quite a while, especially because I discovered Coheed and Cambria just about a year ago and I immediately fell in love with them (just see that I've reviewed their first two albums!). However, I'm plagued by a doubt that has a Hamlet-like flavor... Generally, when reviewing an album, one dissects it entirely, regardless of telling the story of the band behind it, possibly leaving only minimal space for a preliminary introduction. In this case, however, I find myself having to deal with the final chapter of the sci-fi saga created by the flair of Coheed's frontman Claudio Sanchez, the one that puts an end to the story of Coheed and Cambria, the main characters of the story. How can I resist the temptation not to glance (or listen, if you prefer) at the three gems that precede this second Good Apollo? I'll try to limit myself by saying that previously the New York band had proven one of the most avant-garde formations regarding the international rock scene, carrying on a musical project that fused different genres and giving birth to a daring and eclectic sound that ranged from the most violent and emotional post-hardcore to the most refined metal. I surely can't describe the expectations I had when holding the album for the first time, what would I find inside this time?
So, let's get to the point!
"No World for Tomorrow": apocalyptic flavor, epic scenario and, as I’ve already mentioned, inconvenient relatives. Apocalyptic flavor, because right from the album's first beats, it is evident that they have undertaken the task of trying to give the saga's ending the right connotation. Well, I don't think they've managed to nail it perfectly this time. What the album's beginning suggests, in fact, is perhaps the exhaustion of the creative vein of Sanchez & co., who this time do not allow any space for post-hardcore influences but play tired metal, which indeed tells an ending, not certainly that of the "Sanchezian" galaxy, but perhaps that of a band. Almost melodramatic tones in "Mother Superior", with the guitars trying to support the vocalist's prayer; sickly metal with too commercial contours in the title track, even more so in "The Running Free" (the first single released): where did the dark vein that oozed from the previous album go? Not to mention the much-praised musical versatility of the group, almost absent. Despite this, the musical technique of the four emerges clearly, making the album very appreciable from a purely technical point of view and catchy. Is this the biggest flaw? Did they really need to sell that much? Nonetheless, there's room for adrenaline in "Gravemakers and Gunslingers" and for sharp riffs in "Justice in Murder", a positive note that concludes the first part of the album. Similar to the first Good Apollo, in fact, the album's final part represents an appendix that ends up becoming a standalone part: here begins the quintet "The End Chapter".
The work of the four almost completely detaches itself from the first part; for the first time, the epic background that accompanied "In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3" and "From Fear Through the Eye of Madness" is discernible, and the guitars return to scratch, evoking dark atmospheres: here are Coheed and Cambria again. Finally, here they are, giving a more decisive tone to the album. Thus returns the attitude to skillfully mix progressive and metal, with always surprising results, culminating in the final track, "On The Brink", in a mix of Coheed-like sounds, indeed, with a touch of Pink Floydian flavor.
Do they save themselves in the end? Surely it's not what I expected, precisely because of what they had done before. However, they remain one of the best bands of this first decade of the 2000s.
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