Oh boy, are you in luck. I've gotten back into Co&Ca in a big way this year, after having essentially checked out after No World for Tomorrow. I was momentarily enamored with Vaxis 1 when it released, but it did not inspire me to dive into the stuff that I had missed. However, I saw that they were performing in my town this summer, bought tickets based on nostalgia, and then decided I should give myself a crash course to catch up. Turns out, Coheed were still putting out bangers while I wasn't looking.
To directly answer your prompt, I think Vaxis II is the closest thing to a "perfect" Coheed record since IKSSE:3. I could be persuaded on that point to say Good Apollo Vol 1 counts, but I'd have to do a deep dive on the OG saga to definitively determine how those records rack and stack. Unlike Vaxis I, which I do enjoy, they reined in some of their maximalist tendencies and delivered a relatively lean record almost devoid of filler. Unfortunately, I think the middle of the record sags, as Blood, Bad Man, and Our Love don't really do anything for me. Thankfully though, they bring it back around with the best climatic multi-track ending suite since the The Willing Well with Ladders/Rise/Window. If I were trying to convince someone to give a Coheed record a listen, this is probably the one I would choose to show them, ESPECIALLY if that person had no affinity for the emo/hardcore scene of the early 2000s. I eat that shit with a spoon, but it's a divisive sound in the middle of an experience that is already asking the uninitiated listener to adjust to a lot.
Since I'm on a roll, I'll throw out my post NWFT album rankings and we can have a good old fashioned forum flame war about it if anyone else rolls through. It'll be like the days of Cobalt & Calcium all over again lol
- Vaxis II
- Afterman: Descension
- Vaxis I
- A Lot of Nothing for Emphasis I-XX
- The Color Before the Sun
- Year of the Black Rainbow
- Afterman: Ascension
Maybe it's not fair to split the Afterman records, but hey, the band were the ones who decided to release them separately, so I think it's fair game. Plus, it's such an uneven package for me, I don't want to drag down my esteem for Descension with my antipathy for Ascension. I may need to sit with it more, but, as of this moment, I don't know if there is a track on the record that I would choose to play outside of the context of a full album listen. Maybe The Afterman or Goodnight, Fair Lady, but almost certainly nothing else. I actively dislike Holly Wood the Cracked, and more or less tolerate, at best, the rest of the Key Entity Extraction movements.
My low opinion of Ascension is almost entirely ameliorated by the time Descension gets Sentry the Defiant going though. That song is such an incredible banger that I think it colors my impressions of all the other Key Entity suites in comparison. Further highlights include Number City and Gravity's Union. Admittedly, my reception of the rest of the record is lukewarm to vaguely positive, but the highs lift everything else.
Vaxis I is arguably interchangeable with Descension, but the bloat on the record keeps it from cleanly occupying the second spot. While I find my track to track enjoyment maintaining a pretty consistent level throughout the album (certainly moreso than on The Afterman), I can't argue against the notion that nearly every song is 1-2 minutes too long. As an example illustrative of my overall quibble with the record, having Black Sunday and Queen of the Dark back to back, both of which feature extended sections of eponymous acapella chanting, is a LITTLE much.
I don't have too much to say regarding TCBtS or YotBR. Neither record made a big impression on me in my cursory examination of Coheed's latter-day output. I think TCBtS is pleaseant, if forgettable, and the themes of the record really benefit from being applied to The Story in the Vaxis albums. Year of the Black Rainbow on the other hand is unpleasant, and still forgettable. I just don't think of Coheed as much of "metal" band, and when they were really leaning into the more discordant, heavy side of the genre, it seemed disingenuous. Special shout out to Far, though, which is a total vibe.
Okay that's all for now!