Coheed And Cambria - 'Shoulders' Single Review

"Tonight. Midnight. EST"

Other than a image of an old looking guy with a gas mask on with the word "Shoulders" stamped distortedly across the screen.

With so little info all you could do was speculate until the clock struck twelve....

Coheed and Cambria, America's premium Progressive Rock band, have managed to catch everyone unawares with their surprise new single "Shoulders." No further rise information has been given which leads us to speculate that the band are about to release a new album soon but nobody knows when just yet. Another unanswered question is this part of their ongoing Armory Wars concept series or even if it's a follow up to 2018's "The Unheavenly Creatures" although the artwork does suggest this is the case.

It starts with a tightly coiled riff that could almost be described as funky before the rest of the band kick in. There's a bit of a Ziggy-esque glam feel. The tempo is upbeat and the song's arrangement, Coheed, is straight forward. Claudio's vocals, even after all these years, sounds as unique as always. Instead of following his contemporaries, he continues to predominantly his upper registry. The guitar solo at just over half way sounds like Dave Navarro from Jane's Addiction popped into the studio for a coffee and ripped out a guitar solo at the same time.

"Shoulders" is short but sweet. It's compactly constructed and in its three and half minutes runtime it succeeds on every level. Your head bobs along as you try to figure out what he's singing about, to see if there are any further clues to the continuation of the story that's been going on for decades now. Damn, it's catchy and I find myself skipping the track back to its start every time it concludes, each listen gives me something fresh to listen to. Let's hope that this means a new album from Coheed and Cambria very soon.