First Impressions
This album met pretty much every expectation the previous one set up, and I mean that in the best of ways.
In a way, I'm thinking both afterman albums should be less seen as two separate releases. Instead, they seem way more like two discs of the same album. They are both pretty short, have the same cover, and released less than a year apart from each other.
Now don't get me wrong, I do not think it would've been better to release them as a double album. I am really glad they did not in fact. Because this album, just like Ascension, feels like a very complete journey. Somehow they managed to achieve the perfect pacing in the exact same way twice.
This album is going to be a little hard to talk about, since all I said about Ascension applies to it too. However, there are some differences here. Maybe even more than seem apparent on a first listen.
Here, the progressive alt-rock sound is still super present. But it's a little darker, more experimental. There's a lot more epics here, a lot more emotional songs too. It definitely feels like like the yin to Ascension's yang. It feels like a much more serious take on this sound.
We start with a one-two punch. The intro is a full song this time, unlike most Coheed albums. Perelethal starts off just a regular old mood setter, but quickly blasts off into a super grand chorus. I love the underlying riffs, and Caludio's voice feels especially great. He's not hitting any high notes, but there's just such a unique bite to the way he says certain words. It really feels like he's putting all of his body into the singing.
Sentry The Defiant is the last of the Key Entity Extractions from the previous album. And it serves the purpose pretty much every first proper song of a Coheed album does. Being the grandest and most epic track of the record.
It is extremely similar to Domino The Destitute. The riffs sound very similar, the arena reverb vibe, which makes it sound absolutely huge, is so similar to it that it has to be an intentional parallel. There's no chanting in this one, which is always a loss. But man they just know how to write such good sci-fi epics. I don't even know how they do it but it captures the space feeling so well it's crazy.
After this though, we get to the crazy part of the album.
The Hard Sell is... kind of a masterpiece? I don't know if that's hyperbole. But seriously, what were they doing when they made this song? It's not complicated, but it just goes so damn hard. That chorus is really everything. The vocals and drums just rip it all at once, and the guitars start doing this riff that almost sounds metalcore inspired? It's absolutely incredible. Once again, they are some of the tightest and most effective songwriters I've ever heard. They pack so much into this song in such a short time.
And then Number City keeps up the madness. This is a completely different type of song, super upbeat, with daft punk type elements. I love the electronic sounds on this one, they add to it's super jolly and kind of cheesy sound and make it work in a way I feel like it didn't have the right to. I love this song so much.
Gravity's Union is another epic. In fact, it might be the first time they're putting another huge epic on the same level as the album opener so close to the beginning.
Not only that, but they manage to make it sound even more climactic and grand. This song just sounds so huge, like a space station is exploding. There's an underlying beauty to it though. No matter what, that spacey feeling I was talking about earlier just doesn't leave. This might sound like it puts the album in a box, but it doesn't. It just provides a super strong backbone for all the songs to feel connected, despite the fact that they're really varied in sound.
I think it has to do the most with the production. There's something not too clear about it, but in a very intentional and artful way about it. I don't know how else to describe it. But it really is the secret sauce of these two albums.
Away We Go is a full on pop rock ballad. This could play on any radio and I would not bat an eye to it. Despite the fact that I like it less than every song heard so far, it's still really good. Damn they just know how to write super infectious melodies.
But then we get one of my favorite Coheed tropes. The super slow and quiet ballad. Iron Fist is absolutely beautiful.
This song expresses so much heartbreak and even anger, all with such a tender quietness that I feel like should not be possible. It's so pretty. The melodies are so bittersweet, along with Claudio's voice. The best part about this song though, is the bass. The way he hits those harmonic embellishments is just sooo tasty. This is why the fretless bass stays superior.
Then Dark Side Of Me keeps the more serious and kind of depressing tone of this latter half of the album. This is the most traditonal power ballad of the bunch, super soft verses and an explosive heartbreaking chorus. It's not much beyond that, but it doesn't need to be. Once again, they thrive in taking simple structures and making them purposeful. I genuinely feel the heartbreak this song is trying to convey to my core.
Finally, we have 2's My Favorite 1, another very radio friendly song to end the album. There's something very "movie soundtrack" feeling about this one, about most of the songs here, if I'm being honest. That's a compliment by the way. I just think this feels so nice, fresh. Sometimes being progressive doesn't mean having 30 time changes, it's just doing what's expected in a much more artful way. At least that's how I see it.
Oh wow, that's the end. I love how short and bite sized these two albums were.
I was not expecting this side of this band. Which is crazy cause I HAD heard a much more tame and subtle version of them in their modern albums, but I just did not think it could be as strong as their early material. This really blew my mind with how something so much more simple in concept could be done so tastefully. And man, they just write such good poppy songs, it's magic.
Ranking
The Hard Sell
Key Entity Extraction V: Sentry The Defiant
Number City
Iron Fist
Gravity's Union
The Dark Side Of Me
Pretelethal
2's My Favorite 1
Away We Go
Score