Vaxis – Act III: The Father of Make Believe

Vaxis – Act III: The Father of Make Believe is the eleventh studio album by American progressive rock band Coheed and Cambria. It was released on March 14, 2025. The album, like most of the studio albums from the band, is a concept album that continues the Amory Wars storyline. A deluxe edition of the album, called the New Entities Edition, was released on October 3, 2025.

Themes and composition

While the album continues The Amory Wars storyline established in most of the band's previous albums, frontman and lead writer Claudio Sanchez has stated that this album was more personal than others, with a focus on personal stories rather than the concept first. Sanchez has described the album as a "midlife crisis."
The album's themes revolve around loss, as "Yesterday's Lost" sees Sanchez ponder a potential time without his wife and "Meri of Mercy" features the return of characters inspired by his late grandparents.

Critical reception

Vaxis – Act III: The Father of Make Believe was released to critical acclaim from many contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 82 based on five reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Track listing

Notes

"Yesterday's Lost" contains, at approximately 0:28, a reprise of "The Hollow" from The Afterman: Ascension.
"The Continuum III: Tethered Together" contains multiple allusions to the Key Entity Extraction suite from the Afterman albums, most prominently reprising the melody of "Key Entity Extraction I: Domino the Destitute" from The Afterman: Ascension. It also contains the choral chant from “The End Complete III: The End Complete” from Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow.
"The Continuum IV: So It Goes" contains, at approximately 5:16, a reprise of "Pretelethal" from The Afterman: Descension.

Personnel

Coheed and Cambria

Claudio Sanchez – vocals, guitar, synthesizer, production
Travis Stever – guitar
Zach Cooper – bass
Josh Eppard – drums

Additional musicians

Christopher Jahnke – orchestrations

Technical

Zakk Cervini – production, mixing, engineering
Chris Athens – mastering
Julian Garguilo – mix assistant, engineering, additional production
Sean-Paul Pillsworth – drums engineering

Artwork

Chase Stone – art
Nick Steinhardt – design