I bless the hour that holds your fall
I will kill you all
-Coheed and Cambria, The Crowing
“We carried on, unnoticed
Thinking that all dreams were ours for the taking”
-Coheed and Cambria, Atlas
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| Not going to lie, Claudio's hair is another reason why I love the band. |
My Truck and Coheed
I think just about everyone has “their band”. I also think just about everyone has “their car”. Both are equally statements about who we are. Both are equally marketed to us. And while, I would not go so far as to say that your band and your car make you who you are, I think they go along way in demonstrating that.
I found both my car and my band at the same time. It was 2005. I had been driving a 1985 Nissan Dodson Pickup. Now, I loved this truck, despite the fact that it 1) did not have a functioning radio, let alone CD player; 2) had no air conditioning; 3) had no cruise control; 4) had very little in terms of horsepower; and 5) suffered from a continually slipping generator belt which either caused a loud squealing noise to come out of the engine or make it impossible to start.
I loved that truck for the simple reason that it was my first vehicle. It was my first taste of freedom. And it did (generator belt issues notwithstanding) run really well. I drove it to school, gave friends rides home, and when I graduated high school, made the 2,000 mile trek from Lake Stevens, WA to Carbondale, IL. No radio, no A/C, no problem. I simply rolled down the window and sang songs that I knew from memory.
A person’s first vehicle is also a sanctuary of sorts, and it’s where one’s musical tastes can shine. The 1985 Dodson was probably the oldest car in the student lot at high school, and I am even more sure it was the only one without a functioning audio system. I couldn’t even listen to the radio. This did not seem to deter friends from wanting a ride, and my truck was often full of four kids and we chatted away to pass the time.
So, it wasn’t until 2005 that I upgraded that I was able to find that musical sanctuary. My parents purchased for me a 2000 Nissan Frontier. It was black. It was higher up than the Dodson. It was bigger. And, it had a functioning audio system.
2005 was a big year of change for me. After two years of living on campus at Southern Illinois University, I moved off campus into an apartment. I was to have my own room. I had to cook on my own. I could keep my own hours without worrying about waking a roommate. And I also got really, really, really into Coheed and Cambria.
Lacking for a musical sanctuary, my musical tastes in high school were tame. I liked classic rock. Journey, Foreigner and U2 were my go-to bands, and this more or less reflected the tastes of my Dad (though, I am more fond of U2 than he is). I could really only listen to music in my room, and not having an iPod or anything like that, I played it fairly safe.
But now, there was no need for that. One of my roommates introduced me to Coheed, and the rest, they say, is history. It’s possible that any band I was introduced to during that year could have become my favorite, because now I could play music in my truck, sing along with reckless abandon.
Coheed and Cambria, for the uninitiated, is a “concept band”. While some bands will complete a “concept album”, in which the songs tell a story, Coheed’s entire discography was a continuation of the story. The story that they tell, without getting into the specifics is a very violent space opera, which follows the main character Claudio in his quest to avenge his murdered parents, Coheed and Cambria.
It also rocks.
For me, it was the perfect band to break into and declare independence from my old self. It was much harder rock than I was used to, the songs were gloriously violent, and maybe above all else, they were mine.
Coheed and Cambria gets some radio play, but I’ve never really considered them to be “big”. I had friends who liked them, but for the most part when I talk about them, I get blank states or, “oh yeah, I think I’ve heard of them.”
As the years went on, I bought more and more of their albums. I purchased the four-disc “Neverender” Live Shows. When Afterman: Ascension came out, it ended up in my truck’s CD player for months until Descension came out. I did listen to other bands, but the one that by far got the most play in the truck was Coheed and Cambria.
In the fall of 2014, I got to listen to Coheed in my truck for the final time. In the midst of all of this, I had changed careers, I had gotten married, and my wife and I were headed to Bozeman to trade in the Nissan Frontier for a Nissan Rogue. It wouldn’t be my truck, but our car. My wife doesn’t like Coheed, and I don’t care for country music, and so our road trips are usually soundtracked with podcasts. As I drove down Montana 16 to pick her up in Glendive, I took full advantage and blasted Second Stage Turbine Blade the whole way.
Of course, bands change as well. In October of 2015, Coheed released The Color Before the Sun, which departed from the Armory Wars saga, and was a stand alone album. The songs did not refer back to anything, they could just be taken as they were. The album was good, I have listened to it several times (even in the car, usually when driving by myself). But, far and away, my favorite song on The Color Before the Sun is ‘Atlas’. Atlas is a song that Claudio Sanchez penned to his newborn son. I really think it’s a beautiful song, and his love for his son really comes through in the piece. The song really resonated with me a year later, when Kodi and I learned we would have our first child. That was when the lines near the end of the song really started to mean something to me. The last verse, repeated once is this:
There's no running away from what's been done, here
Will you sink with the ship, or will you burn it down?
Now, give us the man that you've been hiding
'Cause this is your, this is your life, this is your life, now
To me, this line, which seems on its face to be kind of violent and out of place in a song dedicated to your newborn, is actually a really touching reminder to Claudio, and to any dad. It’s time to be responsible. There’s no running away from it, it’s a big moment in your life. It’s up to you to make the most of it. Will you sink with the ship, or will you burn it down, is basically asking if the father will stay or destroy what he’s built. If there’s any doubt to the answer to that question, it’s answered in the next line. “Give us the man that you’ve been hiding” is a call for the man inside to come out. The man who will take responsibility, to provide, to do right by mother and child, that person needs to come out. The line,”This is your life now” probably does not need much of an explanation.
I listen to Atlas from time to time, and it has become one of my favorite Coheed and Cambria songs. It is by far the one I can connect to the most. Each time I listen to it, I feel something slightly different.
Coheed is going back into the Armory Wars. Vaxis Part One: Unheavenly Creatures is set to come out this week. I have loved the songs that have been released, and Unheavenly Creatures is such an insanely fun song, that it’s reminded me of all the reasons I loved the band in the first place. That song in particular has a sort of Favor House Atlantic vibe to it, The lyrics are fun, the pace is fast, the vocals are loud, the melody is unique. I sometimes felt during the Afterman albums that the band was taking themselves to seriously, and the songs weren’t as fun as they could be. I think that the Armory Wars deals with big issues and themes, and some seriousness is needed (it is about war, after all) but, one of the things that made Coheed work was that they clearly were having fun with their work. Their songs weren’t all dreary and nihilistic, there was a hopeful vibe to a lot of their stuff, and above all it was music that was simply fun to listen to.
I think the best example of this, might be The Crowing, which is quoted above. It’s a song about fulfilling destiny, and doing what needs to be done. And the way in which vengeance is promised is downright poetic.
I’m glad that Coheed is finding its groove once again, and I hope it continues. As for me, I might just have to find some reason to go on some solo road trips. There’s just something about the combination of the open road and Coheed that I can’t seem to resist.
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