Coheed and Cambria is a progressive rock band[1][2] from Nyack, New York
and Kingston, New York. Coheed and Cambria have released four studio albums, two live
albums, and various special-edition re-releases. Their albums are concept albums,
revealing the plot of an overarching storyline, The Amory Wars. The band plans to
release a total of five albums describing the saga The Amory Wars. To date, four studio albums have been released:
The Second Stage Turbine Blade (2002), In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 (2003), Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume
One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness (2005), and Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for
Tomorrow (2007). These albums make up the second, third, and half of the fourth part of the four-part saga of Coheed
and Cambria, respectively. The albums are being released out of sequence; the second part was released first, and the first part
will be released last.
History
Early Days (1995)
Toxic Parents, a band featuring Claudio Sanchez and Travis Stever, disbanded around the same time as Nate Kelley's
project, Moe & The Boogie Cats (who broke up after their lead singer left New York to join a UFO cult in Arizona), the
members came together to form a new band in March 1995. The band was Beautiful Loser, and it featured Travis Stever on lead
vocals and guitar, Claudio Sanchez on guitar, Nate Kelley on drums and Jon Carleo on bass.
The group was short-lived, breaking up by June of the same year they started the band, from an argument over gas money. Stever
left the band, and Kelley was initially kicked out, but came back when asked by Sanchez. Without Stever, the band became a trio,
and Sanchez took control of the lead vocals and guitar.
Shabűtie
Renaming themselves Shabűtie[3] (a name taken from
African tribe chants for "naked prey" in the film The Naked Prey), the band spent nearly
a year experimenting with a multitude of different musical tendencies: punk rock,
indie rock, acoustic rock, funk and heavy metal. When Carleo left the band in August 1996, Kelley
recruited Michael Todd, with whom he had worked on an acoustic side project
called Esme 9, to take his place. Todd, who was primarily a guitarist, picked up the bass specifically for Shabűtie. Stever
rejoined the band and around this time Claudio began writing many of the works of his side
project, The Prize Fighter Inferno.
Coheed and Cambria (2001—2006)
Following Kelley's departure, Sanchez and the others chose Josh Eppard, then of the band
3, to take his place. They finished out the year and performed halfway through 2001 before
changing their name to Coheed and Cambria and releasing the Delirium Trigger EP, and
the history of Shabűtie was finished.[3] The band
then consisted of four members: Claudio Sanchez (vocals/guitar), Travis Stever (guitar), Michael Todd (bass/backing vocals), and
Josh Eppard (drums). When playing live, Dave Parker (keyboards/guitar) joins
the lineup.
Recent times (2006—2007)
The Keywork: symbolizes the energy stream between the planets in Coheed and Cambria's fictional world. Also a commonly used logo
for the band.
Josh Eppard was unable to make Coheed and Cambria's June 9 slot at the Download Festival in the UK due to illness. A few days
later, the band issued a statement cancelling the Barcelona and Essen legs of their European tour. In early November 2006, it was
announced that both Eppard and Michael Todd had officially left the band for personal reasons. It was announced that
Chris Pennie, the drummer for Dillinger Escape
Plan, would be playing with the band live, but because of contractual restrictions, Pennie could not appear on the record.
Instead, Taylor Hawkins, the drummer for the Foo
Fighters, would record with the band on their latest album. The band announced that they would play at the 2007 Vans
Warped Tour and that new songs from their then forthcoming album, titled Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for
Tomorrow[4], would be debuted during the
tour.
On April 25, 2007, former bassist Michael Todd officially
rejoined Coheed and Cambria just in time to join the band on April 27, 2007, to enter the Los
Angeles based studio with producer Nick Raskulinecz to begin work on their next album,
due to be released in fall of 2007. On June 28, 2007, it was confirmed on the band's Myspace
that Chris Pennie is officially the new drummer for the band, and had left his previous band, The Dillinger Escape Plan. On July 23, 2007, Claudio has
confirmed that the new album, Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow, will be released on
October 23rd, 2007. On July 27, 2007, Absolutepunk.net reported that the first single from the upcoming CD will be "The Running
Free" and that it was to be released to radio on August 20, 2007. The entire album is
currently on the band's official MySpace. Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow has an
official countdown website, in which messages are released to the fans weekly, containing information revealing the new album
week by week. [5][6]
On August 20, 2007, Coheed and Cambria announced on their
official countdown website for Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow, that they will be
doing a headline tour with special guests Clutch and The Fall of Troy.[6]
Influences and similarities
Sanchez has several times stated he is jealous of his father's era of music, and that the band is influenced by bands from
that time such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd,
The Police, Queen, and Thin Lizzy[7] The bassist of the band,
Michael Todd, had additionally stated Saga is not an influence as which has been stated in
an unknown source and denies the fact he knew of the existence of the band.[8] Sanchez has stated that many of the influences for The Amory Wars, which Coheed and Cambria focus
their music upon, has influences from many other stories. He says "There’s little things in the book, in the dialogue — like
when Coheed comes home to Cambria, she says, "Somehow I’ve always known," which is a line that Princess Leia says to Luke
Skywalker. If you look in the book, you’ll see a lot of similarities between Coheed And Cambria’s story and other
stories."[9] In another interview, he states:
"...the original Star Wars Trilogy, they are also a big influence on me".[10]
Other projects
- The Amory Wars (previously The Bag.On.Line.Adventures) —
Claudio Sanchez's comic book series detailing the story of Coheed and Cambria.
Gus Vasquez also worked on the books. The series released its first volume on June 13, 2007. An
Amory Wars sketchbook with character profiles and sample art has also been released.
- The Prize Fighter Inferno — Side-project of Claudio Sanchez. The
debut album "My Brother's Blood Machine" was released October 31, 2006. Its story is only related to Coheed and Cambria in that
it is narrated by Jesse, who is "The Prize Fighter Inferno", and is meant to be a prequel to the other Coheed albums.[3]
- Fire Deuce — Travis Stever's side-project, that has released two EPs, "Children of
the Deuce" and "Deep Down and Dirty".
- The English Panther — Travis Stever's solo side-project. The first
self-titled album was released digitally on iTunes on January 25, 2007.
Members
Current members
Live members
Past members
Discography
-
References
External links
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