The Band, The Story, The Detective
The Band.
Coheed and Cambria are an alternative rock band founded in Nyack New York in 1995. Coheed and Cambria's music has seen a tremendous shift in style, from the grungy, guitar heavy tones of The Second Stage Turbine Blade, their debut, and the more electric and experimental sounds of The Afterman double-album.
Coheed and Cambria's albums are all concept albums, with the lyrics following the events, thoughts and deeds of the characters within a fictional universe in a series of (so far) two comic book series, a graphic novel, one short novel and a coffee-table book following a short narrative. This universe is often collectively referred to as The Amory Wars (The name of the comic book series) or The Story, and has proven popular with fans of Coheed and Cambria, as well as critics.
The Story.
Coheed and Cambria are known for their unique sound, the lead-singer's unorthodox vocals and being incredibly generous with their time to their fans. Fans of Coheed and Cambria proudly call themselves Children of the Fence. This is in reference to the universe within The Amory Wars called Heaven's Fence, and was first coined by the band after they released a special edition DVD of their Neverender tour, which was called the Children of the Fence Edition.
The Story takes place in several volumes. In order of release they are:
The Second Stage Turbine Blade, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth:3, Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume 1: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness, Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume 2: No World for Tomorrow, Year of the Black Rainbow, The Afterman: Ascension, The Afterman: Descension. These albums mark several shifts within Coheed and Cambria's music, from the more post-hardcore sounds of SSTB, to the more electrically-influenced Afterman double-albums. The story progresses however in this order:
The Amory Wars Sketchbook, The Afterman: Ascension, The Afterman: Descension, Year of the Black Rainbow, The Amory Wars: The Second Stage Turbine Blade, Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume 1: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness, The Amory Wars: In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth:3, Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume 2: No World For Tomorrow. The first book, The Amory Wars Sketchbook is a blend of prose and sketch, and opens up the universe of The Amory Wars. As the sketchbook is more a referential text, it doesn't really have a chronological bearing on the story. The Afterman covers the story of Sirius Amory, who discovered the power of the Keywork (the light that holds the universe of Heaven's Fence together), and set the stage for the events of YotBR, which covers the Mage Wars and introduces the characters of Coheed and Cambria. The Amory Wars: The Second Stage Turbine Blade, takes place after the events of YotBR and tracks the "second stage" of Wilhelm Ryan's evil plans for Heaven's Fence. In a different timeline the events of GAV1 influence the story, and the writer of the story, being driven insane by his partner's infidelity, finds it difficult to finish the story. The Amory Wars: In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 takes place some time after these events, with subtle references to the GAV1 story as Claudio Kilgannon recounts an epic tale of war to Apollo. GAV2 will supposedly end the story, however no information or story material has been released yet regarding it's story. Because of this, Detective of the Fence will not deal with the GAV2 album's analysis until the time of the GAV2 graphic novel's release.
The Detective.
I am a film and television student in my final year of studies and amateur writer. I am a Child of the Fence and have a lot to be thankful for as far as Coheed and Cambria is concerned. It is because of Claudio's terriffic work that I gained more self-confidence in regards to pursuing my own creative ventures. I created this website as a small "thank you" gesture, as well as a place where fans could go if they wanted to get a different perspective on the meaning of the songs in relation to The Story.
I should stress here that I do not own any of the works on this website save for my own analytic articles. I do not wish to make money or gain fame off this website, this is just something I'm doing for fun and as a tribute to my favorite band/comic books.
This website will be using one post-per-song to analyse and explain how the songs relate to the stories. Coheed and Cambria's lyrics are very poetic and even after reading the entire story, fans often still find themselves stumped as to how the song reflects the story. I will be analysing the story in chronological order of events as stated above.
In order to present how a song's lyric relates to a particular part of the story, I will be utilising a colour code. In the analytical essays themselves, the coded lyrics will be expanded on in the analysis, which will, where appropriate, contain pictures and screenshots to provide further evidence of the essay's contention. The colour code will be thus:
A reference to a character.
A reference to a place.
A reference to an event.
Character's thoughts
Writer's thoughts
A direct quote
A reference to a different event, at a different time/place
A reference to a real-life event.
A reference to another song.
Once again, I stress that I am no scholar, I am just a fan with a good literary knowledge and a passion for the band. I in no way claim ownership to any of the works of Coheed and Cambria, or Claudio Sanchez.
To receive updates, join the facebook "Detective of the Fence" page (link below), where I can keep you updated with any issues the website might be experiencing, as well as just generally tell you when a new post is up. To go to the essays, click the button below. I hope you enjoy the website.
We are one among the Fence!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/874828469240361/
