Jamie Thomson 

Coheed and Cambria: Year of the Black Rainbow

A prog-metal concept album about a fictional galaxy? Count Jamie Thomson out
  
  


Concept albums about fictional galaxies? Prog-rock noodling from men with Mott the Hoople barnets? Surely this is the last sort of thing sulky social-network- obsessed teens with vision-obscuring fringes should be getting excited about? But 45 seconds into The Broken, the opener of C&C's fifth album, all becomes clear. The first of many, many soaring, wailing "woe is me" choruses announces itself, and the dizzying guitar exchanges that intervene are just killing time before setting the controls for the heart of Linkin Park territory again. "Nothing matters anymoooooore," bleats Claudio Sanchez, the New York four-piece's frontman, on Here We Are Juggernaut, suggesting that the only real concept here is the cynical targeting of morose adolescents. Beneath the veneer of baffling musicality, it's evident there's nothing new under the sun, no matter what galaxy you're in.

 

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