Most other bands and musical acts try to keep some sort of running or recurring theme through all their tracks or albums. Few, however, have done so to the same extent as Coheed and Cambria - and have produced fantastic world-famous songs to boot. Now a household name in the rock circuit, the four-man group has transcended both borders and genres to craft a unique sound packaged in an even more unique story.

Coheed and Cambria: Songs and a Story

"We let the music kind of speak for us."

Most other bands and musical acts try to keep some sort of running or recurring theme through all their tracks or albums. Few, however, have done so to the same extent as Coheed and Cambria - and have produced fantastic world-famous songs to boot. Now a household name in the rock circuit, the four-man group has transcended both borders and genres to craft a unique sound packaged in an even more unique story.

Coheed and Cambria: Rifts and Reunions

Although Travis Stever and Claudio Sanchez were at the nucleus of the band through its many iterations, the group itself was rarely stable for very long. After the two's earlier act Toxic Parents split in 1995, they got together with Nate Kelley to form Beautiful Loser. It didn't stay together for very long either, as the foursome (Jon Carleo took up the bass) called it quits after just three months due to a big fight over gas money.

Stever left after that incident, and the remaining three decided to call themselves Shabütie after the African equivalent for the title of the 1966 chase film The Naked Prey. As that particular incarnation, the band was able to release Plan to Take Over the World, a studio demo, and The Penelope EP in 1999. Stever came back on board soon after.

Coheed and Cambria Cometh

Sanchez did more than just play the guitar. He also had a literary series side project, The Amory Wars. While in Paris in 1998, Sanchez finished developing his ideas for the story, and the band decided to rename itself Coheed and Cambria, after a couple of major characters from the story.

It was also there that the band chose to use the concept of The Amory Wars as the overarching theme for all their tracks and albums. Delirium Trigger, released in 2000, had more than just Josh Eppard (from 3) replacing Kelley on drums; it had songs from the newly renamed band that were inspired by Sanchez's stories.

In 2002, Coheed and Cambria officially broke into the mainstream music industry when it signed with Equal Vision Records to release The Second Stage Turbine Blade, its debut studio album. It foreshadowed what would be a great year: Devil in Jersey City from that album became their first music video, the band got a slot in that year's Vans Warped Tour, and Blaze James signed on to manage the band - a decision that would prove fortunate.

After some touring, the band released In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3, their second studio album the next year. It, with its two tracks Blood Red Summer and A Favor House Atlantic, was behind the success of the tours that the band did that year. After the album earned its certified Gold status from the RIAA, the band performed Live at the Starland Ballroom, a concert that would become their first live performance DVD in 2005.

Columbia Records got wind of Coheed and Cambria thanks to their 2003 album, and promptly signed them onto a multi-album deal. So prompt was the agreement that they had to stop touring to record their album in 2005, and released Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness later that year. It became their most successful effort to date, netting the band its first certified platinum album.

Coheed and Cambria: Progress, with Replacements

While Sanchez was able to release My Brother's Blood Machine in 2006 to expand the epic of the band's theme, Josh Eppard put down his drumsticks and Michael Todd his bass guitar that same year. Todd rejoined the following year and Chris Pennie took up the drums the next year, before the band released Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow.

As of November 2009, the band says that it's working on a yet untitled album. Given the breadth of the story that the band has chosen as a theme, fans have much more to expect from Coheed and Cambria.

Did You Know That...

• ...the band has four songs that are playable on the video game Rock Band?
• ...even Sanchez's side projects tie into the Amory Wars theme? My Brother's Blood Machine was meant to be part of a prequel for the band's albums, he says.
• ...the band's logo also came from the Amory Wars series? The Keywork, with its seven tangential circles and single triangle, represents planetary energy in the Amory Wars universe.

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