Coheed and Cambria (Koko, 19.6.17)
Prog rock veterans Coheed and Cambria returned to London's second worst live music venue for the final two shows of their most recent "Neverender" tour, playing their third record "Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness" in its entirety. If "In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3" was the band's breakout record, Good Apollo cemented their position in the rock mainstream.
The absolutely enormously riffed "Welcome Home" is dispatched early doors as the record's second track and I start headbanging before the opening riff has even concluded. Watching Claudio Sanchez shredding on his double axe in the gig's early moments is worth the price of admission alone. The chorus of "The Suffering" indicates a band capable of writing giant radio friendly hooks as well as ambitious conceptual pieces, whilst "Wake Up" is a soulful ballad exhibiting the depth of Sanchez's vocal talents.
Songs like "Crossing The Frame" and "Once Upon Your Dead Body" possess an intensity that is amplified in a live setting, whilst "The Willing Well III" is pleasingly dense with what us comedic types would describe as "callbacks" to earlier in the record and to elsewhere in the band's canon.
At 80 minutes in length and at the end of an exhausting week, I do find my concentration waning at points during the main set. There are seven minute songs and extended guitar solos but generally the band stay on the right side of self indulgence.
"Island" and "Delirium Trigger" are warmly received in the encore, but it's the finale of "In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3" that will stay with me as the defining moment of the gig. From the opening notes, to the rapturous cries of "MAN YOUR OWN JACKHAMMER", to the deafening cacophony when the band kick in to the song's conclusion, it's a special, joyous moment delivered by a band performing close to the top of their game.
The absolutely enormously riffed "Welcome Home" is dispatched early doors as the record's second track and I start headbanging before the opening riff has even concluded. Watching Claudio Sanchez shredding on his double axe in the gig's early moments is worth the price of admission alone. The chorus of "The Suffering" indicates a band capable of writing giant radio friendly hooks as well as ambitious conceptual pieces, whilst "Wake Up" is a soulful ballad exhibiting the depth of Sanchez's vocal talents.
Songs like "Crossing The Frame" and "Once Upon Your Dead Body" possess an intensity that is amplified in a live setting, whilst "The Willing Well III" is pleasingly dense with what us comedic types would describe as "callbacks" to earlier in the record and to elsewhere in the band's canon.
At 80 minutes in length and at the end of an exhausting week, I do find my concentration waning at points during the main set. There are seven minute songs and extended guitar solos but generally the band stay on the right side of self indulgence.
"Island" and "Delirium Trigger" are warmly received in the encore, but it's the finale of "In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3" that will stay with me as the defining moment of the gig. From the opening notes, to the rapturous cries of "MAN YOUR OWN JACKHAMMER", to the deafening cacophony when the band kick in to the song's conclusion, it's a special, joyous moment delivered by a band performing close to the top of their game.
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