The Afterman: Behind the Concept
This is a beginner’s guide to the story of the Coheed and Cambria albums. I am not going to go into detail about planet names and specific details like that because it will only convolute the story and there’s only so much space I have for each post.
In order for any of this to make sense you have to understand some basic background shit. The Coheed universe is a collection of planets and stars bound together by a field of energy called the “Keywork” (the symbol for the band). Within the Keywork there are many races, but the three main ones are Mage (powerful beings that wield lots of magic and make decisions for their sectors of the universe), Prise (the angels who follow the will of “God”), and Man.
I will be going through the albums as they happen in the Amory Wars story. |
| 1 |  | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman (Live Edition)
A successful scientist, Sirius Amory, ascends from his planet into space to explore the Keyword, a mysterious energy field that encompasses all the planets of Heaven’s Fence. |
| 2 |  | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Ascension
The Hollow:
Sirius begins his journey into the Keywork, excited but also anxious as no one has ever truly explored it before. Alone save for the onboard computer (named All Mother) of his ship, he opens the bay doors and mist begins to float in. |
| 3 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Ascension
Keywork Entity I: Domino the Destitute
Figures begin to rise from the mist, drawn towards Sirius because of the energy within his being and his suit. Before he can stop them he is possessed by an entity named Domino.He simultaneously interacts with the being as it feeds off his energy source and begins to live through the end of Domino’s life as a human. Domino was a boxer who rose from underdog to one of the top heavyweight boxers in his class. Fame brought with it drugs, money, and temptation and soon Domino found himself roped in with a powerful mob boss. |
| 4 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Ascension
Domino Cont:
After losing a string of matches and becoming more and more dependent on drugs he is forced to pay off his debts by putting on a heist. Enlisting his younger brother, Chess, they attempt to rob a bank. Chess is killed and Domino, realizing he is the reason for his brother’s death and his own misery, kills himself. This releases a blast of energy from the entity and Sirius that destroys Sirus’ main ship, and a good bit of Sirius’ suit. This leads everyone back on planet to believe that Sirius is dead. |
| 5 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Ascension
The Afterman:
Back on planet Meri grieves the “death” of her husband, lamenting his choice to pursue his science and dream over remaining safe with her. |
| 6 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Ascension
Mothers of Men:
Floating through the Keywork, Sirius finds himself drawn further out into the energy field away from his destroyed ship. He comes to discover that the Keywork is actually composed of the energy of the deceased, where they are forced to relive their lives, the good and the bad depending on who they were in life, over and over again. To their knowledge there is no heaven or hell. Everyone is cursed the same. |
| 7 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Ascension
Goodnight, Fair Lady:
Months after his “death” Meri decides to go out to the bar where she meets a creepy dude. Told from his perspective, he tries to roofie her only to be foiled by an off duty cop named Colten who spills her drink at the last second. |
| 8 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Ascension
Keywork Entity II: Hollywood the Cracked
Sirius is possessed by a second spirit, this one a mentally disturbed woman named Hollywood the Cracked. Obsessed with a movie actress, Hollywood undergoes multiple surgeries to look like her. The resulting surgeries disfigure her and that, combined with her insanity, lead her to believe the only way to truly achieve her goal of being like her idol is to kill her and take her place, which despite Sirius’ efforts she succeeds with. Sirius is released from the spirit but it leaves him physically drained. |
| 9 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Ascension
Keywork Entity III: Vic the Butcher
An incredibly dark presence that has been searching for Sirius in the mist finally finds him and overtakes him. Sirius is possessed by Vic, a military general who committed awful war crimes. For a time he is able to get away with this by hanging citizens and subordinates that threaten to expose him, but eventually the evidence is overwhelming and he is subject for arrest. Instead of going through the justice system Vic sets fire to his apartment and himself, burning it to the ground. This kills many innocent people including the children of a nursery on the floors below him. As the memory fades, Sirius is alerted by All Mother that his life support system is failing, that his body is deteriorating, and that he soon will die. |
| 10 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Ascension
Keywork Entity IV: Evagria the Faithful
Rising from the mist a fourth entity wards off Vic and wraps herself around Sirius. Her name is Evagria, a woman who in life was incredibly giving and charitable. As she attempts to nurse him back to health with her energy she brings him to another plane of the afterlife known as the “Samaritaine” where spirits can go once they have accepted who they were in life both good and bad. Sirius prepares to pass on, lamenting his death and his treatment of his wife. |
| 11 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Ascension
Subtraction:
On the brink of death, Sirius apologizes to Meri for his actions and asks her to let him go. |
| 12 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Ascension
Bonus Track: Homecoming
(Unconfirmed) A more interesting (albeit darker) “replacement” song for “Subtraction. I believe that Sirius is able to see (or possibly imagine) Meri in her life now, sitting on her kitchen floor, drunk or possibly in some state of emotional distress (potentially even having tried to kill herself). He tries to comfort her and tell her that she needs to live her life while she can, because death is coming for us all. He tells her to move on, and then he himself drifts off to die. A far superior track imo. |
| 13 |  | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Descension
Pretelethal:
Floating half dead in the Keywork energy, Sirius feels Evagria’s energy begin to fade. She cannot heal him while also fending off the constant barrage of other entities trying to steal his life force. She releases him. Vic and hundreds of other dark entities approach to feed. |
| 14 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Descension
Keywork Entity V: Sentry the Defiant:
Erupting from the Keywork is a soul with an energy unlike any Sirius has felt leading up to this point. It instantly rejuvenates him and he is enveloped by the power of Sentry. In life Sentry was a soldier who refused to follow the commands of his superior, Vic the Butcher. As a result he is hung from a tree. His purpose in death is to continue his mission in life, and he and Vic wage war against each other in the Keywork. |
| 15 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Descension
Sentry Cont:
Sharing a consciousness, Sirius informs Sentry about the way to move onto the Samaritaine and Sentry uses this knowledge to try and help worthy souls cross. Sirius escapes the battle and plummets from the Keywork in nothing but a spacesuit, essentially free falling with the hope of grabbing a passing space station in low orbit.
He is informed by All Mother that he has been trapped in the keywork for 547 days. |
| 16 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Descension
The Hard Sell:
Sirius returns to his planet to discover to thunderous applause, curiosity, and confusion. Initially he plans to reveal to the scientific community his findings about the Keywork, but is instead approached by the Prise, who warn him that to reveal the truth would be an act of war against them and God (presumably because if people found out that good deeds didn’t get them into a Heaven and bad deeds didn’t send them into Hell it would send the universe spiraling into chaos). He also finds his wife Meri to be cold and distant and comes to realize that everything that was important to him (his family, his integrity as a scientist, his literal life) was sacrificed in vain. |
| 17 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Descension
Number City:
A fun but “pointless” (imo) song. Told from the perspective of paramedics there has been a crash and the two victims are in critical condition. |
| 18 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Descension
Gravity’s Union:
On the way to a scientific award ceremony, Sirius learns from Meri that she is pregnant with Colten’s child and, having moved on from Sirius after his “death” no longer wishes to be with him. Distraught, Sirius loses control of the car and they collide with a semi-truck.
Their souls are launched from their bodies and begin to ascend to the Keywork. It can be argued at this point that the souls of the Keywork see Meri and Sirius approach and actually take her so that she cannot be brought back to life (to use as bait to lure Sirius back to them, perhaps because they know he can lead them to peace in the afterlife). Sirius is saved by Dr.Straight and is torn from Meri. |
| 19 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Descension
Away We Go:
Sirius reflects on who Meri was and the woman he fell in love with. He worries that because of her grief for the death of her unborn child and her conflicted love between him and Colten that she won’t be able to find peace and reach the Samaritaine. |
| 20 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Descension
Iron Fist:
A song about grief. It’s about Colten confronting Sirius to kill him but then he can’t do it. |
| 21 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Descension
Dark Side of Me:
Another song about grief. Sirius begins to realize that it’s his fault all this happened. If his ambition hadn’t blinded him to the beauty and wonder of his life before entering the Keywork then Meri wouldn’t have left him, fallen in love with another man, and subsequently died. |
| 22 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Descension
2’s My Favorite One:
Having built a second spacecraft he ascends into the Keywork a second time in the hopes of finding Meri and guiding her to the Samaritaine. Although the ending is ambiguous it can be heavily implied that he does eventually find her, probably dies himself, and leads them both to the afterlife. |
| 23 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Descension
Bonus Random Reality Shifts (demo):
Hands down one of the best Coheed songs ever written and never “published”.
(Unconfirmed) A far darker replacement for “2’s My Favorite One”. Attempting to live with his grief but driven into madness by the fact that he has been touched by the Keywork and is constantly slipping back and forth between his reality and the reality of the dead, Sirius is drawn up to the Keywork one last time with the intention of killing himself so he can guide Meri to the Samaritaine. He knows a battle awaits as his physical self will be instantly attacked by entities and used as a battery for all the lost souls and his soul may be subject to some worse fate if he loses himself to his own memories and sadness. As he steps from his craft and into the energy field, his last thoughts are of fear and regret. |
| 24 | | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Descension
Bonus Carol Ann (demo):
(Unconfirmed) I think the song was supposed to be a Keywork Entity song for when Sirius finds Meri (originally called Carol Ann) in the afterlife. She is a shell of her former self and doesn’t even recognize who Sirius is because she is so buried in her grief. My guess is Sirius posses her to try and get her to remember how she died, who she is, who he is, and how she can move on. I suppose if they pursued this storyline it might not contribute to overall album flow but man would it have been a really incredible ending. |
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