IN KEEPING SECRETS OF SILENT EARTH - 3

This is a good sign seeing this band on Archives (at least in Related genre). It means that we don’t lock ourselves in Retro-Prog and agree that Prog hadn’t died on December, 31, 1979. Prog is progressing, taking new forms and expressions, blending with other styles and genres, and sometimes the result can be amazing. In CaC case I should say COULD be amazing.

COHEED AND CAMBRIA play some kind of a EmoProg (?), with clear influences from METALLICA and pop-punk. What makes them different from many other bands is their level of musicianship, recognizable vocals (can annoy others but I like them) and unconventional (in Emo world ;) ) way of arranging and songwriting (long tracks, numerous tempo changes and wide usage of complex signatures). On the other hand, CaC fails to hold my attention during the whole album. They sound very samey on this release (as well as on the previous one), and I choose to listen to some songs from it (“In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth- 3”, “The Crowning”), not the whole thing which I’ve listened to 4 or 5 times. And it was hard task, believe me! Somewhere in the middle attention slips away, all songs ae becoming very close to each other and only epic (split into 3 separate tracks) and closing “The Light and the Glass”, a masterpiece in its own, made me awaken again.

I believe that CaC have a huge potential. They’re pretty popular and it helps to enlarge the amount of attention given to Prog in some way, and this is positive. They are able to overcome those flaws they have for now and become more challenging and fascinating…if they want to.