Coheed And Cambria

Members: Claudio Sanchez, Travis Stever, Michael Todd, Josh Eppard

Active: 1995-present

HISTORY

Coheed and Cambria (sometimes abbreviated to "Coheed" or "Co&Ca") is an American progressive rock band (with much punk influence) from Nyack, New York, Woodstock, New York and Kingston, New York. Coheed and Cambria has released three studio albums, one live album, and various special-edition re-releases. Their albums are concept albums, telling different parts of the same story. So far, there are a planned five albums for the Bag On Line Adventures, the current storyline running through the songs. To date, three studio albums have been released: The Second Stage Turbine Blade (2002), In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 (2003), and Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness (2005). These albums make up the second, third, and half of the fourth parts of the four-part saga of Coheed and Cambria, respectively. The albums are being released out of sequence; the second part was released first, and the first part will be released last. Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One is the first half of a two-part conclusion to the saga, which will be followed by the story's introduction.

When a band called Toxic Parents, featuring Travis Stever and Claudio Sanchez, dissolved around the same time as Nate Kelley's project, Moe & The Boogie Cats (who disbanded after their lead singer left New York to join a UFO cult in Arizona), the members came together to form a new band in March 1995.

The band was Beautiful Loser, and it featured Travis Stever on lead vocals and guitar, Claudio Sanchez on guitar, Nate Kelley on drums and Jon Carleo on bass. The group was short-lived, breaking up by June of the same year they started the band, due to an argument over gas money. Stever left the band, and Kelley was initially kicked out, but came back when asked by Sanchez. Without Stever, the band became a trio, and Sanchez took control of the lead vocals and guitar.

Renaming themselves Shab?tie (a name taken from African tribe chants for "naked prey" in the film Naked Prey), the band spent nearly a year experimenting with a multitude of different sounds?punk rock, indie rock, acoustic rock, funk and heavy metal?and reportedly wrote as many as 100 songs, few of which they kept. When Carleo left the band in August 1996, Kelley recruited Michael Todd, with whom he had worked on an acoustic side project called Esme 9, to take his place. Todd, primarily a guitarist, picked up the bass specifically for Shab?tie.

With this near-final formation of the band, they entered their most productive and mature period. According to Kelley, the band sometimes wrote up to seven new songs in one five or six hour sitting. Also during this period, the band put out its first public release, the Penelope EP (in 1999) and Stever rejoined the band on second guitar, making them a four-piece once again.

Around 1999, the band members had developed a habit of drinking too heavily during shows, and the quality of their performances declined. During one such show, Sanchez allegedly screamed the lyrics of the song "Life Without You", a Cassiopeia-esque ballad, prompting Kelley to pack up his drum set in front of a packed audience and leave the stage. Thus, on February 19, 2000, Shab?tie's original lineup, apart from Sanchez, was gone.

Following Kelley's departure, Sanchez and the others chose Josh Eppard, then of the band 3, to take his place. They finished out the year and performed halfway through 2001 before changing their name to Coheed and Cambria and releasing the Delirium Trigger EP, and the history of Shabutie was finished. The band now consists of four members: Claudio Sanchez (vocals/guitar), Travis Stever (guitar), Michael Todd (bass), and Josh Eppard (drums). When playing live, Dave Parker (keyboards/guitar), joins the lineup. The group primarily uses these standard instruments, but occasionally their songs call for a lapsteel or a mandolin. They also use a special device called the talk box in several of their songs.

Josh was unable to make their 9th June slot at the Download festival in the UK due to illness. A few days later, Coheed issued a statement cancelling the Barcelona and Essen legs of their European tour.

INFLUENCES

Coheed and Cambria's music is often compared to that of Rush, partly because of lead singer Sanchez's wide vocal range and high-pitched voice, Dream Theater, for their technical phrasing and intricate time changes, and Yes, partly because of the intricacy and "dueling" style of guitar and bass work. Their technical precision, terse rhythmic phrases, and the advanced compositional structures of songs evoke earlier similarly crafted rock. Story elements and melodic themes are cohesively wrought throughout their albums to date. Coheed and Cambria are the most visible proponents of a new sort of "prog-rock opera" style for the 2000s. Notably, though, the futuristic science-fiction storyline on which all their music is based harks back to the epic sound and feel of 1970s progressive-rock. Sanchez has stated that he is influenced by bands such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, and Black Sabbath. Metal Hammer magazine dubbed the band the "new Led Zeppelin" on the front cover of issue 153.

ALBUMS

2002 - The Second Stage Turbine Blade

2003 - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3

2005 - Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness

LIVE ALBUMS

2005 - Live at the Starland Ballroom

EP'S

1999 - Plan to Take Over the World

1999 - "Not Found" - Error404 Records Compliation

1999 - The Penelope

2000 - Delirium Trigger

2001 - The Coheed and Cambria

2004 - Live at La Zona Rosa

2005 - Live at the Avalon

2006 - Kerrang! / XFM UK Acoustic Sessions

SINGLES

2003 - Devil in Jersey City "The Second Stage Turbine" Blade

2004 - A Favor House Atlantic "In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3"

2004 - Blood Red Summer Equal "In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3"

2005 - The Suffering "Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Vol. 1: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness"

2005 - Welcome Home "Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Vol. 1: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness"

2006 - Ten Speed (of God's Blood & Burial) "Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Vol. 1: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness"