""Year of the Black Rainbow" is yet another leg of Coheed and Cambria's progressive alternative metal journey and, like the previous five releases, this album is not easy to categorize. One thing is for sure though: the emo and power pop elements are all but gone, the metal influence seeming to have taken over over. This means that this album is the darkest release by the band so far (with the two "Good Apollo" albums being darker than the two first albums but not as dark as this one).
There are progressive and alternative elements in all tracks, but the metal is now dominant as heard in tracks like heavy rocker "The Broken", the almost industrial like "Guns of Summer", the upbeat "World of Lines", "In the Flame of Error" (once it gets started properly) and "Where Skeletons Live". Other tracks draw more on alternative rock (noise rock being the primary source of input from the world of alternative rock this time), while still containing several heavy metal elements, such as "Made Out Of Nothing (All That I Am)", "Here We Are Juggernaut" and the title track, which combines noise rock, progressive rock and alternative metal. "Far" and "Pearl of the Stars" do not qualify as metal songs, but they're quite interesting anyway.
"Year of the Black Rainbow" is an interesting alternative metal album which , I think, will be appreciated by fans of heavy metal, progressive metal, alternative metal, and alternative rock."
