#9 - Coheed & Cambria - "The Amory Wars"

This acoustic version of the song was found on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dey-ns3TSKw

Lyrics to all Coheed and Cambria songs can be found at http://www.plyrics.com/c/coheedandcambria.html

More specifically the lyrics to "The Velorium Camper III: Al the Killer" can be found at http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/coheedandcambria/theveloriumcamperiiialthekiller.html

The next media that I want to blog on is in large part a rock opera that spans over the course of five albums known collectively as “The Amory Wars”. Claudio Sanchez, the mastermind behind the alt-rock behemoth Coheed & Cambria, has written all of his songs based around the Kilgannon family. The story is very heavily based in sci-fi and fantasy and is very difficult to follow at times, but luckily Sanchez has released a series of comic books that follow the story thus far, which give pictures to all of the mental images that fans of Co & Ca (as the band is often written for short) have created. The story takes place on an Earth-like planet and begins with the father and mother, Coheed and Cambria (respectively). They quickly notice that they aren’t quite like everyone else and are convinced by a stranger that supposedly works for the government that they were once infected by a virus and that it has mutated within their offspring and that if they don’t dispose of them, the children will rise up and destroy humanity (We later find out that the stranger is actually an enemy, Mayo Deftinwolf). Horrified by the thought of his children being the downfall of the universe, Claudio convinces his wife of what must be done. They murder their three youngest children and their oldest comes home and catches them in the act. Claudio (the oldest son, ironically the sharing a name with the lead singer) runs from the house and goes into hiding. The Kilgannons then find out that they have been lied to and that their children were of no danger and were only killed to enrage Coheed who has a beast sleeping inside of him (similar to the Incredible Hulk). Luckily, Claudio has successfully escaped and the rest of the albums follow his story of finding out that he is destined to be the savior of the universe (“The Crowing”) and the adventure and battles that ensue. Specifically to represent this story, I chose the song “The Velorium Camper III: Al the Killer”, which tells of a man named Al that apparently loves to kill white women; a love that stems from an unrequited love from his past. Some of the lyrics include:
“When I kill her, I'll have her
Dance upon the graves of the dead, upon your name
Die white girls, die white girls
Dance upon the graves of the dead, upon the graves of the dead”
I chose this piece of media because I’ve not yet done a post on a piece of music, which is a passion of mine. Also I chose “The Amory Wars” story because it has an interesting coincidence within it.

The story of Claudio Kilgannon involves many characters, many aren’t human, but the ones that are, are predominantly white. In fact, there are only two black characters in the story. One is one of the worst villains of all time, going as far as to convince a man to kill his own children. And the other is “Al the Killer”, the man who delights in killing white girls. Although many characters are brutal in the story, even the way that these two are described physically relate to description found in the “Ethnic Notions” video that we watched. Not only was this idea of black males expressed in the video but also in the Zinn piece “Slavery Without Submission”. African slaves were feared because of their large builds and so-called “brutal nature”. This is one of the reasons slave owners used to argue that slavery was necessary, because the black citizens would be unable to coexist with whites in society. Both Al and Mayo Deftinwolf play up to the stereotype of strong, brutal, black males that will kill white people without conscious. It’s not likely that the writer of the story intended this, seeing how he is a minority, himself (Mexican to be exact). Again regardless of intentions, some could find this representation of black people offensive.

I personally love Claudio Sanchez’s story and even more the way that he has told the entire thing through song. I think that he is a musical genius that deserves far more credit than he has received thus far. The more I work on this project; I’m beginning to notice that you can find instances of racial injustice or misrepresentation in just about anything. And if it CAN’T be found, things can always be seen differently by someone who may find them. That’s been one of the more difficult parts of this class, stepping into the shoes of someone else, more than I ever have before, in order to try to see things from their perspective. I can now see where an African-American could be upset by Claudio’s representation of black people in his story. However, I believe that the complexity and intensity of the “Amory Wars” story overshadow any possible notion of racism, more than half of his characters aren’t even human so…