Vaxis I is awesome but a few songs too long. I dont really see the individual songs themselves as too long. Some absolute heaters on it: TDS, Walks among us, All on Fire, Gutter.
Looking at tracklistings really highlights where I think Vaxis I went wrong. It just feels overlong because A. it's longer than GAIV and B. the last 11 songs are all in that 4:46-5:50 range, and some of those just don't need all that. I love the faster 3ish minute songs on the front end of Vaxis II and the longer songs at the end. Flows much more like GAIV in that regard.
I just never notice the length of Vaxis I as a whole and its songs individually. I really think it’s that strong of an album. I’ll take all of those songs over Blood, Bad Man, and Our Love
This is getting nitpicky, because I do love Vaxis I, but I will take Blood and Bad Man over The Unheavenly Creatures, True Ugly, and Lucky Stars. I've always viewed Our Love as an interlude/pallet cleanser before the 3 song finale run, and listening to it like "the calm before the storm" of Ladders of Supremacy makes me like it more.
Yeah and I’m trying not yo be nitpicky because it can go on and on. I just did not connect with Vaxis II the way I did with Vaxis I, which is fine. They’re two different albums and two different experiences. If I’m really getting into my thoughts on Vaxis II…I love The Embers of Fire, Beautiful Losers, and Comatose. Beautiful Losers quickly became one of my favorite songs from the band. I still get chills listening to it and it resonated with me greatly listening to it a month after my grandmother passed. I like the stretch of Shoulders, A Disappearing Act, and Love Murder One. Lots of moments in those songs that I love, but I wouldn’t say I love any of those songs as wholes. Blood is a fine song, but has just never stood out to me much relative to the rest of the album. The Liars Club brings me right back to the feeling I get with the first few songs on the album. Love that song’s energy. Bad Man and Our Love are probably my least favorite songs on the album. They just exist to me. They’re fine and inoffensive. I get what Our Love is trying to do, but it’s just never resonated with me. At this point in the album, I feel like the album lost a lot of the steam it started with. As for the end of the album, I think it’s a good trio, but the trio hasn’t hit me like it has for seemingly most fans. I think Ladders of Supremacy is good, for sure, but kind of pales in comparison to other heavy/aggressive epics this band has done in the past. With that said, I love Rise Naianasha. I think that’s one of the best songs this band has ever done and arguably the best song on the album. As for the title track, it’s another song that I love moments/sections of, but doesn’t hit the mark for me as a whole. Some moments of it are a bit too theatrical to me and it comes across a bit goofy. I understand the appeal, but it’s just not a song I love and it’d be towards the bottom for me if I ranked every song on the album. Overall, I think it’s a good album. I like the risks they took with the album. I love that they took it in more of a pop direction. As a drummer, I love that Josh flexes his muscles the most he has since GA1. I just think it’s a bit of a roller coaster ride for me in regard to quality. I think it largely sits in “This is good, not great” territory for me for much of its duration, which is fine, but Vaxis I is an album that just soars higher for me and hits so many of the right notes for me that I never notice its length while I’m listening to it. Time flies by when I put that one on.
"Queen of the Dark" is my least favourite on either of them and "A Disappearing Act" is my favourite Coheed song ever.
IKS for me all the way. While the riff to Welcome Home finally convinced me to give them a chance after being hella turned off by the vox from A Favor House Atlantic, it was IKS that sold me on the band entirely. Especially that part towards the end where they come back with the intro riff right before the chants and final chorus. I remember thinking, 'oh is this the next song? it sounds like the last one' and then came the breakdown and yeah that was it for me
Yeah in chronological order, it could be any of these depending on the day: IKS, Crowing, Welcome Home, From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness, Telling Truth, NWFT, Gravity's Union, and The Dark Sentencer
Every time I listen to SSTB these days, I think about how insane it is that the first official song on their first album is Time Consumer and it is so. good.