Erin Burchill ‘25, Editor-in-Chief
No band has such a rich artistry or fascinating sound as Coheed and Cambria. With over two decades of experience and 51 individual releases under their belts, the somewhat underground band has earned a place among the most iconic heavy rock groups of the 21st century.
Coheed and Cambria frontman Claudio Sanchez cycled through various groups in his early career: after his band Toxic Parents split in 1995, he formed Beautiful Loser as the band’s guitarist. This group only lasted three months before reforming into the trio Shabütie, which would go through multiple changes to band members before becoming the four-man Coheed and Cambria best known today. The band’s unique name comes from the main characters—Coheed and Cambria Kilgannon—of Sanchez’s science-fiction comic book series The Amory Wars, a side project whose central story and themes have influenced the various albums produced by the band over the last 23 years.
Coheed and Cambria’s first album, The Second Stage Turbine Blade, released in 2002 and featured three reworked songs written and produced before the band officially formed. Following the release, Coheed and Cambria toured extensively with bigger names like Linkin Park and Slipknot and appeared at the 2002 Vans Warped Tour. Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness, their third album and first release under a major label, came out in 2005 and is overall their most successful album to date. It marks a transition from their early aggressive post-hardcore rock style to their more modern and recognizable eclectic and grandiose progressive rock sound.
The band has charted top 10 on the Billboard 200 with six of their albums, with Year of the Black Rainbow and The Aftermath: Ascension both peaking at number five. Good Apollo Volume One, as well as their 2003 album In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, were both certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. Their current top 10 trending songs have a total of over 326 million streams on Spotify.
Their eleventh studio album, The Father of Make Believe, released on March 14, with three singles dropping in the few months previous. The first of these, “Blind Side Sonny,” debuted on Coheed and Cambria’s 2024 summer tour opening for rock band Incubus; the song was described as a “booty-rump shaker” by Sanchez himself, and its upbeat drums and heavy head-banging guitar certainly embody that portrayal. “Searching for Tomorrow” was the first single to release as an official part of the upcoming album in November and “Someone Who Can” followed in January; the former mimics the band’s most recognizable style more closely, while the latter is one of the rarer songs to feature a hopeful rather than angry overtone.
As is customary when releasing a new album in this era of music, Coheed and Cambria announced a tour to showcase their new tracks. The Infinite Arc Tour will be a co-headliner alongside bands Mastodon and Periphery, with a second leg recently added with Taking Back Sunday and Foxing. It will cover 46 stops across the U.S. from May to September, with the two most local shows set for June 6 at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids and Aug. 22 at Freedom Hill Amphitheater in Sterling Heights.
SLHS choir and Piano Lab teacher Mr. Andrew Hathikhanavala has been a fan of Coheed and Cambria since his days working at a music store, where his coworkers introduced him to the band’s earliest music. “It’s been hard for me to keep up with all their stuff since back then, but thinking about them now makes me want to revisit more of it,” he said. “I love music that is really technical and progressive but also includes great melodies. They seem to do a nice job bringing those things together. I’ll definitely give the new [album] a listen when it comes out, but I have a feeling it’ll be a pretty demanding album. It might need to wait until spring break when I can give it the attention it requires.”
Though at first glance the themes, album covers, lyrics, and social media presence of Coheed and Cambria seem over the top and nonsensical, the band truly is a persisting example of the genius of the early 2000s rock scene. The talent of each member shines through in their instrumental features, with the punchy guitar focus and solos defining the band’s style and Sanchez’s chaotic yet calculated vocals perfectly topping off the music. For fans of more well-known names like Chevelle, Jimmy Eat World, and Brand New, Coheed and Cambria is worth a listen.
Lyon Life 