First Impressions
All right, all right. I knew it was impossible for a band to keep the amazing standards Coheed has without any significant drop in quality at SOME point. This time it came later in the marathon.
I'll come out saying this straight away. This is the only Coheed album I have not liked in the entire marathon. Even the more infamously "bad" ones (Year Of The Black Rainbow, Color Before The Sun) I liked quite a bit. I actually thought those albums had a lot of great songs and were mostly muddled by the overall package containing a little too much filler. But this one finally broke that streak.
This was the first album of their modern era, the Vaxis era. Marking a return to the Amory Wars storyline, and also to an overall more epic and progressive sound. The trend for these kinds of changes in bands is that the first album of it's kind is usually the best one, but this was somehow kind of agonizing.
The main problem here is the album's length. This has 15 songs averaging 5 minutes, with some reaching longer than that. The album is the length of an average Dream Theater album, and somehow it feels like its the length of The Astonishing.
I do not mind a long album, Good Apollo is almost as long as this, and that's my favorite album from them. But you NEED to have the tracks if you're gonna make something as long as this, and this, while having some bangers, really falls short almost all the way through.
And let me mention, the good songs here are still really really good.
The Dark Sentences is a proper epic, and it feels like it's calling back to a lot of their earlier songs, but in a pretty tasteful way. It's a great way to herald in this new story, which I believe takes place before the main Amory Wars narrative.
You have some absolute bops which, while not reaching the legendary pop levels of the short songs of previous albums, are still really catchy and are the definite highlight of the album. The title track is an early example of this, the "run run run" part, followed by the little tail of the melody at the end is just so catchy. The whole chorus is just peak Coheed writing.
The problem is, aside from some exceptions like Love Protocol and The Gutter, the quality of the album kind of plummets for me after the first two songs. Toys is probably one of the worst Coheed songs I've heard, it's not horrible but man I just didn't vibe with anything it had to offer. Black Sunday is not a very good song to follow it up either.
After that, the album kind of settles on a very average and unmemorable quality. Yeah, most of these songs are not bad, but they just feels so bland to me. Considering how strong their melodies and hooks can be, it just feels like such a slog. And it's SO MANY of these filler songs. Queen Of The Dark, True Ugly, The Pavillion, Night-Time Walkers. And they just feel so much longer than they are. It's a pretty unpleasant journey.
It Walks Among us is kind of a miracle. By this point of the album, my mind has been quite numbed with very average and unmemorable songs, and then out of nowhere they come out with this absolute banger. The choppy nature of the "come and get it" parts is just so good. And the chorus just keeps getting better. It's good enough the first time around, but when the drums change from a standard driving feel to a gallop it just makes it perfect.
And then, somehow, they manage to follow that up with the BEST song of the album. Old Flames. When I reached this point, I was so happy. After the slog this album was, they give us probably one of the best songs they've made in this modern era. it's so catchy, upbeat, the chorus is absolutely perfect. It's so good that the main melody of it seems to be the most recurring motif of the entire Vaxis trilogy.
I will say, I don't hate this album. I'd even hesitate to call it a bad album. The filler songs, while very unmemorable, are not bad, they're just very average. If this album was shorter, my enjoyment of it would be so much higher.
That being said, I do respect the ambition of it, it's clear they wanted a fresh start without leaving the narrative they'd created. And it did give way to the banger that is Vaxis II. So despite this dethroning Color Before The Sun as the worst Coheed album, it's still impressive this is their lowest point.
Ranking
Old Flames
The Unheavenly Creatures
It Walks Amongst Us
The Gutter
The Dark Sentencer
Love Protocol
All On Fire
Queen Of The Dark
Lucky Stars
True Ugly
Night-Time Walkers
The Pavillion (A Long Way Back)
Black Sunday
Toys
Prologue
Score