I can't pretend anymore. The new Coheed & Cambria album just isn't good. It's not a sell out album by any means, but it's something else I always feared, which is that adherence to the concept of the Amory Wars would lead to stagnation.
Personally I never cared about a "prequel" album and I always felt that it could never live up to the epic nature of the rest of the saga. Year of the Black Rainbow does just that, it doesn't live up. It suffers because it feels like a band making an album because they have to and trying to do whatever they can to make it interesting for themselves, resulting in all the effects, sequencing, and post-processing that serves only to dull the experience for me. Add to this the fact that the mix is entirely flat and without any sense of space (compared to their previous album No World for Tomorrow that was nothing but layering and space) and I can't see myself going back to this one very often. I'm hoping it plays better live and that future Coheed albums unshackled from the concept of the Amory Wars will sound less forced and more organic, but there is always the chance that The Amory Wars will forever be their masterpiece and everything after it a mere shadow of it's brilliance. It certainly wouldn't be uncommon in the realm of progressive music, concept bands, or even rock in general.
Now I kind of regret having not only bought the deluxe CD/DVD/Book edition of the album, but for having bought it on vinyl as well. I usually reserve vinyl purchases for albums I know I'm going to want to listen to and dissect audibly and I unfortunately don't see that happening here. They can't all be winners I guess and as a failure, Year of the Black Rainbow is still better than most.
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