Band : Coheed And Cambria
Album Title : Year Of The Black Rainbow
Label : Roadrunner Records France
Distribution : Roadrunner Records France
Release date : 25 April 2010
Review : CD

Coheed And Cambria are a progressive rock band from New York, where the band was founded in 1995. The foursome have released four studio albums prior to their brand new album “Year Of The Black Rainbow” and all these albums have the same science fiction concept, developed by singer/guitarist Claudio Sanchez, in common: The Amory Wars.
The Amory Wars tells the story of the protagonists Coheed and Cambria. This concept now definitely comes to an end with the release of “Year Of The Black Rainbow”, which actually is the prequel of the four previous albums (“The Second Stage Turbine Blade”, “In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3”, “Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness” and “Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World For Tomorrow”).
On all of these before-mentioned albums, Coheed And Cambria demonstrated an amazing mixture of progressive rock with heavy metal and post-hardcore influences. Wayward elements in this progrock are the hypnotizing high voice of singer/guitarist/songwriter Claudio Sanchez, the technical mastery of instruments, the surprising tempo changes, the emotional melodies and the epic lyrical depth.
A number of remarkable differences with the previous albums can be noted:
- there is no accompanying comic book with “Year Of The Black Rainbow”, but a novel of not less than 352 pages, co-written by Claudio Sanchez and science fiction author Peter David, is available with the special edition of “Year Of The Black Rainbow”.
- new drummer Chris Pennie (ex-Dillinger Escape Plan) can be heard for the first time on a Coheed And Cambria recording and sure has an influence on the group sound.
- “Year Of The Black Rainbow” sounds more accessible, more melodic and more poppy than the previous albums, without sounding too commercial or polished.
With every album, Coheed And Cambria managed to gain more and more success and there’s no doubt that “Year Of The Black Rainbow” will consolidate the growing popularity of the New Yorkers.
But I’m really curious what the next album, the first album no longer dealing with The Amory Wars, will have to offer…
“Year Of The Black Rainbow” contains 12 songs and has a playing time of 55 minutes.
Highlights of the album are “The Broken”, “Guns Of Summer”, “Here We Are Juggernaut”, “World Of Lines”, “Made Out Of Nothing (All That I Am)”, “In The Flame Of Error”, “When Skeletons Live” and the 7 minutes long “The Black Rainbow”.
From June 11th 2010 until July 10th 2010, Coheed and Cambria are undertaking an European tour, with dates at Dynamo Club Eindhoven (the Netherlands) on June 12th, Melkweg Amsterdam (the Netherlands) on June 27th and Rock Werchter festival (Belgium) on July 2nd 2010.

85/100

Erik.