The Loop : Coheed and Cambria - The Second Stage Turbine Blade

Coheed and Cambria - The Second Stage Turbine Blade (2002)

It really boggles my mind how I used to have so much disposable time. Before I was old enough to work and didn't have a car, money or understanding of anything happening outside the suburbs, I can't honestly figure out how I filled all that time outside of music and napping.

However, I did spend ample amount of time at the mall. Normally one parent of my group of friends would drive everyone to the mall, and another would pick us up. Usually, this would be about 6 hours later, and we'd spend what money we had on candy, Starbucks coffee we didn't even like drinking and sales at Claire's. (this is going somewhere, I promise) However, one of these endless days I ended up venturing into the old Tower Records at Desert Ridge to try and track down a copy of the Alternative Press that featured Dashboard Confessional on the cover. It had come out quite some time before but I thought I'd take a shot. To my dismay, they didn't have any on the stands, so I went ahead and browsed the CDs. As I'm walking through, I see the exact copy of the magazine I wanted wrapped up nicely above the T section.

I got home that night ready to cut out clips of my favorite pop punk bands to add to my wall when I realized that the magazine was wrapped because it had a sampler CD of a band called Coheed and Cambria. I'm fairly sure it just featured the dragonfly and only had three songs ("Junesong Provision", "33" and "Everything Evil", I believe) I listened to it on repeat until my brother broke down and bought it.

I talk a lot about "front to back albums", where you have to listen to the album in it's entirety and in the same order. In this case, you really HAVE to, because the music is literally telling a story. Once upon a time, when I had disposable time, I used to read up on the Coheed message boards and follow what was going on, but I've never been one to a) follow sci-fi or b) have an attention span, so I lost track. However, the story line is what has kept them a DIEHARD following of fans.

For that reason, the album carries like a rock and roll musical, chronicaling the story of Coheed and Cambria, the two fictional lead characters. The music was heavy and complex, more metal influenced than anything I was really into at the time. It was all still so catchy though, and kept you even more captivated by trying to piece together the clues in the lyrics.

I tried catching them at TWO shows that were canceled before I saw them play for the first time acoustic (their van had broken down the town before with all of their equipment so they had to play unplugged) Honestly, I feel like it was the best way I could have seen them, away from the theatrics and down to the bare bones of the story. That's what makes this record special, alongside being a soundtrack to one of the most challenging times in my life. They exist in a world where it's okay to be nerd and they make NO apologies for it.

In case you're curious, here's how Claudio describes the album on his blog. . . .

"Man and wife Coheed and Cambria are used as the centerpiece to enable Supreme Tri-Mage Wilhelm Ryan's attempt at destroying his archrival Mage, Mariah Antillarea. Due to a memory swiping years ago, the couple are led to believe that their former lives have now come back to haunt them. They’re told by General Mayo Deftinwolf (Ryan's Right hand) that they were long ago implanted with a great threat to Heaven’s Fence, The Monstar Virus. A virus with the ability to turn its host (Coheed) into a being powerful enough to drain the Keywork's energy sources to spark Armageddon, while their dear old counterpart, Inferno was given the only means to unlock it. Through more lies, they are led to believe their children have genetically acquired a mutated form of the virus, the Sinstar. This new strain only requires its host to mature to a certain age, and has no antidote unlike the Monstar. Their children cannot be saved and time will not side with them. Coheed and Cambria are faced with an unimaginable dilemma: to murder their own children or face Armageddon"