Coheed And Cambria

Coheed and Cambria — which includes Travis Stever (lead guitar), Josh Eppard (drums), and Zach Cooper (bass) — emerged in the early 2000s wedged between an emo renaissance and a metal revival. While their peers broke hearts and banged heads, Sanchez and co. were crafting Game of Thrones-level fantasies around a storyline called The Amory Wars that unfurls across 78 planets collectively known as Heaven’s Fence. Eight of the band’s nine albums thus far (plus a small galaxy of comics and novels) dwell in this world — and so does The Father of Make Believe. It’s just that the sky is cracking now, revealing the guiding hand behind the scene.

To wit: “Goodbye, Sunshine,” a tension filled pop-punk track with chugging guitars and a chorus built for festival stages and arenas that imagines Sanchez having to bid farewell to, as he puts it, “the glorious time I’ve had in Coheed.” The feeling is grand, almost joyous, reminding us that even when Sanchez is ruminating on loss, he can pen a shout-along melody better than most. The song then careens into the stormy, fret-scaling “Searching for Tomorrow” which could just as easily be about Sanchez’ creative evolution or a hero’s journey. Then comes the title track, where over a knotted tapestry of shred and pounding kick, he sings, “I’m not how you remember me, I’m the vision that you chose to see / The one you can hate, or love as you need.”