I bought this album on a whim at Barnes and Noble for only $7.99. The bold red on black packaging had caught my eye many times before, so I sampled the album, read the review, and was totally sold by the deserving comparisons to Rush and Queensryche. I got the album home, put it on, and had my mind blown for the next 70 minutes- though it feels like half that time.
Onto the music. The album starts out tranquil, with a classical overture and a gentle acoustic ballad with cryptic lyrics, but don't let that fool you. Together, these songs set the overall mood of the album. Next is "Welcome Home", arguably the best single song on IV:V1, and is flat-out epic, from the finger-picked intro to the haunting, heavy, strings-and-choir backed outro. The riff is absolutely gut-wrenching, and the lyrics are pissed off as hell. "Ten Speed" is a great follower, and is shorter and sweeter yet just as awesome as "Welcome Home". The next few songs pass by, but still leave a mark in your brain. "Wake Up" marks the halfway point of the album, and is a wonderful acoustic love ballad. The next half is just as awesome. "The Suffering" and "Lying Lies of Miss Erica Court" make a great hard rock one-two punch, and "Mother May I" is a perfect lyrical lead-in to the epic half-hour closing suite, "The Willing Well". It is an intense, musically diverse, and climactic ending to a heavy, loud, yet melodic album that warrants its own separate review. Bottom line: If you don't mind the occasional acoustic ballad or classical influences in your metal, if you like diverse, heavy, catchy songwriting, and don't mind a singer with a Geddy Lee-like vocal range, then do yourself a favor and check out Coheed and Cambria, starting with this album.