Coheed and Cambria have premiered a new song, “Eraser,” ahead of their upcoming fall tour. It is taken from the band’s upcoming release, The Color Before The Sun, which is due out on October 16th, 2015.
The songs on The Color Before The Sun – including the previously released “You Got Spirit, Kid” and “Here to Mars” – find the band departing from their methodology that lead to a more absurdist style of writing, which underpinned a story that has been dubbed The Amory Wars.
What is The Amory Wars, exactly?
“It’s a sprawling story by singer and lead guitarist Claudio Sanchez covering novels, comics and albums about 78 planets entitled “Heavens Fence,” telling a huge story including a destiny known as the Crowing, evil archmages bent on destroying the universe, even Claudio himself both appearing as a character and as the writer,” according to Noisey’s John Hill.
And, while, telling character driven stories that are surrounded by sonic sounds led Coheed and Cambria to a flourishing career in the 1990s, the band is trying a different approach on their new album. Instead of spinning a story of fantasy, they are telling relatable stories about real life. But, in making this storytelling change, the group hasn’t lost their talent for writing catchy lyrics and musical hooks that are have the upbeat tempo of pop combined with a heavy sound that still keeps rock fans interested some 20-years later, as evidenced with “Eraser.”
While “Eraser” is an upbeat song musically, the lyrics are deceivingly thought provoking, upon a close listen. The lyrical narrative is written from the prospective of a middle-aged adult man looking back on his life, and decisions, in the midst of a breakup. He is nostalgic for the past, which is shown in the lines, “turn the clocks back to the way things were,” because he doesn’t appear to like his present adult self very much (“I never wanted to be this me / Show me back then, the kid before the man.”)
And what does the song mean, reflect, or embody for the band?
Well, drummer Josh Eppard addressed his interpretation in a press release.
“To me, ‘Eraser’ embodies the music we grew up on maybe better than any other Coheed song to date,” Eppard said in a press release. “We were little sponges in the ‘90s when the Pumpkins and Nirvana were creating a landscape all their own. I hear those bands in our song ‘Eraser’ and I’m extremely proud of that.”
Check it out, below.
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