With the release of their third studio album last Sept.ember 20, “Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV: Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness”, the boys of Coheed and Cambria seem to have fully established themselves as one of the few original and unique emo punk rock bands of today.

An intense mixture of lead singer Claudio Sanchez’s high and occasionally raspy vocals and an eclectic variety of classical, electrical, and percussion-driven music make this disk a worthy listen for nearly any fan of eccentric musical tastes.

“Good Apollo” begins with a violin-heavy introduction, a staple in past Coheed albums. The 15-track CD partially deals with a relationship gone bad, and possibly the overgiving of chances, resulting in heartbreak. Some of these “heartbreak” tracks include: “Welcome Home,” a slow song that eventually builds into a sizeable rock-out guitar part; “Crossing the Frame,” a track that starts slow and picks up speed, offering a killer chorus and an upbeat, bouyant ending; “Apollo I: The Writing Writer,” where a strong chorus utters the words “no I don’t want to think of you anymore, good night, tonight, good bye.” Other heartbreak tracks are “Once Upon Your Dead Body,” where the boys say things like life will finally be better once death falls upon their catastrophic significant other, and “Apollo II: The Telling Truth,” a song that sums up the anger of a fallen relationship with cutting words like “you’ll burn in Hell while they’re digging you out.”

Other songs on the album have a potential hit-feel to them, especially “The Suffering”, a catchy, upbeat track, reminiscent of “A Favor in the House Atlantic” (a hit on MTV for most of last year) and “Blood Red Summer,” both from their second album “In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3.” It also reminds one of “Devil in Jersey City,” a catchy track from their first album “The Second Stage Turbine Blade.”

Another possible hit might be “Ten Speed (Of God’s Blood and Burial),” a fast-paced rock-driven song that sounds a bit like the Coheed styles used in “Three Evils (Embodied in Love and Shadow)” from their second album.

“Good Apollo” offers two parts to the CD – the first, the original, “Good Apollo” and the second, “The Willing Well”, a collection of four songs, all similar in storyline, like the boys’ “Velorium Camper” trio of tracks from “In Keeping Secrets.” The CD also features a bonus disc of four various Coheed songs played live at The Avalon in Los Angeles.
Coheed, formerly known as Shabutie before their big-label signing with Equalvision and Columbia records, really outdid themselves on this album, and if the new record isn’t enough, the boys will bring their tour to Portland on Oct. 11 at the Roseland Theater on Sixth and Burnside. The tickets are available for $17 at TicketsWest. The show starts at 7 p.m.