Coheed and Cambria recall ‘overwhelmingly positive’ response from Pinoy fans
Amoranto Stadium in Quezon City now holds the distinction as the summer metal capital of the Philippines. For most of the past 13 years, the biggest and loudest concert, the Summer Slam, hosts its annual noisefest of local and international acts at the Amoranto open field.
Coheed and Cambria, a progressive metal band from New York, arrived in Manila to perform at the 13th Summer Slam at the Amoranto Stadium. The band is composed of vocalist/ guitarist Claudio Sanchez, guitarist Travis Stever, bassist Michael Todd, and drummer Joshua Eppard.
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At a press briefing at the Cocoon Boutique Hotel in Quezon City, Claudio Sanchez said the band went through a long and winding journey across America and on to Asia just to play at this year’s Summer Slam in the company of such metal behemoths as Cannibal Corpse, As I Lay Dying, and Dragonforce and Pinoy headbangers Kamikazee and Chicosci, among others.
Packed crowd for Coheed and Cambria
Sanchez added that the trip would be worth it. “Last time we were here was four years ago and the response to us was overwhelmingly positive. We have released two albums since then so we’re excited to be back. We hope people would come out and see us play.”
No worry there. A huge crowd turned up for this year’s Summer Slam billed “Till Death Do Us Part.” It was still early evening when Coheed and Cambria came onstage and the Amoranto grounds were already packed. In past Summer Slams, the Stadium grounds would fill up just around 10 p.m. when the first of three headlining acts would start to play.
A distinctive computer voice followed by Star Wars-like sci-fi pomp announced the band. Vocalist Claudio, guitarist Travis and bassist Todd quietly took their places in front of the drum kit where Joshua was making tentative thumps on the cymbals.
Sea of clenched fists
Their appearance was greeted by a loud roar and as the band unwound the opening chords to “No World for Tomorrow,” a sea of clenched fists rose from the crowd.
The more popular and pop-rocking “A Favor House Atlantic” followed and the sing-along got going. Then the band displayed its instrumental prowess probing their collective progressive tendencies in “Key Entity Extraction III: Vic the Butcher” and “In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3.” Their tight jam drowned out a few unpleasant remarks on Claudio’s thin emo-like vocals.
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There were segments during the show when Coheed and Cambria spilled its looser, funkier side. It recalled the remarks online that some of the tracks off the new “The Afterman” series find Coheed and Cambria taking on a less heavy approach to their complex prog-metal attack, possibly to bring new color to the monolithic sound of progressive rock.
An evolving sound with the Coheed DNA
Claudio begged to disagree explaining, “Personally, ‘The Afterman: Descension’ is a pretty heavy record. It’s definitely heavier than the earlier ‘Afterman: Ascension’ where it came from.
“In ‘Descension,’ specifically, a lot of the elements have been embellished around. To me who worked on the studio with the new tracks, I still hear a lot of the classic Coheed DNA on the new album.”
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Bassist Todd conceded that the band continues to evolve and refuses to stay stuck in the sound that catapulted them to the ranks of indie music’s very best acts. “We want to explore everything that we can. Just by playing the instruments, we feel we’re constantly taking our music to another level.”
New chapter after sci-fi mythology
With the latest “Afterman” series, Claudio started a new chapter after concluding the sci-fi mythology that powered the earlier albums. He said, “With ‘Afterman: Ascension,’ I could have abandoned the concept and changed the direction of what we do. But I didn’t because I like the challenge of taking on the music and trying to make it live in another dimension.”
Coheed’s vocalist and chief songwriter explained that the titles of early albums from “Year of the Black Rainbow” to “Good Apollo” to “No World for Tomorrow” spelled out the concepts for the stories behind those records.
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“Afterman,” on the other hand, essentially draws from two years of his life with his wife, travelling around the world and doing things they love to do together.
Fans tattooed with band symbols
He offered, “I kind use my life experience to develop a theme for fictional characters .The overall themes on our albums are usually very personal. They have those threads of love and identity, universal themes really that everybody can get behind.”
Aside from fans singing along to their songs from the heart, Coheed drummer Joshua is happy with more intimate ways fans show their passion for the band.
“It’s amazing how some people have tattoos of the name or symbols associated with the band just to show their devotion. That’s a huge thing for us, people having us on a part of their body. That happens a lot and it’s just unbelievable.”
