COHEED AND CAMBRIA Shares Politically Tinged Animated Holiday Video For 'One Last Miracle'

Modern progressive, alternative rock band COHEED AND CAMBRIA has share a politically tinged animated holiday music video for their song "One Last Miracle", which appears on their acclaimed full-length album "The Father Of Make Believe", released earlier this year via Virgin. The official music video, developed by the band's frontman Claudio Sanchez and directed by Alek Wasilewski, features Santa Claus receiving a letter from a child whose mother was taken by ICE, asking for her to be returned for Christmas.

Inspired by the non-stop scenes on TV and social media, Sanchez elaborates: "The algorithm knows what bothers me. The non-stop scrolling through families being violently torn apart, children abandoned to fend for themselves, while their mothers are violently dragged away by men three times their size is upsetting. No political agenda is worth this twist of humanity's moral compass. If there is a God… I guarantee you… she doesn't approve."

The visuals for "One Last Miracle" are the sequel to COHEED AND CAMBRIA's 2019 video "The Unheavenly Christmas Carol", which is the official music video to the band's song "Toys". In "The Unheavenly Christmas Carol", we see Santa try to teach an overweight orange-colored-president-with-fascist-tendencies a lesson. It worked — for a term. Fast forward six years, Santa sees it's gotten so much worse and is no longer fucking around. He makes peace with his normally evil cousin, Krampus, to help him not only return the child's mother, but to end this nonsense for all.

Additionally, Sanchez and Evil Ink (Sanchez's book production house) are proud to announce a multi-book publishing partnership with Rare Bird Literature, marking a new era of collaboration that will expand and reintroduce key works from "The Amory Wars" universe to readers worldwide. The partnership launches with redesigned and expanded special editions of the long-out-of-print "Year Of The Black Rainbow" (Book One of "The Amory Wars") — now available for early access preorder — followed by a unique continuation between Claudio Sanchez and Kevin J. Anderson ("Dune", "Star Wars", "X-Files", "Clockwork Angels" with Neil Peart) with Book Two of "The Amory Wars", "The Second Stage Turbine Blade", expected to be released in the fall of 2026.

"The Father Of Make Believe" marks the monumental tenth studio album from COHEED AND CAMBRIA and includes "Goodbye, Sunshine", "Blind Side Sonny", "Searching For Tomorrow" and "Someone Who Can". "The Father Of Make Believe" carves out new sonic territory amidst all of the wailing guitars, drums that crack like fireworks, and vocalist and primary guitarist Claudio Sanchez's aching, powerful voice that centers us through moments both placid and pinwheeling. Narratively, "The Father Of Make Believe" continues the story of "The Amory Wars" / "Vaxis" universe, following COHEED AND CAMBRIA's 2022 album "Vaxis Act II: A Window Of The Waking Mind". But where the set really forges new ground is in how Sanchez embraces the role of main character. He's often used epic songcraft to mask the stories he wanted to tell: reflections on an addicted father, memories of his beloved grandfather, concern about raising a child in a cruel world, hopes and fears around the love of his life. This time, he's writing more directly about his life and, especially, his unusual career. Sanchez is the Father Of Make Believe, gazing down upon this world he's wrought.

Earlier this year, Sanchez announced his new guitar The Jackhammer, named after the famous line from COHEED AND CAMBRIA's song "In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3" – "man your own jackhammer." The Jackhammer is the first presentation from Claudio's new guitar and music company Evil Instruments and was completely designed by Sanchez, with assistance from long-time guitar tech Kevin Allen, and fine tuned and built by Los Angeles-based Dunable Guitars.

For the last 20 years, COHEED AND CAMBRIA have continuously broken the mold of what a rock band can be, forging their own path and building a universe around their music unlike any other. Whether it is in the way their genre-spanning approach to songwriting has allowed them to bridge worlds without being contained to one, or the multifaceted story arc of their albums and comic book series which mark the longest-running concept story in music, COHEED AND CAMBRIA have consistently shaped new standards, never conformed. Comprised of Claudio Sanchez (vocals / guitar),Travis Stever (guitar),Josh Eppard (drums) and Zach Cooper (bass) the band has gripped listeners and press around the globe with their visionary compositions and conceptual mastery.

Photo credit: Jimmy Fontaine