Coheed and Cambria - Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV - Volume I: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness

I really had no idea what to expect from this album. I certainly wasn’t expecting what I got. Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV – Volume I: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness seems to verge from fantasy metal through to emo, and back again.

One thing I did know, and that’s probably given away by the lengthy title, is that this is a concept album. I was only given the CD to review, and not the Graphic Novel which has been produced to accompany it (this is a trick Coheed and Cambria have used before), so I did the right thing, and sat down with the lyric booklet to try and figure out what this story was all about.

Other than vague notions of a tale of love, betrayal and a fiery and bloody revenge, I couldn’t really figure it out. But such an epic quest is of course suited best to a realm of castles and the supernatural, and the music does a great job of reflecting this. A string quartet intro leads to an acoustic song, before Welcome Home pushes us down the fantasy metal path. There’s squealing guitars, keyboards, epic strings, and a vocal style reminiscent of Iron Maiden. There’s even a dueling guitar solo!

The album continues on in this style for a while, with Apollo I: The Writing Writer, being a strong highlight. Claudio Sanchez’ vocals are distinctive, and not quite to my taste, but he has a real knack for making unusual rhythms sound very catchy. But gradually things start to change. A few whoa-whoa’s manage to sneak their way into tracks like Crossing the Frame, and by the time we reach Wake Up, we’re in true emo territory. Another acoustic track with emotive strings, this song actually features the line “I’ll do anything for you”. Normally I’d find this cringingly bad, and I do, but even with my limited understanding of the story it does seem to fit in this moment, so I’m going to let it go… this time. The Suffering is a bit of pop punk, with hey!s and ha-ha!s. Despite the kind of bummer lyrics, it’s infectious and hard not to sing along.

Things start to get a bit darker again for the last four tracks, collectively known as The Willing Well. II – From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness has a bouncy opening, and you find yourself bopping along to lines like “you’ll burn in hell while they’re digging you out”. But then the whoa’s start to become more reminiscent of the chorus of the wicked witche’s servants from The Wizard of Oz as the guitars shift to a more menacing key. A deep voice threatens “run little rabbit…” and we’re back into fantasy metal territory.

Also making a return is III – Apollo II: The Telling Truth, which contains many of the same ideas as Apollo I, but is to me the more satisfying version of the two. IV – The Final Cut is a fittingly dramatic end. And then we get a lap steel guitar driven ho-down as a bonus track. Huh?

At the end, I still don’t know the story, and I’m still not sure what I make of this album. But give it a shot. Chances are you’ll either love it, or end up utterly confused, but there’s merit in both reactions. My advice is to let the music take its course, even if it’s not your thing, the journey still seems kinda fun.

(Originally published on FasterLouder)