Coheed And Cambria - The Unheavenly Creatures Album Review
Bringing the album into its final stages is “All On Fire”, a dramatic number that reflects the narrative coming to a head, perfectly creating a sense of urgency with its keening riffs and repeated call to “please bring water”. “It Walks Among Us” gives the payoff to this buildup, a punchy fight song with verses where Sanchez practically spits out each syllable and another absolute earworm of a chorus. If there’s one word to describe this track, it’s badass; it practically oozes rebellious energy and you’re left eager to “go out and get it” just as the song urges.
Finally, there’s “Old Flames” and “Lucky Stars”. “Old Flames” begins with a piano melody which sharp-eared listeners will notice echoes the one from the “Prologue” towards the end, before kicking into a bright and airy rock anthem. The chorus features some of Coheed and Cambria’s signature lyrical dissonance; despite the insistence that “we all go up in flames / going out in style” making clear that the heroes are probably about to face a tragic end, the track stays wonderfully and unapologetically upbeat, ending on an uproarious singalong series of “na na nahs”, then closing on a more discordant, distorted version of the piano melody from the intro and “Prologue”. It’s a perfect close to the album, especially if you’re clued in on the story (the final words the protagonist say to each other in the novel are the same ones interjected between the “na na nah” segements here).
The musical and narrative bookends that “Old Flames” provides makes the inclusion of “Lucky Stars” even more clunky than it might otherwise have been. It’s perhaps the only misstep on the album; a decent track in and of itself, featuring some lovely violin and a great guitar solo, it nevertheless feels slightly tacked on and brings the mood down considerably from the joyful anthem preceding it.
Overall, The Unheavenly Creatures is a fantastic album, one that isn’t afraid to sway from one genre and tone to the next between and even within songs. The synths used throughout add a great new tool to Coheed’s musical arsenal, giving the whole album a retro sci-fi vibe that works extremely well in the narrative’s setting; it’s great to see that this far into the band’s life they’re still trying new things to change up their sound. If there’s one criticism to level at the album though, it’s that it stretches itself a little bit too far; the sheer length of the thing can be a bit overwhelming, giving individual tracks a hard time standing out from each other, especially towards the middle.
Other than this niggle, however, it’s arguably one of the strongest records Coheed and Cambria have put out since 2005’s Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV, Vol. I: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness (and you thought that Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures was a clunky title). If the next four records in the band’s planned pentalogy are of as high a calibre as this, Coheed and Cambria’s future is looking very bright indeed.
Rating: 4.5/5