Description

::Sigh::

Second Stage is the debut album of the once-unique-now-cookie-cutter rock band Coheed and Cambria, and listening to it is just as inspiring as it is heartbreaking.

This is a one-of-a-kind collection of songs that feel like an epic musical comic book. Released in 2002, Claudio Sanchez came out swinging with lyrics that beat you senseless while you sing along. A beautiful sci-fi story unfolds in your mind with catchy powerful beats to make it stick there (not to mention Sanchez's Vox full of passionate conviction.)

From track 1 to 10 you are hooked...and at the time, the promise of the next chapter of the story being told in their follow up album, felt like an exciting new frontier for rock (at least for music/comic book/film nerds such as myself.) A band that could combine these mediums?? And with a debut album that is musically, lyrically, & thoroughly, quite amazing??? I was all about it.

Sadly, the albums that followed failed to deliver. The band seemed to have abandoned the original goal & just went for the radio appeal (that really didn't work for them anyway.) The story did not successfully carry out and the songs as a whole where considerably weak in comparison to the soul and depth as those present here on Second Stage...

Setting up such an endeavor is difficult, If you don't follow through you're bound to let your following down. Consistency, character/plot development can easily be thrown aside for some MTV screen time and the pleasure of having your T shirts sold in Hot Topic for a month or two.

For me, it's easier to disregard the albums that followed & just shake my hips while singing along to this comic book album that still holds up to this day.

Highly recommended for progressive/rock music fans & comic book readers, I have yet to hear it's equal.