Album Review: Neverender - Night II

now playing: Coheed and Cambria - Blood Red Summer (Live at Neverender)

In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 begins by taking us ten years into the future. Claudio Kilgannon has had time to grow, and Jesse, a character introduced as the Prize Fighter Inferno in The Second Stage Turbine Blade, has had equal time to grow his rebel army, with which he can depose Supreme Tri-Mage Wilhelm Ryan and Head General Mayo Deftinwolf and bring peace to the Keywork once again. If you think it's weird now, folks, just wait. One rebel, Sizer, is captured by Ryan's organization, the URA, and brought to the planet Shylos Ten, where he is tortured and left for dead. Claudio, waking from his ten-year slumber on Shylos Ten, meets Jesse, Sizer, and a new character, Ambellina. Claudio learns of his fate as The Crowing, the prophesied bringer of Armageddon. The four enlist the help of a freighter pilot named (surprisingly) Al and take his ship, the Velorium Camper, to the House Atlantic, Wilhelm Ryan's headquarters. Al hands them over to the URA, but can't bring himself to give up Ambellina and at the last moment helps the group to escape on Jesse's ship, the Grail Arbor, while he remains behind. The album closes with Claudio dreaming of what may have happened if he had been able to protect his parents the night they were killed. I'm actually leaving out some parts, so if you're curious to learn more, read up at Cobalt and Calcium.

With an instrumental flourish and thunderous applause, Neverender - Night II begins. Claudio Sanchez retains his astounding command over the crowd, not simply telling the story of Jesse in the title track but becoming Jesse, ordering the audience "Man your battlestations!" and receiving unwavering response. In fact, this night's performance is leagues above and beyond the previous night's with respect to audience participation. Even when Sanchez is left breathless, the crowd fills in the missing lines by heart, be it wordless vocalizations or Al's final words to Ambellina. Even though this album is not my favorite, I still find myself longing for the opportunity to have seen it live simply for the crowd participation.

As I listen to this live performance, and especially after writing out all that information about the story, I feel like this album is where Coheed and Cambria really began to hit their stride. SSTB was decent, but it lacked many of the things that I seem to identify the band with. Not the least of these things is the story itself. With a slew of new characters, conflicting motivations, and conflict in general, the songs in IKSSE:3 are strikingly diverse. This diversity draws attention easily and saves the album from sounding too generic, which was my major complaint with SSTB. Had the band's first album been my first experience with their music, I would have written them off as nothing more than generic rock. Fortunately, my first experience was with "Welcome Home", featured on Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume I: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness, which will be featured in tomorrow's review of Neverender - Night III.