 
After a couple of manic years with various different
line up changes and other ups and downs happening
The kings of science fiction concept albums Coheed
And Cambria are back with a brand new album ‘The
Afterman: Ascension’ which happens to be
the first part of a double album with the second
part due to be released in February 2013.
‘The Aftermath:Ascension’ tells the
story of Sirus and Amory as they explore the energy
source holding together the keywork to find out
that it is an afterlife for departed souls which
once again in true Coheed And Cambria style is
a big wacky story that sci fi buffs and general
Coheed And Cambria fans are going to love.
The album opens with ‘The Hollow’
which is a piano driven introduction with a spot
of spoken word narration which opens the story
andy sets the scene for the next 8 tracks to flow,
as soon as the piano work fades out Coheed And
Cambria blast into ‘Key Entity Extraction
I Domino The Destitute’ which starts off
sounding like classic Coheed And Cambria material
with a sound that would fit perfectly on their
‘Good Apollo’ album, the song flows
extremely well and straight away you can tell
that Josh Eppard is back behind the drums as the
drums feature massive beats that stand out ever
so well, vocally Claudio Sanchez is at the top
of his game with much vocal trickery going on
as the song progresses and with some freaky laughing
popping up in places and the best bit about the
song is the fact that it is a near 8minutes long
progressive masterpiece that is easily up there
with the bands best songs.
‘The Afterman’ is a slow paced short
running track, ‘Mothers Of Men’ picks
up the pace with some outstanding guitar work
and Sanchez’s unique sounding catchy vocals,
‘Goodnight Fair Lady’ is a polished
sounding rock n roll number which just flows in
a way that you can’t help but full in love
with the powerful track.
‘Key Entity Extraction III Vic The Butcher’
is easily the strongest track on the album it
just comes at you at such a manic pace that you
can’t help but get drawn into the track,
vocally the song is completely nuts with Sanchez
laying out a diverse twist to his unique sounding
vocals and overall I can imagine 1000’s
of Coheed And Cambria fans punching the air with
their fists on the live circuit whilst chanting
“Hang your secrets, hang ‘em up, hang
‘em up now”.
I have been a fan of Coheed And Cambria from
the early days and I have to say that on the first
couple of listens of ‘The Afterman:Ascension’
I was very unsure on the album but it is one of
those albums which get better over time as you
start to understand the story better and more
starts to stand out and now I easily rate the
album up there with the likes of the ‘Good
Apollo’ albums and can’t wait for
‘The Afterman: Descension’ to launch
in early 2013.
4/5
Review by Trigger
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