Coheed and Cambria Tap Into Musical Theater on New Song ‘Old Flames’

Coheed and Cambria return with a grandiose new song “Old Flames.” Frontman Claudio Sanchez recounts a story of romantic regret between the key characters in the prog-metal band’s upcoming album Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures.

“Don’t you fear – I’m bringing you home/ Out of this pit where I left you alone in this horrible mess that I made,” Sanchez belts over an arrangement that blooms from ornate piano to palm-muted electric guitars. “We both agree that I wasn’t the man that you needed me to be/ But, oh, how I changed, and, oh, how I’ve grown.” The song later veers into swirling synthesizers and a wordless “na na na” bridge.

Sanchez recently spoke to Rolling Stone about the new record, highlighting the theatrical influence behind the track. “I was inspired by this Brian De Palma movie Phantom of the Paradise,” he said. “It’s basically a Seventies version of Phantom of the Opera, a movie musical … With ‘Old Flames,’ I was trying to write something that sounded a bit more Fifties. I just sat behind my digital piano in my living room and constructed the opening piano sequence. I wrote it from there on piano — it wasn’t written on guitar. To me, it had a pretty powerful chorus. After writing that song, that put me in this mindset of writing that sort of material.”

“Old Flames” is the fourth song Coheed and Cambria have released from the album, following “The Gutter,” “Unheavenly Creatures” and “The Dark Sentencer.” Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures, the band’s ninth LP, is out October 5th.  The quartet will launch a headlining U.S. tour – featuring openers Maps & Atlases and Thank You Scientist – on November 3rd in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The band also has a brief run of U.K. dates scheduled for October.