Coheed and Cambria has been impressing hardcore alternative rock fans for more than a decade. The band formed in 1995 under a different name, but when drummer Nate Kelley joined in on the action in 2001, the band assumed its present tag and formed a truly original vision. Coheed's fifth studio album, "Year of the Black Rainbow," is scheduled for release in about a month. It will be the prequel to the "The Amory Wars," a science-fiction narrative created by lead-singer Claudio Sanchez that has been laid out in Coheed and Cambria's first four discs. Aside from being literature lackeys, the guys in C&C are on the pressing edge of the "post-hardcore" music scene. Their cosmic sound is led by vein tingling reverb, deep, grating guitar riffs, and Sanchez's operatic vocals. Fans are sure to be left with their heads in their hands, but they won't be attached to their shoulders. Hardcore fans can check the band out at Record Archive at 6 p.m. for a prefatory set the same night.

Coheed and Cambria plays Tuesday, March 23, 7 p.m. at Harro East Ballroom, 155 N. Chestnut St. $30-$300. 454-0230