The Suffering - (2006)
Music Video/Single by Coheed and Cambria
Here we go, this song right here is absolutely the catchiest song off of Burning Star IV, Volume One. (I shortened the title with the assumption readers have read the respective album review). The Suffering was the second single/music video to be released off of the band's third studio record. The Suffering follows the story of an unhappy relationship between the Writer and Erica Court, the Writer's girlfriend. There is an obvious struggle between these two characters and this is represented not only in the lyrics of the track, but also within the song structure itself. The song switches between three differing sections. The verses tend to be a little more relaxed, in comparison to the rest of the song. It then grows intense as the song leads into a powerful and emotional chorus, with the banging of a piano chord as a subtle addition to the track, it is probably one of the most well structured choruses for a pop rock song I have heard. I won't take anything away from the song or the band for attempting to write such a radio friendly track. The song then blows up into a second chorus of sorts in which Claudio sings loudly "Listen well... Will you marry me" almost in a last ditch effort to resurrect the relationship between the Writer and Erica Court. The dynamic of the song moving faster over time with the rise in intensity of the vocal delivery and instrumentation make for an excellent track overall.
The video itself takes a bit away from the song though. Its about a centaur trying to get with a mermaid. It is supposed to be a reference to the Writer and Miss Erica Court having a relationship that couldn't work. The video switches between the band playing a red cavern. The actual performance in the video looks good enough to represent the emotion behind the track. But the poorly animated video, ok yes it was 2006, and weird storyline behind it are just in my opinion pointless. I mean the Centaur saves the mermaid from a giant Kraken by shooting two arrows into one of its tentacles. It fails to build emotion or connection within the parts not showing the band and thus loses my attention real fast. This is a huge step down in quality from the Welcome Home video, but still I guess it is passable for the casual fan.
The song is an absolute like. The video, not so much. It gets a dislike from me.
Watch/listen to it yourself and give me your opinions. Like it? Dislike it? Why?