GOOD APOLLO, I'M BURNING STAR IV, VOLUME TWO - NO WORLD FOR TOMORROW

I've waited a while after the album was released to wait for the hype down, but even after these month I must say this is thus far the pinnacle of their careers, and the album they have had it in them to write, but they just hadn't done it yet. The punk/emo influences are almost gone, and when they do show up they just help out the song instead of taking over. No World for Tomorrow is the conclusion of the story that began with Second Stage Turbine Blade, and it is a fitting conclusion to the saga indeed, and the music has a sense of finality to it, particularly the End Complete suite, which I shall make a point of discussing later on. It begins with The Reaping, a departure from previous orchestral intros to an acoustic piece that sets the tone with some dark, foreboding lyrics. This is followed by the title track, a pseudo prog metal song with some great soloing. Another thing I forgot to mention is the presence of solos on this album, something I wish Coheed had done earlier in their career as these are some very talented guitarists. The album then moves on to three poppier tracks, which are still excellent. These being The Hound, Feathers, and the single, The Running Free, before moving onto the acoustic Mother Superior. Next is one of my favourites, the rocking, Gravemakers and Gunslingers, a guitar dominated hard rock track in the vein of Led Zeppelin. If you didn't listen to the lyrics it would seem quite upbeat, but I enjoy the darker lyrics Coheed has always written. Next is Justice in Murder, and then begins the highlight of the album, The End Complete, divided into five sections . The first is the short orchestral The Fall of House Atlantic, which sets the stage for the suite. This is followed by Radio Bye Bye, a short poppy song. The Next song is The End Complete, my favourite song Coheed has written. This song has everything, heavy riffs, a great hook, some mellow moments, and even some whoas thrown in for good measure. The Road and the Damned is another short number, which leads to the conclusion, On the Brink. This concludes the saga by beginning lightly, then just when you think it will end, it gets heavy with repeated shouts of hail!, followed by a bloodcurdling scream. This dies down and we are left with some jazz piano and then an epic guitar solo with some sci fi sounding synths to bring everything to a conclusion. An absolutely stunning release from this band, but I felt that some of the poppier songs were weaker and must resist the temptation to call it a masterpiece. 4.5 stars anyway. highlights: the end complete, on the brink, gravemakers and gunslingers.

So much for the 'emo' tag!

Coheed & Cambria [C&C] have already created a lot of waves in their (thus far) short career, appealing to many from highschoolers to renegade prog fans. While they've been best known as an 'emo' band so far it seems with this album they decided to rid themselves of that title. Yeah, it's still there in small does, bur for the most part, this is the more 'rock' album they've put out to date. The second in a two part conclusion to the concept the band has been riding since the beginning of their discography, this one is destined to be dark - seeing as how it deals with the end of the character's world. However, the album is surprisingly upbeat (for the most part) and has some excellent and catchy rock tracks with some very nice prog moments. It seems the band really has hit a niche here, because while they were toying with some of the notions present here since their first album this is the first time they've really shown mastery of what they want to do. And what is that which they want to do? This album shows a huge step forward for the band in terms of songwriting. While they may not be churning out pomp-prog masterpieces, they're showing trough a series of shorter, well produced, written and played songs that they really could do it if they wanted to.

Often labeled as ''The Next Rush'' it's important to visit that idea once more. Now, as an avid Rush fanboy - I must say that it was that exact label that turned me off of the band to begin with. I've never wanted to hear the ''next'' anything, and hearing a clone of my favorite band would not be something appealing to me. However, it was after I finally decided t take the plunge and buy their Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth album that i would find a few things. One of which is that the Rush label is almost completely unwarranted. Sure, Claudio has a high voice like Geddy and the band may have been inspired by epics like 2112 with their stories, but that's where the similarities come to an abrupt end. C&C have a very ''modern'' sound, which may turn of some prog heads, but they elements are spaced out between hard rock guitars and a couple of very prog moments that show the band in the form of The Who or even (at one point) Pink Floyd.

While a large chunk of this album is taken up by their (now standard) suite that sits pleasantly at the end of the album. Up to that point however, we're treated with some of the strongest stuff that C&C have come up with. No World For Tomorrow shows a matured version of the band that brought us songs like Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth with it's chugging pace and screaming delivery, while Mother Superior makes for a tasty, prog flavored morsel that is quite slow, but well placed and very emotionally sung. The rest of the songs here simply rock out. Starting with The Hound (Of Blood And Rank) we're introduced to a series of songs that induce headbanding with their incredible beats, choruses and melodies. This one starting with an almost Baba O'Reily kind of synth. While this is something that doesn't usually go over well in the progressive realms, the band here manages to do with grace and produces some very very good songs. Among the best are the single The Running Free with it's instruments pressing the charge and Claudio's vocals shouting back at you. This one has an infectious drum beat that, I'm sure, will get your toe tapping.

Then we get to the suite. The End Complete is comprised of 5 parts with a total running time of around 24 minutes. While the songs may not be as linked as some prog heads would like them to be, they certainly segue and know how to work well together. Obvious nods to Queen with the title Radio Bye Bye, this is the second part after the opening minute intro and what a song. A heavy guitar in the background makes for a pleasant chorus when it gets around to it. That song is still pretty standard, it's the two longer pieces of the suite that progheads will likely be looking at. The End Complete (part III of the suite) is the first longer piece - while it comes off as mostly a complex rock song instead of full blown prog it still makes for a good listen with it's time changes and, again, pleasant choruses. On The Brink is where it's really at. The conclusion to the entire series and the last track on the album, this is easily the best song on the album. Very clear influences from David Gimlour are present in the opening guitar soloing, it's chilled out melodies relaxing until they almost The Wall like chanting of ''heil! heil!''. While it may be closing in a bit too close on Floyd for comfort at points, there's no denying that this is the way we all really want the band to go. Dare I say it, this final track is full out prog.

So while the entire album may not be prog in it's fullest sense there certainly are some great moments. The band may be a bit too simple for some people's taste, but what these guys to well - they do really freaking well. This is easily the best album from the band to date, and let's hope they choose to take the direction that the final tracks on this album suggest. Commercial suicide? Perhaps. But the prog world would be happy. 4 stars! Recommended to fans of heavy prog and anyone who likes a bit of rock to their prog. An excellent addition to your collection.

Now I can understand what this band is doing in ProgArchives.

My first experience with COHEED AND CAMBRIA was not entirely successful. Though I gave their album "In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth" a 3-star rating, it was mostly out of promise, as the music really disappointed me after the first few good tracks, gradually turning into a emo-punk-pop bore fest. For some strange reason I decided to buy their latest record, "No World for Tomorrow" (the name is actually longer than that), and I'm quite happy to say the band has addressed many of the issues present in their previous work.

First of all, the vocals, which still sound very similar to other bands like THE MARS VOLTA, seem to have matured now. The tone of course is the same, but they're deployed in a much less annoying way, with more restraint, with less of that emotional (emo) vibe that they had in their earlier records. The singer sings more and whines less, which only helps to create a better experience.

But the most important change can be found in the music itself. If their preceding records still reminded me of an MTV program featuring emo-pop-punk bands, COHEED AND CAMBRIA have almost (there's still a little bit of it here and there) stripped themselves completely off that emo tag, now sounding much, much more like a true progressive-art-rock outfit. The whole album now is full of progressive references, not just the first tracks. It's easy now to detect influences like PINK FLOYD in the music, especially in the last track, "The End Complete V: On the Brink", and the riffs have also gotten much more complex, at times even getting close to progressive-metal territory. Even when the album is at its most "pop", in the infectiously catchy song "The Running Free", it never sounds trivial or blatantly commercial. It just sounds catchy. The "Oh Oh Oh Oh" that constitutes the chorus (or third section actually) of this track is really an idea that gets repeated throughout the whole disc, which helps to build a much more credible, coherent concept album.

The musicianship is still stellar. It was never a problem to begin with, but now, with better music, it shines even brighter. All in all, a far superior effort by COHEED AND CAMBRIA that's still not perfect (a few songs sound too similar to each other; the central part of the record is not as brilliant as the first five and last 3 tracks) but in general, this is a success story. With a little bit more development, I'm sure this band has what it takes to come up with a truly fantastic album. For now, 4 stars would do just fine.

I'm normally the kind of person who recoils in horror at the slightest mention of 'emo music'. However, after listening to this album, I was pleasantly surprised. Actually, I was more or less blown away. Compared to their first two albums, which have strong emo influences, Coheed and Cambria have completely moved away from that sound on this album, which I'll simply abbreviate as No World for Tomorrow. This is an album with strong prog influences that make me reminisce back to Pink Floyd at times, especially the 5 track epic at the end of the album. This is an album where I, for some odd reason, wish I could find just one tiny flaw with it, and considering my musical tastes I really shouldn't even like this album as much as I do, but I can't explain it. C&C is finally showing signs of a band that is coming to full fruition and maturing in their songwriting. The instrumental work is still amazing, especially Claudio himself. Granted he's not one of my favorite guitarists, but he at least proves himself to be quite competent time and time again. I don't find any of the tracks to be exceptionally weak on this album; however I can't recommend this to anyone who doesn't like the sound of mainstream alternative rock. For those of you who like or can at least tolerate such a sound, then definitely give this album a try. This album isn't entirely of "masterpiece" quality as a few of the songs tend to sound somewhat similar, but it's definitely a step in the right direction for C&C. I could easily see them making a 5 star album in the near future if they keep going in this direction. 4 stars from me, but I'll add in half a star for the musicianship and some of the ideas that are developed in the 5-track epic.

'No World For Tomorrow' - Coheed & Cambria (8.5/10)

While I have been able to recognize a level of progressiveness in each of Coheed & Cambria's releases (to varying degrees) this album definately has the most progressive flavour to it. Songs like the title track 'No World For Tommorow' sound nothing like the emo stylings they had earlier in their career with 'In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth.' Nowadays, although theres still that mainstream feel to some of the songs, most of the music (especially the songs in 'The End Complete' suite) has a good prog vibe to it, and even the songs that don't pass as being complex are still really good and catchy ('Feathers.)

This album starts out fantastically, to say the least. The acoustic prologue 'The Reaping' is a nice change from the traditionally boring Coheed album intros. It leads into the epic, melodic 'No World For Tommorow,' which is one of the strongest tracks on the album.

'Feathers' is the next highlight (the third track is nothing special) which has a definate 'single' feel to it. It's really a great song, with some vintage guitar sounds. It sounds like an above-the-crowd 80's pop rock song, which by definition sounds really bad, but trust me, it's a beautiful song.

'The Running Free' is another great song, and the first song I listened to off of this album. The vocals from Claudio are exceptional; a very emotional (and occasionally intense) performance.

'Mother Superior' is a charming ballad that Claudio originally composed for piano, but transposed it onto guitar. It has a bit of a 'frontier' campfire sound to it, without sounding like country. The last highlight before the suite rolls around.

The rest of the stand-alone songs are alright, but not superb. The suite (a loose suite of sorts has been present on all save the first C&C album) is probably the most cohesive of the suites, and the best to listen to from start to finish as a suite, while the other suites worked exclusively on a stand-alone song base only.

The suite offers the most progressive dish this album has to offer. The typical suite on a Coheed & Cambria album isn't your usual 'epic.' It's usually passed me as a collection of songs that the band figured would appeal more to their prog audience, over the others and have a connecting lyrical theme, that I have yet to analyze and look into, although the idea of having a concept running through multiple albums is very interesting. The final highlight this album has to offer is the grandiose closer 'On The Brink,' which sounds like it wouldn't be out of place on a Broadway musical, before breaking down into a hard rock finale.

And thus technically ends the plot arc of the Coheed & Cambria's story, the 'Amory Wars.' Although there's still yet another scheduled release from the band, it functions as a prequel to 'The Second Stage Turbine,' which makes this album the conceptual 'last' album by this band. It's a very dramatic album, and of all of Coheed & Cambria's works, this should appeal the most to prog-fans. Four stars.

MTV written all over it.

When there's a new trend in the air, there's a hype. Where there's a hype, there's MTV. Kids are shovelled with sub-par bands, and sometimes initiated with new musical ways: the cross of emo and prog.

Prog is said here tongue-in-cheek: it's not really progressive, it's just more elaborated and not always the 3 same chords over and over again. So, you have lots of attitude, lots of style but a rather thin layer of diversity. It's basically the same guitar, with the same effects in every song. Hence the need of a keyboardist to create something thicker than this.

Anyhow, some songs are catchy, but again, very thin in terms of originality. The whole thing just breathes 'how-to-please-kids-101'.

Average, butt-kicking and furious.

Josh Eppard has left so we have a new drummer for this album. I must admit I like the previous album a lot better than this one. Even the cover art is better on "Volume One" in my opinion. Anyway this particular record just seems more commercial sounding than the previous one and if it wasn't for a strong second half on this one I wouldn't even like it.The first six tracks just don't do much for me to be honest.

"The Reaping" is a laid back intro track with guitar and vocals leading the way. "No World For Tomorrow" kicks in right away and we get some nice bass. It's heavier before 3 1/2 minutes.This is my favourite of the first 6 songs. "The Hound (Of Blood And Rank)" sounds like THE WHO to start then it kicks in with vocals.This almost sounds like it could have been a single, just not a very good one. We get a guitar solo before 3 minutes. "Feathers" is too commercial sounding. Sure it's catchy but it's too poppy. "The Running Free" opens with riffs that build then it kicks in with vocals. Not a fan of those vocal melodies.

"Mother Superior" is acoustic guitar and reserved vocals early but it does get fuller. Finally we get some heaviness with "Gravemakers & Gunslingers" and the guitar is in our faces too. An uptempo rocker. "Justice In Murder" is excellent as well with the prominant guitar including a solo 3 minutes in. We get a five part suite to end the album called "The End Complete".The songs are seperate though as they don't blend into one another. Part I is intricate guitar as drums and chants join in. A short intro track really. Part II is spacey to start then it kicks in. Nice guitar 3 minutes in. Part III is my favourite song on the album.The vocals get somewhat extreme and the guitar does too. Just a great track. Part IV is an uplifting tune. Part V has strings in it and i'm not a fan of it at all early on. It's better when it kicks in before 4 minutes as contrasts continue.

A good album but not even close to being 4 stars even with a strong second half.

I don't quite understand why people keep saying that this album completely shed their emo sound and became more pure prog rock, as this album is one of the more pop oriented in their discography. After their more ambitious, proggy previous album, Coheed and Cambria seem to have gone more towards a sound focusing even more on their hooks and catchy melodies than before, not that that's a bad thing. The sound is definitely more refined all around however, without any songs which I would consider major filler in the same way of previus albums, and definitely some moments of a heavier sort of sound, which is very welcome in balancing the accessibility of other tracks.,.

Just as with any other C&C album, the first two tracks are easy enough to predict, the first being a brief intro, and the second being an anthemic epic that's consistently one of the best songs on the entire album. In this case, I'd say that No World For Tomorrow is one of my favourite of these sorts of songs, starting off with a cool riff that before unleashing one of the most epic, dramatic songs they've written, strong basslines undereath incredible vocal melodies, and a downright incredible chorus, as well as a cool reprise of the chorus of Blood Red Summer. The Hound (Of Blood and Rank) is a more fun song, once again with a cool chorus, as well as some cool string arrangements, with cool vocal harmonies, although it does drag on a bit. Feathers is definitely one of the most underrated songs by the band, sure, it's without a doubt one of the most commercial, poppy songs they've written, but I love the catchy hook and Claudio's extremely pleasant vocals, along with the guitar solo near the end. One issue that I do have with some of the heavier songs here, in particular The Running Free and Gravemakers and Gunslingers is that they do sound qiute goofy in general, mostly because it's cleat that a harder edge to the music is being pursued, but Claudio's voice is just too high and melodious to make it sound the way I feel like they tried to make. The other song on this first half that I really like is Mother Superior, which is just brimming with emotion all the way through, being powerful when it works, and subdued otherwise, making for one of their better crafted songs.

There is one problem I definitely have with this album is the fact that The End Complete suite is undoubtedly the worst of them that the band has made, with Radio Bye Bye and The Road and the Damned both being serviceable songs all around, but not as special as the songs on all the other suites are, feeling quite disjointed overall. The Fall Of House Atlantic is a cool minute long, complex and overlayed guitar piece that is quite nice, starting off the suite well, but it's really The End Complete and On The Brink that make this worthwhile at all. The latter is highly climactic, serving as an excellent closer to the entire plot of this part of the Amory Wars, and The End Complete stand out as another of their best songs, starting off in fairly standard fashion, being catchy and well played, but then it goes completely insane, showng the band at their most intense. This section distorts Claudio's vocals and then provides a very chaotic instrumental backing while the vocas are absolutely belted out, even bringing back his screaming that he didn't end up using last album at all (for the better mind you, it just works well here).

Overall, this is one of the weaker albums by the band, not having any major points of filler, but almost never reaching the heights that even Second Stage Turbine Blade reached, although this album is more varied and consistent. That said, when this album is good, it's really good, I just don't think that it has the same magic as their previous two albums at all. I'd recommend their previous two albums if you want to check out this band, and think that people who can enjoy more pop oriented elements of music at points will find those highly enjoyable.

Best songs: No World For Tomorrow, Mother Superior, III - The End Complete

Weakest songs: The Running Free, Gravemakers and Gunslingers

Verdict: A more refined, pop oriented album by Coheed and Cambria, but also a less interesting one than their previous two albums, which I'd recommend you listen to first before giving this one a shot.

Coheed & Cambria's fourth album, Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow, is part of the "The Amory Wars" comic saga created by its leader Claudio Sanchez. It is a combination of rock at times forceful, at times sublime, at times spatial, and decidedly direct. There is no room for excessively intricate developments, but not for that reason exempt from progressive elements that are incisive and powerful, with an aroma of the more aggressive side of Pink Floyd and also the Rush of the early eighties. The firm guitar riffs stand out clearly, very well supported by some keyboards that help to generate the atmosphere that the story requires.

From the clean acoustic intro The Reaping, the tracks follow one another swiftly, passing through moments of stupendous inspiration such as the intense No World for Tomorrow, the super rockers and festive Feathers and The Running Free, the passionate and sentimental Mother Superior, to the impeccable The End Complete III: The End Complete, which is probably the best achieved song and by the way the longest on the album (almost 8 minutes), with constant changes in the rhythm section and a dramatic final part.

The rest of the songs maintain the tension and do not lower their guard until the epilogue with The End Complete V: On the Brink, rounding out a very good album by New Yorkers. To enjoy from start to finish.