Disclaimer: If you have not enjoyed the music of Coheed & Cambria to this point, chances are this album will not change your opinion. However, if you are one of those who do like Coheed (or simply have not heard them yet), this album will certainly pique your interest. Coheed & Cambria’s new album, No World For Tomorrow, is supposedly the conclusion to their four volume long musical epic, The Amory Wars. While this may seem a bit weighty for your average rock enthusiast, one need not know the story behind the songs to enjoy the musical talent laden in every track.
When I think of the conclusion to an epic, I think of massive explosive scenes like the final battle of Lord of the Rings or perhaps the destruction of the Death Star in Star Wars. The problem with No World For Tomorrow is that the music never reaches this peak. Instead the album is content to wade in the good but not great territory. Whereas with each previous album one could hear the progression and maturation in Coheed & Cambria’s sound, such maturation is absent here. The album simply sounds like a continuation of their previous album, Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness. Maybe that is not a problem for many (the full title of the album is actually Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV, Volume 2: No World For Tomorrow). I, however, like to hear progression in the sound of a band from album to album, especially with Coheed & Cambria; it is the mark of a great band.
In all fairness, No World For Tomorrow is an incredibly strong album, much more so than most of the rock crap we see spewed out of the corporate machine today. NWFT has its fair share of songs that are sure to make you sing along such as the instantly catchy “Feathers” and the first single from the album, “The Running Free”. Songs like “The Hound” and “Gravemakers and Gunslingers” are teeming over with hypnotic guitar solos and arena rock vocals sure to make Geddy Lee and the rest of Rush challenge Coheed & Cambria to a Battle of the Bands. Claudio Sanchez and lead guitarist, Travis Stever, shift in and out of styles throughout the album. They and the rest of Coheed & Cambria have found the perfect way to blend two of the most hated genres of music, metal and Emo, into a completely marketable brand of Prog-rock.
By the time, you reach the final track on the album, you may start think you have had enough of Claudio Sanchez & co. Yet it’s on the final track of the album, “On the Brink”, where things get most interesting. Finally willing to push out of the niche they have made for themselves, “On the Brink” is an intriguing blend of a classic rock/Pink Floydian mood, jam band sensibilities (think long instrumental jams) and Coheed & Cambria’s already established style. The song is a tribute to Coheed’s own ability to evolve sonically as a band and one can only wish the band had spent more time developing music that matured their sound.
No World For Tomorrow is definitely an interesting album. It delves into so many different musical genres and pays homage to so many great rock bands that the album will surely appeal to many. In spite of this, the album feels like Coheed & Cambria played it surprisingly safe for a band that prides itself on its ability to progress and meld many genres of music. One cannot but wonder how this album might have turned out if Coheed & Cambria were to take more risks with the music they put out.
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