(andPOP) -
The Toronto crowd saw the lights dim around 10 p.m. and let out a thunderous roar of cheers at the Kool Hause. A pre-recorded voice came over the speakers, which at first was difficult to identify. Eventually, anyone with attuned ears could tell it was a quote from the M. Night Shyamalan movie
Unbreakable, which describes the purpose of villains and heroes in comic books.
The closing bit of dialogue, read by Samuel L. Jackson's character, sums up the spirit of a live Coheed and Cambria show: "You know how someone can tell he's the hero of a comic book? If it's the villain is his exact opposite."
With that final bit, the mythology-steeped, comic book-obsessed, sci-fi loving quartet of Coheed and Cambria took to the stage. They immediately launched into music from their new uber-concept album
In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3.
To try and explain the exact mythology behind Coheed and Cambria would take far too long. Suffice to say, enough chat rooms and message boards are filled with thousands of theories and explanations. They all delve deep into the dense and mythical lyrics, all written by lead singer and guitarist Claudio Sanchez.
"All the time we have fans asking us to explain the lyrics. I go to the boards every once in a while, but I can't answer questions because I don't know. It's all Claudio's baby," says Michael Todd, the bassist for the band.
The essential information is as follows: Coheed and Cambria are actually a husband and wife, who reside on Earth sometime in the distant future. Earth has been part of a Keyhold of 78 other planets, but has broken free. At some point, Coheed was injected by a poisonous dragonfly (whose silhouette haunts the band's performance), and turned into the evil Monstar.
All of the couple's children are dead, except for Claudio, who may hold the secret to saving the universe. Toss in a Han Solo-like ship captain, who happens to like killing young white girls, and mystical goddesses that protect the planets and you have the mind-warping, insanely addictive repertoire of the band.
Seeing as their songs have as much to do with monsters as they do with heartache and tragedy, it's no surprise to learn the band are passionate genre fans.
"We've always been into horror movies. The
Nightmare on Elm Street films, I've seen a million times. We watch a wide variety of horror movies. Travis just has a huge folder of them on the bus," says Todd, referring to lead guitarist Travis Stever.
The band is currently on a headlining tour across North America, after playing to wildly receptive audiences at this past summer's Vans Warped Tour and dates in Europe.
Still, just because their songs shift from heavy guitar to thrashing vocals with emotive screaming doesn't mean they are simply the next new "emo" sensation. Consistently, the band is lumped in with the likes of Thursday, Brand New, or other so-called "emo sensations."
"I think the emo label is just our timing. I consider us sounding more like progressive rock. We don't really sound emo, or hardcore. The whole thing is timing, but it doesn't bother me," says Todd.
Though the band, once known as Shabutie, is still a bit obscure in Canada, the constant rotation of their new video "A Favor House Atlantic" on MTV will hopefully ensure only more fans fall into their fold.
For now, the band is more than content to allow their second album to carry them into the next stage of their career. Still, the central question on most fans' minds is once the story of Coheed and Cambria ends, as it's planned as a quadrilogy of albums, will the band continue on?
"We still have two more albums to do. The next one is going to be the prequel, a Star Wars-type thing. We'd also like to do a double disc at some point, if we have the time. We'll take it as it goes from there," says Todd.
The band plans to go into their Woodstock, New York studio sometime next year to record the next album, but whether any more clues will be given to the band's epic mythology is shrouded in the band's usual air of mystery.
"I always ask Claudio what's going on. I don't know everything, but I'm definitely curious. That stuff is always so complicated, I can hardly keep up with it myself," says Todd with a laugh, before leaving to take the stage.
