Free Download Friday #122: Coheed And Cambria

I first became aware of Coheed And Cambria thanks to the now sadly missed Rock Radio and in particular, their Secret Session.

All together, a photo by DavidDMuir on Flickr.

I loved Claudio Sanchez's voice and although they are described as Progressive Metal, they are closer to the Progressive end than the Metal end of that label - just the way I like it. And, as promised in my review of their Secret session, I soon went out and got one of their albums. Currently I have two: Year Of The Black Rainbow and In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 but I fully intend to acquire more. In particular, they are working on a new album at the moment and, on the strength of the acoustic demo they are currently giving away on their website, I think that it will definitely be added to the wish list when it is released!

The track is called Sentry The Defiant and you can get it by visiting their website and filling in an email address in a widget at the bottom right-hand corner. There is also a video of Claudio playing the track that runs on the site which you can watch as you wait for the download.

I think the stripped back nature of the demo, just Claudio singing and playing the guitar, shows off the quality of his vocals and strength of the song. It will be interesting to hear what it's like once the whole band has got to work on it. For example, one of the tracks I most enjoyed from their acoustic set was Here We Are Juggernaut. At first, when I got the album, I kept thinking how I liked the acoustic version better but eventually the album track snuck up on me and I began to appreciate both as different versions of a great track.

So what do think? Classic Coheed And Cambria?