SOUND BITES

  Diving back into The Armory Wars saga that's defined their entire career (save one record) with the first volume of a planned five-album arc in 2018, Coheed and Cambria rewarded longtime fans worried about the abandonment of their epic sci-fi prog with a massive 79-minute behemoth that delivered everything a fan could hope for in spades; maintaining their gifts in storytelling while creating some of the most interesting and accessible music of their career, Vaxis I: The Unheavenly Creatures was a staggering accomplishment for a band that could have easily phoned in a dozen Welcome Home clones and watched the dollars roll in. One of the elements that really surprised me about the first Vaxis installment was its sustained quality, with its closing three tracks especially effective in showcasing the group's considerable talents and setting the stage for a wildly anticipated second volume. Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind arrives later than any of us hoped for (at 3½ yea...

After a brief fling with non-fiction in the form of 2015's The Color Before the Sun , Coheed and Cambria's eighth album (and first with Roadrunner) immediately and handily squashes any apprehension about their devotion to The Amory Wars . After five albums (and one side album) concerning the incredibly complicated story arc, The Color Before the Sun turns out to have been a one-off, a pause to recenter the author of these grand tales before diving headlong into another round or five. At nearly eighty minutes, The Unheavenly Creatures (reportedly the first of five planned albums to tell the story of Vaxis ) is only slightly shorter than The Afterman , their 2012/2013 double album; however, unless listeners are extremely patient, the option to split this album's two halves by six months isn't really an option. It stands to reason, then, that The Unheavenly Creatures is a slog to get through and difficult to stay invested in. The thing is, Coheed and Cambria have...

As our look back on the year that was catches up to the present (and peeks ever so slightly into the future), it becomes clear that the vast majority of rock artists preferred to avoid the last two months of the year; though it's typically the stronghold time of year for pop superstar stocking stuffers, I still find it just a bit odd to see that two month gap emerge after mid-October with no nominated songs. In fact, that's almost as odd as two established bands deciding to release their albums one week before Christmas. Regardless, our last batch of nominees runs the gamut: here we find new artists to look out for, home grown Maritime talent hitting its stride, and no less than three bands with multiple Album of the Year nominations. Song of the Year nominees #41-50 are:

The list of current bands who have made careers out of grand, conceptual storytelling is very small, and Coheed and Cambria arguably sits atop the heap in terms of overall commitment and success. Over the course of their previous six albums (I count 2012/2013's Afterman double shot as one), they dedicated their craft to the telling of The Amory Wars , an incredibly complex narrative that only the most ardent fans have sought out understanding of. Some of those fans were apprehensive about The Color Before the Sun , the first Coheed and Cambria record to step away from the main saga and instead showcase a more personal side of Claudio Sanchez lyrically. It may be perceived as a risky move, but in actuality it turns out pretty much the opposite. By focusing on the songs and not the story, there's a far more inclusive hue to The Color Before the Sun . Sure, it's risky in the sense that the band have taken a breather from the story that's driven their entire career, but...

COHEED AND CAMBRIA Dark Side Of Me From: The Afterman: Descension Released: February 5 A little over a year ago, a posted an article on the audacity of some artists to split their double albums in two and charge double price to the consumer. Coheed and Cambria took it a step further, releasing their Afterman album in two parts and then releasing it together with a third disc consisting of live tracks as a nice kick in the balls to fans who'd already shelled out twice. The saddest part is, Afterman 's penultimate track is so good they also milked two Year in Rock nominations out of me.

Usually, this is the time of year when the reflections on the twelve months that were are complete and this place becomes a ghost town for at least a couple weeks because there's nothing interesting being released until April. In fact, if you noticed during my chronologically ordered nominees rollout, you'll find that only 7/50 came out in the first quarter of the year (with five of those being in March, and none in January). Maybe the labels are panicking to get their properties out there before no one cares about albums anymore, maybe my music addiction's spiraled too far out of control. Whatever the case, the first three months of 2013 are logjammed with potentially and guaranteed awesome albums alike. So, we took a look back, and will remember 2012 fondly; now let's dive into 2013 and start devouring more tasty riffs! After the jump are my 15 most anticipated releases coming in the early part of 2013:

COHEED AND CAMBRIA Key Entity Extraction I: Domino The Destitute From: The Afterman: Ascension Released: October 9 When it comes to concept albums, it's hard to come close to Coheed And Cambria. After all, they didn't stop at just one album; Their Armory Wars Saga, which began on their very first album and supposedly ended with 2010's Year Of The Black Rainbow , continued in the form of side-story Afterman this year. Of course, just another album wouldn't do, so instead we got the first half of the story with the second half to follow in February. The good news for fans of the band is that they've somewhat reached back to their prog roots on this album; look no further than the eight-minute juggernaut Domino The Destitute for proof. The rest of the album doesn't exactly compare to that level of greatness, but it's pretty solid all the way through, which has me excited to see how this tale ends. It sucks we have to wait for it but, as has been ...