For the past decade-plus, Coheed and Cambria have funneled their creative energy into “The Amory Wars,” the ongoing science-fiction story stretched across their first seven studio albums. But the prog-pop-metal veterans are abandoning their usual format for their next LP, the non-conceptual The Color Before the Sun, out October 9th via new label 300 Entertainment.

Produced by Jay Joyce (Cage the Elephant, Eric Church) and recorded in Nashville, Color finds frontman/chief songwriter Claudio Sanchez exploring personal subject matter from his own perspective. “I kind of want people to know that Coheed can write that sort of record,” he says in a statement, addressing the change of direction. “I’ve always said in the past that there’s never been a limitation on the band. It makes no sense to me to draw a line in the sand and never cross it.”

The album’s lead single, “You Got Spirit, Kid,” finds Sanchez blasting a high-and-mighty rival over anthemic power-pop guitar crunch. “When the world gets pulled out from underneath / Just embrace the fall,” he sings. “Go on living that farce / ‘Cause nobody gives a fuck who you are.”

The band teamed with Funny or Die last month for a hilarious new song that twisted Supreme Court Justice Scalia’s dissenting opinions from the Affordable Care Act and Same-Sex Marriage rulings into a classic Coheed-style ballad.

Coheed and Cambria have festival dates scheduled throughout August and the fall, including three European full-album performances of 2003’s In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3.