I can totally appreciate simple, melodic musical ideas. But I also have a thing for musical mind benders. To me, complex musical phrasing can be much like those optical illusion pictures you have to stare at just the right way before it comes into focus.
I think this is why I like progressive rock and metal. Bands like Meshuggah, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, etc. I'm a guitarist, but I think the core of complex musical ideas, the ideas that are almost 'musical illusions' really starts with the drummer.
There's a song by Meshuggah called Blood, and when the guitarist does a solo, the drums do a really sick polyrhythm. He plays a straight 4/4 groove on his high hat and snare, but his double bass drum pattern is a repeating pattern of 16/16 and 13/16. As all the parts play out, their alignment against each other is constantly changing give each pass a different feel each time.
Another great example is on Dream Theater's 'Breaking All Illusions'. The song is filled with 'illusions' per se.
Right around 1:30 the fall into a slow groove. Each bar is one less quarter note then the previous, starting at 7.
So where as a waltz would be 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3
This is 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 1-2-3-4-5-6 1-2-3-4-5 1-2-3-4 1-2-3
After it repeats twice, the drummer does something simple, yet difficult. He plays an open high hat every other quarter note. Simple? Kinda, except that some of the bars are odd counts, and some are even. So for the first bar of 7, the open high hat lands on counts 2, 4 and 6. It skips 7, then lands on the 1. So now the open high hat is on an odd count.. Since this bar is even, it stays on an odd count for the next bar too. And then that bar is odd, so the following bar the hh is back to falling on an even count. Since the entire pattern adds up to 25 quarter notes, when the entire pattern repeats, the hh starts on the 1 this time, so the entire trip through the pattern is the opposite as last time..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWZRPKfs0qU
All in all, if you focus on the high hat, it's a consistent open/closed open/closed, but the pattern it is playing against constantly moves around behind it. But if you listen to the kick/snare pattern, the hh doesn't sound consistent anymore because it changes the focus.
Clever.
I think this is why I like progressive rock and metal. Bands like Meshuggah, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, etc. I'm a guitarist, but I think the core of complex musical ideas, the ideas that are almost 'musical illusions' really starts with the drummer.
There's a song by Meshuggah called Blood, and when the guitarist does a solo, the drums do a really sick polyrhythm. He plays a straight 4/4 groove on his high hat and snare, but his double bass drum pattern is a repeating pattern of 16/16 and 13/16. As all the parts play out, their alignment against each other is constantly changing give each pass a different feel each time.
Another great example is on Dream Theater's 'Breaking All Illusions'. The song is filled with 'illusions' per se.
Right around 1:30 the fall into a slow groove. Each bar is one less quarter note then the previous, starting at 7.
So where as a waltz would be 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3
This is 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 1-2-3-4-5-6 1-2-3-4-5 1-2-3-4 1-2-3
After it repeats twice, the drummer does something simple, yet difficult. He plays an open high hat every other quarter note. Simple? Kinda, except that some of the bars are odd counts, and some are even. So for the first bar of 7, the open high hat lands on counts 2, 4 and 6. It skips 7, then lands on the 1. So now the open high hat is on an odd count.. Since this bar is even, it stays on an odd count for the next bar too. And then that bar is odd, so the following bar the hh is back to falling on an even count. Since the entire pattern adds up to 25 quarter notes, when the entire pattern repeats, the hh starts on the 1 this time, so the entire trip through the pattern is the opposite as last time..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWZRPKfs0qU
All in all, if you focus on the high hat, it's a consistent open/closed open/closed, but the pattern it is playing against constantly moves around behind it. But if you listen to the kick/snare pattern, the hh doesn't sound consistent anymore because it changes the focus.
Clever.
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but still provided some enjoyable music regardless, as Coheed has never been 100% prog), that they will be both returning to their roots and bringing back some of the "different" hooks and rhythms he helped provide... so I'm excited to see what comes of that. 
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