u/Moomintroll02

I grew up in love with Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness, and their first four albums. Outside of that, I had kind of dismissed the fact they kept making music. I had heard a few song in concert from their newer material, and ***even still, I put it off***.

But, the past few weeks I have listened to almost nothing but Coheed and Cambria, giving all opportunity to love their new music. So here are my thoughts on their discography!

The Second Stage Turbine Blade:

This album is almost perfect. Such catchy riffs and lyrics I want to shout from mountain tops! Its young, its raw, its not mixed perfectly, and the fidelity is low in parts- but ***fuck*** this album is something special. Claudio Sanchez's voice is so passionate, and the beat makes me want to match that vibe. Devil in Jersey City, Everything Evil, Hearshot Kid Disaster, Junesong Provision- the whole album- its just great.

Junesong Provsion [Acoustic Demo] is my favorite song from their whole discography, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I love it. This is a 9.5/10 album for me.

In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3

This album immediately understands the one thing The Second Stage Turbine Blade lacked- soundscape. It has a cohesion and identity to it that the previous record didnt have in quite the same way. It has some self-referencel riffs, the mixing and fidelity TSSTB missed, and it give the band a real identity of their own in Progressive rock. In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3, The Crowing, The Camper Velourium Ii: Backend of Forever, 21:13. There are some great songs here. A 8.5/10 for me, and one of their best works.

Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness:

Bias alert. This is in my top albums of all time list. To keep myself short, this album is perfect. It takes sonic cohesion, massive production, the story telling of the previous record, and this album has a certain darkness, and heaviness to it that I just adore. I want to kiss every song on this record, and give it a gold star. 10/10

Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume Two: No World For Tomorrow:

Epic. Epic. Awesome. Epic. Thats what this album wants, and that what this album is. Everything from the previous works is here. Big production, cohesion, story, catchieness, screamability. This is ***The*** Coheed and Cambria album, on my opinion. Fitting for the end of The Amory Wars series. And this album has Mother Superior on it. You don't get more Coheed and Cabria than this album. 9.5/10

Year of the Black Rainbow:

First new album for me, and I wasn't sure what to expect. I like this album, I do, but this album doesn't have Cohesion like the previous records do- it feels more like a collection of songs rather than ***a progressive rock album,*** if that makes sense. Some great things here and some new sounds from them I didn't expect. But there are some things that fall flat for me. This album gets a strong 7/10 for me. Something I'll go back to, but nothing I'm screaming from mountains.

The Afterman: Ascension

Woo! Back to feeling like a progressive rock album! God stuff on this one. Great opener, and this is the best they have sounded in their discography (listening in FLAC with a Fiio M15, and Meze Classics). Production is big, and Claudio Sanchez sounds so soulful on this record. Key Entity Extraction I: Domino the Destitute is such a great way to open this series. The Afterman is popy, and as a person who doesn't typically like popy music, I enjoy it here. Hollywood is fun, and Vic the Butcher, too. This album doesn't have anything, to me, as catchy as The Amory Wars records, bur I enjoy what is happening here. 8.5/10

The Afterman: Descension

This album brings some heavy too it. By now you know I like this. This is the better of the two Afterman albums for me. Key Entity Extraction V: Sentry the Defiant brings some acoustic guitar to it, and I'm such a slut for acoustic Coheed and Cambria, and the screaming! Oh! Awesome.... oh, huh? What's that? The baseline rips? ***IS THAT FUCKING SKA MUSIC?? IN MY COHEED AND CAMBRIA!?*** Number City is such a wild left turn, but an experiment I very thoroughly enojy. Fuck it, give me more Ska Coheed if you have it.

Dark Side of Me. Let me say it again. Dark Side of Me. This is one of the best songs in this entire discography. I don't want to hear your opinion unless you are agreeing. This albun gets a 9.5/10 for me, and gave me so much hope for their future records.

The Color Before The Sun:

:)

This album is another Year of the Black Rainbow situation. A collection of music, not a prog rock album. And it's very popy. There are things here I like. Ghost is nice, Atlas, The Audience, Peace to the Mountain- but this is not my Coheed and Cambria album. An okay 6.5/10 for me.

Vaxis Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures:

Returning to the prog rock album format, this is the largest soundscape yet. I feel the space war going on, and I like it. Great vocals, as always, good guitar work- everyone sounds good here. But they carry that more popy sound with them. There are good songs, but there aren't any moments that make me say "Hell Yeah". If that makes sense. A lot of repetitive lyrics, but a fun listen when you're in the mood for its sound. 7.5/10 for me.

Vaxis Axt II: A Window of The Waking Mind:

It carries everything from the previous album, but this feels like a pop record. An attempt at the Main Stream I want my Coheed and Cambria to stay away from. Fun sounds here and there, good beats- I gave this album many listens. I just........ I don't like it. I'm sorry for the fans. I can understand what there is to love, but this isn't my music. This album is a 5.5/10 for me. The lowest point of this journey and it made me so anxious for the next record.

Edit: I've been a bit harsh on this album, as you all know. I'm changing the rating to 7/10, which is not just to appease. There is good stuff on this album, just for my personal music taste, this is the weakest album for me. As for the album Ranking, I'm not changing that. This is still the album I'll come back to the least, but I do appreciate it! I love this band, and even if this record won't be in my regular rotation, I do still recognize and value it, as I do with them all. 💚

Vaxis Act III: The Father of Make Believe:

Nervous to step into this one, but willing- I was surprised. It carries the rest of Vaxis, and this is by far my favorite of the three! Search for Tomorrow is catchy, Play the Poet is my favorite out of the whole trilogy, and my favorite song from all of modern Coheed and Cambria. Corner My Confidence is nice, and I do find myself like the more pop style music on this album. Maybe its just a tightened version of the previous records, but I enjoy what's happening here. BUT, this doesn't hold a torch to The Amory Wars Records. An 8/10 is what this gets from me.

If I had to rank them, though I don't much like to do it, here is what I would say:

1. Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume One: Fear Through The Eyes of Madness

2. The Second Stage Turbine Blade

3. Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume Two: No World For Tomorrow

4. In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3

5. The Afterman: Descension

6. The Afterman: Ascension

7. Year of the Black Rainbow

8. Vaxis Act III: The Fater of Makebelieve

9. Color Before The Sun

10. Vaxis Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures

11. Vaxis Act II: A Window of the Waking Mind

I deeply love this band. It was a childhood favorite, and one of the most important bands to my late twin brother. But for me, I will be mostly sticking with The Amory Wars series of albums. Thanks to any nerd who actually reads this! I like knowing my thoughts have been heard. 💚

Last night, my micro sd card, holding 18,025 FLAC songs on it, died. In all honesty, I did not know thst sd cards could just, well, stop without warning.

My Fiio M15 was on, and I was deciding what to listen to for work, when all of a sudden, 'file not found.' Then I watched as the music total went from 18,025 to 1... my heart stopped. Over a decade of collecting was no longer accessible.

I have changed cards, moved to larger sizes- not just using the same card for all this time. So that is probably why I have never had a failure before. ***I just didn't know it could happen.*** I had always Wanted to have a backup, but my dinky 2012 laptop has nowhere near enough storage. So... no backup.

I got home, and despite all my hopes, wishes, and dreams, my pc won't read it. Won't even notice its plugged in. Gone. All gone.

Data recovery is so expensive, and there is no promise its all still there. So, back to square one. I have bits and pieces stored here and there. Services like Bandcamp have things on them, and some old chats where I sent people music- but its going to take a huge amout of time and effort to get it all back.

Thankfully, I do know everything that was on there, and have ***ways*** of getting it back. But again, it will take so long downloading, renaming, foldering and organizing them all. 4 hours of working at it today gave me about 800 songs back...

My question is, without a pc that can hold all of it, what is the best way to make a backup of all of these files, when I eventually recover them all? Anything else I can learn now, and not the super hard way? Thank you. 💔