die and their death must be delivered by Coheed or they would suffer in a lab before being killed. And so Coheed agreed (v1 #1).
II. The Nightmare
It is absolutely possible to enjoy the music of Coheed and Cambria without having any background knowledge of the characters and plot. (Early fans of Coheed and Cambria would not have read The Amory Wars: The Second Stage Turbine Blade, as the first volume and issue of the comic book series was not published until a few years after the album’s release.) But, if you wish to follow along with the lyrics, you need to possess some knowledge of the story in the graphic novel. For “Everything Evil,” you need to read Second Stage Turbine Blade in its entirety, as this song is a culmination of all things evil. Evil being: Wilhelm Ryan’s plot to undermine God’s will and rule all of Heaven’s Fence; all of the blades in a turbine which propel this story forward; all of the lies, sacrifices, and manipulation that would make a man kill his own children. Evil is the death of innocence.
Upon first listen of “Everything Evil,” one can easily miss all of the information packed into the recording. Upon first reading of the lyrics, it can be just downright confusing. And that is because, in this one song, the audience is forced into the home of the Kilgannons, onboard the Gloria Vel Vessa flying through the Keywork on course for Paris: Earth, through the streets on Hetricius, into the erased memories of Coheed Kilgannon and more, as the story unfolds from various perspectives. The activation of the Monstar virus has been Wilhelm Ryan’s plan for several years in his plot to take over Heaven’s Fence, and this event is what takes center stage in “Everything Evil.”
In order to ensure the fruition of his plans, Ryan saw to it that, Coheed and Cambria’s children were killed, including Josephine, cure to the virus, (expressed in the two lines which begin with “Blood hungry,”) although, Claudio manages to escape this fate; kill anyone who may discover his plans; and get Coheed and Cambria onboard the Gloria Vel Vessa on course for Paris: Earth to release the virus. As a direct result of these actions, Patrick, Josephine’s fiancé, is killed because he witnesses her death, which is conveyed through the screaming of “F.B.I.” in the last line (Patrick was lured out of hiding by the Onstantine Priests who were pretending to be the F.B.I,) Coheed is kept unconscious and dreams onboard the spaceship and learns the truth about the creation of the Monstar virus and the cure and vows revenge, as demonstrated in the last six lines of the first stanza.
Fans of both the comics and the music can point to certain sections in the lyrics and tell you exactly how it corresponds to the plot in The Amory Wars. However, Coheed and Cambria’s lyrics can also be quite ambiguous at times. For example, I can easily tell you that the first line, “Wait for . . . everything evil in you comes out,” is a direct correlation to the forced activation of the Monstar virus within Coheed Kalgannon, but as for the following three lines, I can only speculate. This could be the result of the time gap between the release of the CD and the graphic series, the result of the editing process a work goes through before it is published or simply because I don’t recognize the connection. Or, it could also do with “Everything Evil” being one of the most difficult songs to work with from the band.
I would like to argue, however, that this song is told from the point of view of an omni-cognizant Inferno, as the entire Second Stage comic series is a flashback, the events of