Coheed and Cambria have announced details for their new album Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind. The new album is set to be released in May 2022. It’s a thirteen track epic that was produced by the band’s own Claudio Sanchez and Zakk Cervini. The band launched pre-orders for the album and a limited edition box set on their website. 

Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind is the second installment of the five part “Vaxis” arc about a couple on the run from tyrannical forces. The album’s limited edition deluxe box set includes the exclusive 96-page illustrated hardcover novel “A Window of the Waking Mind” which was developed by Sanchez and written by his wife Chondra Echert with strikingly realistic color artwork by Chase Stone. According to BrooklynVegan, the album “finds the band embracing their love of classic heavy metal riffage, before exploding into the kind of soaring chorus that Coheed have been churning out since day one… they sound pretty damn inspired.”

Coheed and Cambria will celebrate the forthcoming LP with “The Great Destroyer Tour,” a U.S. headline run which will feature support from special guests Sheer Mag. The tour is set to get underway on February 16 in Pioneertown, CA and continues through mid-March, being played mostly at intimate clubs. 

In August 2021, Coheed and Cambria released an artsy music video for their track “Shoulders,” which was the lead single for their tenth album.  The track opens with an electric guitar solo before the aggressive industrial rock production kicks in. Frontman Claudio Sanchez’s smooth vocals are able to clearly articulate the song’s message of the struggle of non-conforming to societal norms or trends. The band also made an appearance at Summerfest in Milwaukee, WI in September 2021. 

Photo Credit: Boston Lynn Schulz