For the last 20 years, Coheed and Cambria have continuously broken the mold of what a rock band can be, forging their own path and building a universe around their music unlike any other. Whether it is in the way their genre-spanning approach to songwriting has allowed them to bridge worlds without being contained to one, or the multifaceted story arc of their albums and comic book series which mark the longest running concept story in music, Coheed and Cambria have consistently shaped new standards, never conformed. Comprised of Claudio Sanchez (Vocals / Guitar), Travis Stever (Guitar), Josh Eppard (Drums) and Zach Cooper (Bass) the band has gripped listeners and press around the globe with their visionary compositions and conceptual mastery. In 2018, Coheed and Cambria made a stunning debut with their album Vaxis I: The Unheavenly Creatures, which debuted at #1 on Billboard’s “Hard Rock Albums” chart, #6 current sales and Top 15 on the “Billboard 200″ chart.

Taking Back Sunday, who released their eighth studio album 152 in late 2023, often refer to themselves as the ‘luckiest guys you will meet.’ The new album, featuring 10 intensely vulnerable and absorbing new tracks was delivered with fresh ambition and a newfound purpose. It stands among the most genuinely reflective and emotionally pure efforts of Taking Back Sunday’s illustrious career.

Starting out just hoping to release at least one album and go on tour, the band has since sold millions of albums, has multiple tracks with streams hitting the multiple hundred million mark, toured the world several times over, performed at all of the biggest festivals and are still always looking forward.

Never ones to rest on their prior accomplishments or impressive back catalogue they are always striving to make something that they hope folks can find a little piece of themselves in. “Music is there to bring you together with like-minded people and get a little lost. For us, the songs from 152 have a life and energy all their own. It would make us the happiest if we can all get lost in it together.”

Beneath the audible progress of Foxing’s 13 year career – from the chamber emo of debut The Albatross to the art pop of 2021’s Draw Down The Moon – has been a gradual movement towards self-sufficiency. Appropriately, the quartet of vocalist Conor Murphy, guitarist Eric Hudson, drummer Jon Hellwig, and bassist Brett Torrence (who recently joined after years as a touring hired gun) chose to self-title their fifth LP simply, Foxing. The album was entirely produced by the band and mixed by Hudson. The cover art was created by Murphy and Torrence, and it is being released on the band’s own Grand Paradise label.

DIY requires doing, and Foxing was not an easy album to make. I share a studio space with the band and was an onlooker to the tedious two year process of its creation. I heard good songs emanating from their room at the bottom of the stairs, only to be abandoned and later reborn as incredible songs. I also witnessed some absolute garbage – a testament to the quartet’s willingness to entertain any idea and push it to its furthest conclusion before filling their iMac’s recycling bin. I was jarred by explosive cheering as the band turned the basement hallway into a makeshift putting green during breaks. I overheard arguments that were decibels shy of shouting matches. There were some moments when their creative stalemates seemed unresolvable and others where the enthusiasm of making a transcendently great album was intoxicating.

It is fitting that tension is at the core of Foxing, an album that balances hopefulness and nihilism, the pastoral with the tumultuous. Whether oscillating between visceral noise rock and intimate bedroom cassette experiments on opener “Secret History” or cruising at the edge of collapse on “Barking,” the dramatic dynamics that have long permeated Foxing’s music have never felt so extreme. Five albums into a discography defined by its own restlessness, Foxing is a document of a band finding comfort in their own chaos.

– Ryan Wasoba