Welcome Home - (2005)
Music Video/Single by Coheed and Cambria
Sorry about not being able to post last night, six essays for finals week ranging from 2-8 pages in length can take its toll. I was able to quickly post stuff on here just to keep my brain from melting.
Anyways, Welcome Home is the first single off of Coheed and Cambria's third studio album, Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear through the Eyes of Madness. Yeah, "insert random long name joke here," I get it the name is super long and really has nothing to do with this review. The track itself opens up with a neat little acoustic riff that eventually explodes into one of, if not the, heaviest riffs for Coheed at this point in their discography. The progressive rock/metal influences shine here with quite a big shift towards the bridge of the song that leads into a small stringed section outro. The song is controlled, meaning it doesn't feel like it gets too out of hand or chaotic at any one point. Claudio's vocals also are pretty solid on this track. The song is following the story of the Writer, the creator of the Amory Wars storyline in the Amory Wars story, and a dream he is having about a girl he is in love with. It gets real dark and sinister in the verses and the outro can feel a bit haunting at the start. Lyrically the song stands on its own as a song about a bad relationship, a really dark and sinister relationship. Overall I enjoy the song immensely and have for quite a long time. In fact I'll share a quick story about the track.
This is the song that got me into Coheed and Cambria in the first place. I heard it on the video game Rock Band for the Xbox 360. It was the one song on that setlist that I always wanted to play, even though all of my friends hated it. I looked up the song on Itunes only to be left disappointed that the song was explicit. The version on Rock Band was censored. I had a parental restriction on Itunes at the time and thus couldn't get the song or the album it came off of. So I resorted to Youtube and the like. Finally I got the parental restriction removed from my account and I instantly bought the album. Well I was expecting a much heavier album I'll say that much. None of the songs on the album, at least in my opinion hit that same heaviness that was on Welcome Home. However, I learned to appreciate the album for being so different and I learned to appreciate Coheed simply because of my ignorance to what the album was really supposed to be.
As for the video, it is pretty epic. The band is in a dark barren place with a darkening sky performing the opening riff with reverence to the sound. Claudio is playing with a double necked guitar for this song and it looks very overwhelming at first. You have a need to look up to this man as both a vocalist and a guitar player. The video continues with portraits rising from the ground showing images and small clips of what is occurring in the story. Basically the Writer is having a nightmare about his wife/girlfriend being the reason for all of his suffering and he sees her in a house, and then by a graveyard. Supposedly this represents his wishes for her to die. The video conveys both the song and the story in a very well produced performance. Ultimately this is the benchmark for Coheed videos going forward as it blends the story of the album with the overall sound of the song.
The song receives and absolute like and the video gets a like as well.
Watch/listen to it yourself and give me your opinions. Like it? Dislike it? Why?