COHEED & CAMBRIA
NEW YORK, NY, November 5, 2012—Following COHEED AND CAMBRIA’s much acclaimed and stellar, Top 5 Billboard album debut of volume one of their double-album, The Afterman: Ascension on October 9, 2012, the band announces the release of volume two, The Afterman: Descension via Everything Evil/Hundred Handed Inc. on February 5, 2013. That same week, COHEED AND CAMBRIA will embark on a national headlining tour with support from the progressive juggernaut BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME and the artsy post-rock trio RUSSIAN CIRCLES. “We haven’t properly toured on a new album in what will be nearly 3 years, so coming off the heels of these two albums means we’ll have a wide breadth of new material to choose from.” Sanchez said. “Playing Radio City Music Hall – and being from NY, it’s not something I ever thought I would be able to do. It’s quite an honor.”
In the story arc of The Afterman: Descension, we continue the conceptual storyline from volume one, where Sirius Amory, i.e., “The Afterman,” is a scientist/cosmonaut who goes on celestial mission and makes what is arguably the most important discovery ever known to mankind. But upon his return, he discovers his ambitiousness may have brought him fleeting fame, but also tragic repercussions. On the sales front, The Afterman: Descension is expected to do just as well if not better than The Afterman: Ascension, which sold 50,000 units in its first week and continues to sell steadily leading into the holidays. The band is also releasing a limited edition clear vinyl version of the “Ascension - Big Beige Demos” for Black Friday/Record Store Day Nov 29. Each song from the album in its original, raw form - mostly acoustic, recorded on Sanchez’s mini- home studio rig at its inception.
COHEED & CAMBRIA
Although originally forming as a rock trio in 1995, New York's Coheed and Cambria officially took root in 2001, shedding their former name of Shabutie and embracing a fusion of progressive rock, emocore, and highly conceptual album themes. Vocalist/guitarist Claudio Sanchez, guitarist Travis Stever, bassist Michael Todd, and drummer Joshua Eppard issued their group's full-length debut, 2002's The Second Stage Turbine Blade, on the Albany-based Equal Vision Records. The band toured extensively for more than a year in support of the album, which was created as the second installment (although the band's first release) of a five-part fictional saga about the doomed marriage of two characters, Coheed and Cambria, whose children may or may not be infected with a serum whose power can destroy the universe. The Amory Wars, a detailed graphic novel series written by Sanchez himself, further explains the band's science fiction narratives.
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In fall 2003, Coheed and Cambria issued In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3. The vibrant sophomore effort (part three of the five-part saga) resulted in moderate success on the Billboard charts, with the singles "A Favor House Atlantic" and "Blood Red Summer" faring well on such media outlets as MTV. Coheed and Cambria subsequently toured North America with Thursday, Thrice, AFI, and Rainer Maria. They also joined the tenth annual Warped Tour in summer 2004 and embarked on their first headlining European tour, whose dates coincided with the success of the "Favor House Atlantic" single. The invigorated band then returned with Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Vol. 1: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness in September 2005; the album (part four) was also the first installment of a two-part conclusion to the band's running sci-fi story line. Released by Columbia Records, it hit number seven on Billboard's Top 200, partially due to the success of "The Suffering" and "Welcome Home."
All was not well within the group, however, and both bassist Michael Todd and drummer Josh Eppard departed in 2006. While the band paused to sort out its future, Equal Vision released the debut from Sanchez's indie electronic solo project, the Prize Fighter Inferno, that October. Entitled My Brother's Blood Machine, the album continued in the tradition of Sanchez's primary group, spinning a tale of three families in a story that predates the Coheed/Cambria saga and is narrated by Inferno (aka Jesse, Coheed's brother). Meanwhile, Sanchez and Stever decided to carry on and, bolstered by the return of Todd and the temporary enlistment of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, began recording their fourth album, Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Vol. 2: No World for Tomorrow. The group's lineup was soon cemented with the addition of ex-Dillinger Escape Plan drummer Chris Pennie, and the album -- part two of the saga's two-tiered conclusion -- was released in October 2007, followed by the live recording Neverender and Children of the Fence in 2009. In 2010 the band returned with Year of the Black Rainbow, which served as a prequel to the Amory Wars story line. In the fall of 2012, Coheed and Cambria released the first of a two-part album, Afterman: Ascension.
BETWEEN THE BURIED & ME
Between the Buried and Me have not made a name for themselves through playing it safe. Pushing the envelope of heavy music with each successive release, they have continually evolved in thrilling new directions while maintaining the honesty and integrity that has connected with so many listeners. With The Parallax II: Future Sequence, the first concept album of their career, the North Carolina based unit have delivered their most complex, ambitious, and accomplished work to date.
RUSSIAN CIRCLES
In October 2011, Chicago trio Russian Circles returned with not only their fourth and heaviest album to date -- but also with Empros they were poised to take the crown as innovators reinvigorating the staid trappings of genre. Empros picks up where the anthemic riffs and melodies of 2009's Geneva left off and injects evermore slithering rhythms amid skull-crushing heft with all the visceral intensity of Godflesh, Swans and Neurosis.
