Coheed and Cambria - Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind (June 24, 2022) Album • Page 71

This song from Vola reminded me of Rise a little. Both have insane drums happening behind otherwise straightforward songs (maybe a slight disservice to Claudio's verse flow and how dope the bridge for Rise is).

 

Revisiting their discography for the first time since last summer and listened to NWFT. I don’t think I’m ever going to get over much that album rips for much of its run time until falling flat on its face with On the Brink. That might honestly be my least favorite song they’ve ever done

 

Definitely not my least favorite song but this is close to my sentiment on this album

 

The only problem I have with On the Brink and the whole TEC is that it was doing the impossible job of trying to follow up the Willing Wells with something as equally epic and fitting to close out the album. It doesn’t do that, but the songs are fine in their own right, and The End Complete is an all timer.

 

On the Brink is great, crazy opinions here. I think I prefer it to Final Cut as one of “those types” of songs.

 

I have never once in my life thought a single negative thing about On The Brink. This take is so on another planet to me. Especially go back and ask 'year 2007 me' who thought it was "epic!". I still think its great. Fits just fine in with the rest of the album as an end to the suite of songs and as a closer. If I had to have ONE critique for it now, is that maybe they tried a bit too hard on it to be "the epic closer track"? No shade to the song though, still love it.

 

My hot take is that I think The Willing Well songs are overrated (though the first two bang). I actually like The End Complete, the song, more than any of The Willing Well tracks

 

Now that is spicy. Willing Well is GOATed all the way down.

 

I think TEC is a much better overall package than TWW which I know won't go over well haha.

 

Yeah, I’ll admit that my spiciest take with this band is that I think GA1 is one of their weaker albums (bottom three for me). I think it’s mostly good, with a few highs throughout, but I think it suffers from some fluff (Always & Never, Once Upon, and Lying Lies for me), the Willing Well songs aren’t quite as strong as others make them out to be, and there are some serious cringe lyrics throughout the album.

With all of that being said, I still fuck with Welcome Home, Ten Speed, The Suffering, Mother May, and the first Willing Well track.

 

Honestly, I feel like this band caught lightning in a bottle on IKS with the amount of epics that album has (IKS, The Crowing, The Light & The Glass, 21:13). I don’t think they succeeded in quite the same way on both the GA albums, despite both those albums still having some clear highs on that department (Welcome Home, Willing Well 1, Mother Superior, The End Complete: TEC).

I think Ascension was a huge bounce back for them in that department with Domino, Vic, and Evagria, but I’m glad they’ve really dialed back the epics for the most part since YOTBR. I think it gives the ones they do some more weight.

 

The Willing Well is my least favourite part of Good Apollo 1. The third part is the only one I really like.

 

This is very interesting to me because the third part has always been my least favorite of the four

I respect it though

 

Unheavenly creatures has some absolute mammoth tracks on it

 

That album, to me, is arguably the tightest they’ve ever been from start to finish. Night-Time Walkers is perhaps the only song I could do without, but I do like it and don’t mind at all when it comes on during a full album listen.

At 15 songs and clocking in at nearly 80 minutes, that album has never felt like a drag to get through and I think it show d us that the band doesn’t need a lot of 7-9 minute songs to make massive bangers.

I think the new album highlights this further with only two songs clocking in over seven minutes, although I will admit that Ladders of Supremacy works much more for me than the title track does.

 

the thing about Unheavenly creatures is that all the tracks fall right in the 5-6 minute range outside of a few which is the pocket for big prog epics balanced with pop sensibilities. they’re right in their wheelhouse the entire time and that’s why it’s their best album

 

Yeah nothing on that album overstays its welcome. I have a lot of love and nostalgia attached to IKS, which will likely always remain my favorite, but, man, I really do think The Unheavenly Creatures is their best album top to bottom.

 

Currently listening to and watching an unhealthy amount of videos of them playing Iron Fist live in search of the best performance of it because it’s a damn shame the album version, while I think pretty good, doesn’t hit quite like it should

 

I really wish they would have kept Iron Fist acoustic ala their Taylor Guitars performance.

 

This is the one. I mean, you can tell Claudio wasn’t there with the solo yet, but otherwise this is the fucking one

 

I'm not sure which lyrics you're referring to with "cringe", but I think the worst lyrics are that way because of the character that's supposed to be singing them.

 

Yeah Iron Fist definitely feels like a song that they thought too much about, should’ve kept it simple. Mother Superior full band also took a minute to get used to after listening to the acoustic version for so long.

I guess nostalgia clouds it for me, but GA is my favorite, easily. Even the stuff I absolutely love that came afterwards feels like them reaching close to the heights of what that album did from a catchiness/prog epic perspective. The lyrics being cringe is a totally valid complaint though, and it’s only made *slightly* better since he’s now married to the woman he was writing about and they seem relatively happy.

Vaxis I is great, but I prefer the more streamlined Vaxis II that has shorter poppier songs and variance with the last 3 songs being longer. I also thing I would take every song on Vaxis II over the TUC title track and True Ugly.

 

TUC title track is a fantastic song smh

 

Claudio can say all he wants that the lyrics on GA1 are from the character’s perspective, but anyone following the timeline of his personal life knows the lyrics on that album were heavily inspired by the feelings he had for Chondra after they split up before getting back together eventually. Pretty sure Claudio has even admitted that.

Welcome Home, Crossing the Frame, Apollo 1: The Writing Writer, Once Upon Your Dead Body, and the lack three Willing Well tracks are prime examples.

 

Did not know this. I don't generally follow the personal lives of the bands I listen to. Probably for exactly this reason.