Exceptional at telling stories in their music, Coheed and Cambria are back with their brand new album, Vaxis Act III: The Father of Make Believe. Set for release on March 14, 2025, via Virgin Music Group, it marks the band’s eleventh overall studio album. It will also be available digitally as a standard CD, vinyl press, and a limited edition box set that will include the novella. It also is the next chapter in a saga that began in 2018 with Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures and continued in 2022 with Vaxis – Act II: A Window of the Waking Mind. The latter is a record that yielded the veteran act their first US Top 10 radio single with “Shoulders,” more excitement seems to be ready to explode with this forthcoming release.
Looking back for a moment, Coheed and Cambria’s roots date all the way back to 1995, and they have been notorious for their concept albums that tell the tale of ‘The Armory Wars,’ which is a fictional storyline written and designed by Guitarist/Singer Claudio Sanchez. So far, only one album – 2015’s The Color Before The Sun – was not part of this storyline. However, Vaxis Act III: The Father Of Make Believe is certainly a part of that universe again, coming along with fifteen songs performed by Sanchez, Guitarist Travis Stever, Drummer Josh Eppard, and Bassist Zach Cooper.
So, are you ready to sink into the new chapter? Brace yourself because it begins smoothly with “Yesterday Lost,” which takes you by the hand and invents you. This is while “Goodbye Sunshine” brings in catchy melodies, powerful bridges, and catchy choruses before “Searching For Tomorrow” continues the thriving and catchy rhythms that push you deeper into the plot.
The title track, “The Father of Make Believe,” then begins with a repetitive “on and on and on” before Claudio Sanchez begins singing with loads of emotions that you can feel all around you. In a grand song, the intensity of the arrangements and vocals rise and fall, which gets you excited along with the characters.
Thereafter, “Meri of Mercy” lets you grab a breath before the recently released single “Blind Side Sonny” jumps straight back into action with rock-n-roll riffs and large, shouting vocals. From here, the noise and chaos continue with “Play The Poet,” before the wonderfully arranged “One Last Miracle” comes with grand arrangements, the calm, soothing “Corner My Confidence,” before “Someone Who Can” pushes forward before the album enters the four-pieced continuum.
What might that be? It is “The Continuum I: Welcome to Forever, Mr. Nobody,” “The Continuum II: The Flood,” “The Continuum III: Tethered Together,” and “The Continuum IV: So It Goes” which you will have to listen to for yourself to unwrap each twist and turn.
Overall, Vaxis Act III: The Father of Make Believe is riddled with amazing instrumentation that paints vivid visual pictures matched with songwriting and arrangements that fill the room with color and richness. Complimentary to the overall story, which brings back important characters from the beginning, it is almost impossible to resist getting pulled in. That is why Cryptic Rock gives this album 5 out of 5 stars.
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