HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3 – Coheed And Cambria

Here it is. The benchmark album for COHEED AND CAMBRIA fans turns the big 2-0. Sure, Second Stage Turbine Blade (2002) holds a special place for many as the first album introducing us to the sprawling story from lead man Claudio Sanchez. Many others will rightly laud the outrageously titled Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness (2005). This third instalment catapulted the quartet to a wider audience with the colossal riff driven Welcome Home which became a favourite on Guitar Hero while the singles received regular airtime on the music channels with the videos. However, if you ask any fan of the band for their favourite record, it’s a sure-fire bet that In Keeping Secrets will be the number one response. Over the past two decades it has become the yard stick by which the children of the fence, as they are known (it’s not a cult!), will measure all other records in the catalogue.

Peeking at #52 on the Billboard chart and going gold having now sold 500,000 units, it’s an album that has received praise outside of the hardcore fanbase as being one of the top albums of the contemporary prog genre. But these statistics don’t necessarily explain why this particular record maintains such a hold as it does. The three singles, Blood Red Summer, A Favour House Atlantic and the title track still feature heavily in the band’s current setlist and elicit a triumphant sing along from all those in attendance with the latter being an expected and always welcome high point. Yet still the remaining tracks making up the album are equally as powerful and contain much of the mystery as to what makes COHEED AND CAMBRIA what they are.

First track, The Ring In Return opens with an unassuming telephone ring before a sweeping orchestral crescendo takes us straight to the title track. This singular track contains the DNA of COHEED AND CAMBRIA in its rawest form. Clearly leaning on the prog side of influence but the palette is expanded from the previous record to include more straight down the line rock and elements of blues. These incorporations deliver a track with cross genre appeal and kick start the growth of the band. It is easy to see why this particular track has held its crown for so long in the hearts of fans.

In Keeping Secrets… only increases in power and stature. The evolution of the creativity of the band from their previous work is evident in all aspects from composition, musicality and lyricism. The combination of these elements coupled with a mix that ensures maximum majesty in the delivery raises the bar and places it firmly on the pedestal for COHEED AND CAMBRIA’s overall development. It also allows for the album to be included in top rankings chronicling releases from the same time period. It can sit comfortably in the pantheon that contains EVANESCENCE’s Fallen (2003) and Elephant (2003) from the WHITE STRIPES amongst others.

COHEED AND CAMBRIA are very much a marmite band. Those that love them, will be fanatical in their devotion and go to the wall to defend them. Likewise, if one doesn’t click with them, they’re unlikely to ever have their opinion changed. In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth:3 certainly represents a watershed moment for someone newly approaching the band. With the aforementioned musical elements, the album delivers a prime cross section of what the band is about. The fact that it is such a complete journey makes it a great jumping off point. However, the fact that it is part of a larger subject helps to whet the appetite of a discerning prog fan. The genre melding of grandiose progressive composition, foray into pop punk with Favour House Atlantic, straight rock n roll with Blood Red Summer and even bluesy tinged edges gives a little something for everyone. You’d be hard pressed to find another record that can be so divisive yet be layered with as much inclusivity.

Twenty years on and this album still sounds fresh and exciting. There are more than just the several main singles, with the likes of The Light And The Glass offering tender melancholy juxtaposed with straight up anger of Al The Killer or the power chord driven The Crowing. It’s an album that represents so much to not only COHEED AND CAMBRIA’s development but also to an entire legion of fans. While there may not be a clearly defined cultural impact, it didn’t spawn a range of bands running in a similar vein nor did it push any particular social or political boundaries. It did enable a group of four progressive musicians to break out of a smaller cult like status that had been cultivated with their debut. Suddenly a new world of prog music was being delivered via radio play and music videos. It enabled the Amory Wars story upon which the whole concept is based to have a greater reach. It has also given fans of the band a number of tracks that are landmark live moments. Those that caught them at their recent Download Festival appearance where they headlined the Avalanche Stage, can attest to the weight these songs still carry and how it is impossible to not get swept up in their powerful delivery. Now go listen to it and man your own jackhammer!

In Keeping Secrets Silent Earth:3 was originally released on 7th October 2003 via Equal Vision

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