When I fell in love with Coheed and Cambria, it was a swoon over their heavier side: Claudio Sanchez’s bitter lyrics in “Welcome Home”, the epic waves of electric riffs, and the complex solo spanning the latter portion of the song. That isn’t to say I don’t enjoy me some lighthearted bops, because Coheed has a wide selection of those as well, but sometimes first impressions mean everything. Coheed, to me, was f’n badass.
That’s why No World for Tomorrow and Year of the Black Rainbow registered as minor disappointments – and I stress minor because they’re both still solid outings. But strong singles like the former’s title track and the latter’s “Here We Are Juggernaut” aside, they lacked that oomph, that extra push of raw grittiness that made me a fan from the time I first laid ears on “Welcome Home.” That’s where 2012’s The Afterman: Ascension comes in, and the for-all-intents-and-purposes lead track “Domino The Destitute.” Just as my interest in the band was beginning to wane, they burst out of a melodic haze of mediocrity with this 8-minute, guitar-thrashing epic showdown, where everything that I first loved about the band snapped back into focus.
“Domino” is an absolute beast of a song; it rides in on elongated riffs and pummeling drums, and Sanchez’s vocals are packed with emotion right from the start. The chorus is one of their most infectious ever, and it feels like a rallying cry: “I implore you, brother / Don’t walk away, don’t walk away from me / ‘Cause this is our war.” The song builds in both intensity and aggression as it progresses, culminating in this sweeping, magnificent guitar/drum breakdown, followed by chants of “One by one / We are together! We fall together!” I still get chills every time I listen to this track from start to finish; it’s a thing of grit and emotion that hardly sacrifices any of the band’s melodic appeal. Coheed has put out a handful of exceptional tracks this decade; this is quite possibly their best.
