Marvel or DC? One of the many tough questions Brock asks Claudio of Coheed. Plus a deep dive into their latest release “Axis II: A Window Of the Waking Mind.”
Which continues the Story Of “The Amory Wars.” Does he know how the story ends? What roles do he and his writing partner, his wife, play in its creation?

Also…Batman’s belt? Or Iron Man’s suit? Which one would Claudio be more productive in?

If you’re a fan of basically any music genre involving a guitar, 2022 feels like a year for looking back. Depending on who you talk to the pop punk revival is in full swing, followed closely by an emo revival and possibly also a post-hardcore revival quietly (read: loudly) waiting in the wings. It would be tempting for a band like Coheed and Cambria – whose groundbreaking first album “Second Stage Turbine Blade” turns 20 this year – to revisit the sounds of genres they helped pioneer. But making the same album twice just isn’t in their blood. It never has been.

“I’ve always thought of us as sort of the oddity, the underdog,” said frontman and guitarist Claudio Sanchez. “Why follow trends [now]? I just wanted to write a record that was right for Coheed in 2022. We’re still breaking ground.”

That record is “Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind,” which releases on June 24th. It pushes the band’s sound in directions nobody could have seen coming two decades ago: from sparkling electronica to rock opera spectacle. “Vaxis II” also continues Coheed’s decades-spanning “Amory Wars” science fiction story, an undertaking that now encompasses nine albums, a multitude of comic books, novels, a trio of games, and a coffee brand. The new album serves as a sequel to multiple records in the band’s discography while retaining the accessible, emotion-packed lyrical style that turned songs like “Welcome Home” and “A Favor House Atlantic” into chart-topping radio hits. 

There’s simply nothing else like Coheed’s fictional universe in music, with other bands only just now beginning to embrace transmedia storytelling in a way that’s come naturally to Coheed since their inception. In truth, Coheed got a head start not just on music, but pop culture in general; when comics were still considered the dusty domain of a subspecies of basement dwellers, Sanchez embraced the medium as a means of telling his superpowered sci-fi story. But even that approach came from a personal place: The characters of Coheed and Cambria represent his parents, and each entry in the saga chronicles his own messy, difficult journey through life.