Deloused in the Comatorium

Possibly the best prog-rock album from this century. Expect to find music that is written for the sake of music, that breaks boundaries, that forces the listener to think and experience concepts outside of the easy boundaries of culture and social norms that are forced on us by the media. Of course, like any good prog-rock project, "De-Loused in the Comatorium" is a conceptual album. The main character Cerpin Taxt, who is based on a real person that the band knew, falls into a coma due to self-abusive behavior. While in a coma, Taxt experiences a (possibly) hallucinigenic journey through a landscape of his own decay. The intellectually poetic lyrics make references to medical terminology, ghosts, public transportation, isolation, confusion, philosophical figures, and (self) deception. Sonically, the Mars Volta recalls the best of progressive's past and present. Like some idiot-savant with Turret's Syndrome, they seem to embody both effortlessly. It is difficult to point to one musician in the group that is not necessary for the overall sound. Every player in the group deserves mention. Guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez plays with an measured angularity that recalls Robert Fripp's late '60's/early 70's work but with the passsion of a young Carlos Santana. Cedric Bixler-Zavala sings like a young Geddy Lee being possessed by the passionate spirit of Tool's Maynard. Drummer Jon Theodore recalls the aggressive technical chops of Neil Peart, but with the instinctive recklessnes of Keith Moon. Using classic hammond/mellotron/fender-rhodes piano sounds, keyboardist Isaiah Owens recalls the necesssarily transparent playing of Billy Preston. Then there's Flea standing in on bass, and holding on for dear life. He seems actually quite challenged in this project, so much so that he never really gets the chance to "Flea out". He just plays some fantastically solid and distinctive bass, which is great to hear from him, especially in this context. How does one reconcile the gap between punk and prog? Take the in-your-face aggression of punk and put it side-by-side with darkly beautiful ballads, compelling soundscapes, metrically complex and angular riffs, and freely open jams. The lowdown: Simultaneously being a music lover and cynic, I am usually hard-pressed to easily accept new music by a band I don't know much about. I am used to the few listens it takes for me to decide what I really think about a project. The Mars Volta convinced me immediately, and is still convincing after several months of heavy rotation and an extremely memorable live experience, which is beyond the scope of this review to recount.

Fuck off.

Hahahhahha, yes! YES! The pretentiousness is very much the point here, and I _love_ it. Singing absolute nonsense with such earnest conviction - fantastic! (Although it's made me realize that Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea", another fine example of heartfelt gibberish, isn't on this list, which feels like quite the omission!) I'll take this album over anything At The Drive-In did. It's also my fave Mars Volta album, by quite a stretch... Fave track - the whole thing, really, but "Roulette Dares (The Haunt of)", "Eriatarka", "Televators" and "Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt" are the stand outs...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooo My earholes squeezed themselves shut

With its frenzied musicians and vital Latin influence, Deloused in the Comatorium's turn-of-the-century prog rock rips pretty thoroughly, but the lyricism is so indulgent—even for the genre—that it often distracts. There's a fine line between "you just don't get it" and "I just don't care," and the penmanship here is firmly in the latter. You made a concept album, and the concept is "drugs are neat," you don't have to try so damn hard to get the job done. That said, once you push past the Aesop Rock of it all, the more aggressive tracks hit quite hard, and the talent the group has is undeniable. I just wish the songwriters were the only ones that calmed down over the course of its excessive runtime. Key Tracks: Inertiatic ESP, Drunkship of Lanterns, Cicatriz ESP

If Rush, Santana, and MCR adopted a baby together, this is the monster they would raise. I love it. These guys have been on my radar for a while and I see why they are always spoken among the greats of modern prog.

🤘. Lyrics are basically incoherent but the music is amazing.

The pinnacle of modern prog rock. Move over, Rush. Step aside, King Crimson. We've got an eccentric Mexican with a fantastic falsetto, a savant Puerto Rican with a knack for a guitar, and a band who can keep pace with the two. There are segments on this album that will blow you away, just raw compositional goodness. There's solid dynamics too, with The Mars Volta knowing when to go full tilt and when to be more reserved. These allow for truly memorable moments such as in Eriatarka where the songs builds itself to the choruses. There are parts that are a little overly long, though, and could use some sparing in order to keep things moving along, but it can be easily forgiven for how spectacular everything else is. Great great album.

down with this sort of thing

I dig the music and the lyrics, but I really don’t like this guy’s voice

Album #17 (1001 Challenge): "De-Loused in the Comatorium" by The Mars Volta (2003) I've been dreading the day when this album came up. I guess get it over with early. Some people obviously love this album. Hence, it being on the list. I really, really tried with multiple listenings, even before today, to find something. The only thing I find this album to be is annoying. A less-focused, more sci-fi version of Muse. Metal Prog...that even sounds bad. Most of these songs sound like they were written for the sole purpose of being boss battles for Guitar Hero or Rock Band, which may not be a bad thing. But, not here. The drums or drum loop sounds like a machine gun or video game. No noticeable melody. The singing and overall tone is so overly dramatic. I didn't bother trying to figure out what's he singing about. Song titles like "Drunkship of Lanterns" don't really motivate me to find out more. Ughhh!

Fuck yes, another favorite from 20 years ago - the chokehold that Televators had on my adolescent mind! A great band to listen to if you're studying for the SATs, get your blood pumping while you expand your vocabulary. This album absolutely rips. I'm just a gal who loves psychedelic, prog, weird stuff. I'm not afraid of a 60 minute jam about the nightmarish hallucinations experienced during the limbo between life and death. In the proggiest move ever, there's a companion book that goes with this album to add further details to the "story" of Cerpin Taxt, the fictional main character based on real life artist Julio Venegas. I only learned of its existence today, so I'm glancing at it now out of curiosity, but for me the vibes of these songs are strong enough to get the point across. Summary: a man is in immense psychological pain, takes a cocktail of drugs with the intent to die, goes into a coma and has an existential battle with his various demons while hospitalized before ultimately deciding, after he wakes up, to make the final choice to end it all. Track 1 - "Son Et Lumiere" - The title translates to sound and light. There are droning background noises that evoke florescent lights, combined with the paranoid and repetitive beep-like note it gives the essence of hospital. The narrator vaguely describes shooting something up and says he is "not the percent you think survives" - he was planning and expecting to die. He refers to himself as a rat and vermin with pockmarked skin. All the while the music is steadily building, adding drums and louder instrumentation. Track 2 - "Inertiatic Esp" - The first track flows seamlessly into this, with the band at full volume as the singer wails "Now I'm Lost!" - the narrator is lost in his comatose interior world. There is grotesque imagery, a possible combo of hospital horrors and nightmarish psychosis. The drums are driving, the organ is wonky, the jams are fantastic. Track 3 - "Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)" - This intro is the most At The Drive-In sounding to me, loud, fast, intense. The haunt of roulette dares - these ghastly hallucinations are the result of the narrator playing a game with his life. The verses refer to various forms of self harm. The pre-chorus slow down jams are heavy AF - the narrator will not be reconnecting to his body soon, the junction is delayed, he's going deeper. The end is a slow jam out Track 4 - "Tirame A Las Aranas" - Throw me to the spiders! This is a very short and spooky instrumental track, dark plucky guitar gives way to atmospheric wails and wobbles that slide into the following track. Track 5 - "Drunkship of Lanterns" - The Latin rhythms on this song are frantic, along with the bass. It grows more and more throughout the song, which evokes claustrophobia and isolation with imagery of submarines and tombs. "Is anybody there?" "Nobody is heard" There are multiple movements as it weaves in and out of begging for another soul, panicked descriptions of desolate scenery, and the intense locked-in horror of there being nothing but the counting of one's own blinks. The outro is another atmospheric industrial wind down, with a marching beat. Track 6 - "Eriatarka" - The chorus of this one is ATDI reminiscent again, with hardcore edges that give way to proggy verses, more grotesque imagery - tapeworms etc. The lyrics here are particularly esoteric, but the vibe is that the narrator is an experiment, something is wrong. In this basement he has been restrained, is "cocooned meat", dark stuff. Track 7 - "Cicatriz Esp" - I fucking love this song. "IIIIIII'VE DEEEEEFECTED" It's 12:28, it is bonkers, it is just so good for me. Just psychedelic weirdness for the middle bit. The rails have come off, "said I've Lost My Way" , it comes all the way back with a Santana style Latin rhythms and guitar moment that builds and builds from around 8 minutes to 11 minutes. The singer comes back with a vengeance and the end is massive. Track 8 - "This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed" - weirdest (funny to write that) vibes on this one. The narrator is unhinged and wrathful, there are images of destruction, cities in ruin, and themes of vengeance and blame. A very aggressive drum outro. Track 9 - "Televators" - I love that this was a single that I could hear on the radio in 2003, what a time. This is a beautiful, sad, slow song that uses allegorical lyrics to describe the tragic suicide of Julio Venegas, a friend of the Mars Volta founding members. He had been in a coma after a previous attempt at suicide by overdose, that experience informed the stories of the previous songs, after waking from his coma he eventually took his own life by jumping off a bridge over a busy intersection. A plea for mercy from concrete and pavement. Track 10 - "Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt" Cerpin, or Julio, has chosen the veil. This is great closing track with more beautiful, evolving, instrumental jams. A self-guided journey to death with the tragic final call of "Who brought me here?"

I tried really hard not to enjoy it but I failed because I enjoyed it immensely

This is just a more inscrutable version of Muse.

Just an absolutely insane album. The drumming is insane, the vocals are insane, the guitar shredding... also insane. Prog music for Fugazi fans

Christ, how do I even begin to review this one? I remember seeing "The Widow" video on TV and not liking it, but somehow finding myself listening to this album (which doesn't even have that song) and making myself a massive Mars Volta fan at age 14. I have worshiped at the altar of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. I was a massive participant on the Mars Volta thread on Ultimate-Guitar way back in the day. "Bias" doesn't even cover it. This was one of my first true introductions to the weirdness of prog-rock, along with Yes' "Fragile", though this record appealed to me more at the time since I came to this after listening to mostly Breaking Benjamin and Seether. Still not sure how I survived that jump. It's heavy, it's winding, and it's easy to get lost in the gorgeous soundscapes if you let yourself. Jon Theodore puts literally everything he has into the drums of this record, and he doesn't get enough credit. I can definitely see a lot of people calling this one "pretentious", and rightly so, but fuck that. I haven't heard anything that sounds quite like this ever, and I don't think anyone will ever get close to the absolute fever dream that this record is. Favorite tracks: "Drunkship of Lanterns", "Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt", "Roulette Dares", "Cicatriz ESP"

It ain't At the Drive-In, but I've always loved this band. Proggy, punk-ish, pretentious; they cover the three P's in spades on this one. I hadn't listened to this in forever. I like all the weird horns and shit they got into on the record that followed, but it was nice to hear this one again. Definitely more focused than most of their discography, for better or worse. Anyway, I remember that reading Pitchfork was pretty much a daily must for me back in the early 2000s. And then they just completely eviscerated the 2nd Mars Volta record, if memory serves. Just an absolutely brutal review and it occurred to me at that point that I didn't need to read Pitchfork any more.

Masterful production, technical, visceral, cohesive. Takes a few listens to fully grasp, but once you're hooked and listening between the lines and notes, it's a masterpiece.

girl wtf is this cover?????? whats up with that child???? i don't think this is English I haven't heard of an album so all-over-the-place. cohesiveness who?

Love everything except the voice. Little too emo and nasally for me to give it a 5.

For me this works as background music. It isn't something I would put on when I was wanting a real musical vibe though. There is no circumstance in my life where this fits the mood of I want to pay attention to the music. Lots of cool sounds though. Soft 3.

Dudes voice kind of annoying

This is another of those albums I would like considerably more if there was a different vocalist. There's just something about the tone of this guy's voice that grates on me. The music is actually pretty good, and definitely something I could enjoy.

Like At The Drive In but without any tunes. Painful.

Sounds a bit like Paramour, but a lot edgier, but not in a good way, without the catchy choruses.

bandname und artwork haben mich immer auf distanz gehalten, das macht unvoreingenommenes hören natürlich schwieriger - aber das branding (ja, leider) ist on point. eitelkeit, wehleidigkeit, auskennertum, selbstgefälligkeit - im geeigneten kontext kann das alles okay sein, aber wenn es so zusammenkommt wie hier, ist das einfach nur scheußlich. gefällt vermutlich meinen alten deutschlehrern.

I have a soft spot for some "post-hardcore" or whatever, essentially because it often sounds like increasingly extravagant variations on "Achilles Last Stand" (a fine idea in my mind). Here is the album that sparked the interest - loud, mysterious and very catchy. Who knows what the fuck "exoskeletal junction at the railroad delayed" is supposed to mean, but I like hearing it! Generous 5* to commemorate the last album I purchased solely through fortunate exposure in a record shop (i.e., 21 years ago), and to increase the chance of its spectacular cover art appearing on our summary page. Yeah!

Not my music but I can respect the style

So great

These lyrics are mostly nonsense. This album was really great. I had heard of the band, but never listened. Favorite songs were songs 2, 3, 6, and 8.

This is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I think At The Drive In was better. Relationship was an amazing album and I feel they stepped down a notch with The Mars Volta, losing a bit of edge. That said this is an amazing album that pushes you in ways that you don't expect.

I listened to this CD so much in my Walkman that it stopped working. I have no objective way to rate this. 4.5/5

I've never considered myself to be a particularly "over the top" person, but rather a restrictive person who's more content with flying under the radar. So I find it strange that one of my favorite albums ever is probably one of the most "over the top" albums I've ever heard. I mean everything about this The Mars Volta debut is bombastic and overblown; be that the vocals, lyrics, production, length, and even the album's title itself. The advent of The Mars Volta was preceded by the break-up of the incredible El Paso post-hardcore group At the Drive-In, of which the two core members of The Mars Volta, Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, were a part of. I mean the afro-guys more than stuck out in that band, most evident in the live recordings you can find scattered all across the internet. On one side you've got Omar who's more concerned with hitting his spaghetti leg moves than he is with hitting the right notes. On the other you've got Cedric, forgetting lyrics and jumping off speakers. Must've been hell to play with these guys but holy shit was it fun to watch. While some might hate this, it drew me in and was a gold standard I set for stage presence. It was a relentless live energy only rivaled by previous hardcore and post-hardcore groups like Fugazi. I say this because the two afro guys would go on to match that exact energy on this massive cinematic debut. I say cinematic because the band has talked at length about how they were more inspired by the movies they would watch rather than the music they would listen to. Maybe that's why their music sounds so unique. They had the fundamentals down from their previous band, but rather than carry over the noisier hardcore noises of ATDI, they moved in a more progressive direction. With Rick Rubin assisting (alongside Omar) on production, the mix is allowed to thrive and flourish with every instrument occupying a space here, allowing a perfect blend with no one instrument overpowering the others. Jon Theodore's drumming is incredible all across this thing, with machine gun rapid-fire passages and fills to match Omar's many incredible riffs, like on the closing minutes of "Drunkship of Lanterns". Isaiah "Ikey" Owens does the incredible keyboard work here, comprising mostly of organs that add so much to every single song. With an incredible backing set of players, this album was always set up to be something genuinely great, almost pristine, and easily digestible for prog fans generally. At least that's what I would say if it weren't for the biggest, likely negative for many, factor here and that's vocalist and lyricist Cedric. I mean on the surface, the guy lands somewhere between an emo vocalist and a pop-punk vocalist with lyrics that are almost laughably cryptic at times. And I love everything about it. The guy's range in the studio is undoubtedly amazing. It's what makes this band and this album so special to me. The first full track "Inertiatic Esp" absolutely demands the attention of the listener when it first starts, whether it yields a prominently negative reaction or one that's similar to mine which is pure joy, it forces a strong reaction. It's a litmus test for the rest of this album and I attribute that to Cedric's lead vocals. I've talked a lot abstractly because I genuinely just love every second of this album and can't think of the best way to describe the music here. The full opening track is the band's most notable because of its catchy and memorable chorus, but also its staccato drum and guitar. It also goes the distance in terms of length and goes through a couple of facets and phases. Cedric's vocals truly shine on the following "Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)" with some truly incredible moments (like on the bridge). It also has one of the hardest grooves in the opening seconds. "Cicatriz Esp" certainly still has Cedric shining in the beginning, but this is undoubtedly Omar's track with incredible guitar layers in the song's long instrumental mid-section. It plateaus into pure ambiance for a little bit before being bought back for an explosive finale. I say Omar because he handles the guitar and bass directly on this album, but he is also credited with being the musical genius behind and composer of all these tracks. "Televators" is a slower ballad-type track, sounding almost like something that appears on their next album, and is an incredible breather before the band brings it back for a grand finale on "Take The Veil Cerpin Text". This closer has one of the most winner choruses that showcases Cedric's poppier tendencies. Even with saying all that, it's hard to capture how the music sounds in words. It's unlike any other prog album and certainly is one of the most idiosyncratic releases within the genre. I've neglected to talk about the lyrics here. I find it hard as hell to remember the lyrics to this thing because of Cedric's affinity for the thesaurus. The lyrics are super cryptic and take some looking into. It's a staple in their discography and an acquired taste. This album, just like their follow-up, is highly conceptual. It's based on a short story written by Cedric relating to an overdose sending a man into a coma. After the man wakes up, he takes his own life. The entire story is inspired by the life of Cedric's late friend, Julio Venegas. This is all accompanied by strange and surreal imagery and writing like the doctor with dog hands on "Eritarka". Televators is likely the most obvious eulogy to their late friend, even painting the image of his final moments through the protagonist Cerpin. Honestly, there's a lot to dig into here and whether you take the time to match the lyrics with Cedric's story or not shouldn't matter too much. I don't blame anyone for wanting to just enjoy this album on the surface level but its conceptual nature is always interesting to dive into on subsequent listens. If there's one word I hate that is so commonly used to describe music it's "pretentious". It's such a dismissive word with an ugly connotation attached to it. It's a way of describing something you don't get or don't want to bother getting while simultaneously bringing down the people who do get it. People may listen to this thing and laugh at just how over the top it is and I'd honestly laugh along. But I hold this album so near and dear to me, it's one of the biggest staples in my life, and these songs and this band will always have a place in my heart. The Mars Volta is a band that understands how "over the top" their sound is and they use it to their advantage. If this is what being pretentious sounds like then I guess I'm a sucker for pretentious music because this thing is just perfect.

chefs kiss

Needs a dictionary to keep up with, but my jumpins what an astoundingly good album.

noise rokkia. mutta proge-elementeillä, jolloin äänivallia ei kokoajain vaan osattu rytmitellä että ei sulaudu aivoihin ääni. ja kun ryminöidään niin ääni on tilava, tietää mitä tapahtuu.. rynkkyrummut kuuluu silti jokainen pamautus ilman että digitaalisoitu ääni... respect... ainoa paska asia on vokaalit. pliis pliis näytä yksi merkki että ei ole artifiaali intelligence äänilaboratoriossa kikkailtu äääni vittu ei yhtään yhtään kiinnostavaa hetkeä laulajamalla.. silti, täysin uutta musiikkia meikälle ja erinomainen albumi, vaikka pretentious ass titteli, mitä vittua tarkoittaa EN HALUA TIETÄÄ... VARMASTI TARKOITTAA JOTAIN MUTTA EN HALUA TIETÄÄ EI OLLUT POINTTI KYSYMYKSESSÄ ETTÄ VASTAA ITSE KYSYMYKSEEN... isoja sanoja käyttää perkele roulette dares

This is why I had never quite clicked with At The Drive-In. It's just so goddamn stressful. Music like toddlers on a candy overdose. ...is what I thought initially, listening to this in between walking home after bringing my kid to school, the morning coffee, internet and organising the day / part of which was a quiet train ride of Deloused in the Comatorium's length: Nothing to do but watch a winter landscape zip by. With headphones. Time, thus, turns out, marvellously spent. It's still nervous as fuck music, with little respite even in its calmer parts, but in there is a really great album.

Awesome!

Meh.

One of the few albums that can place me back in time to where I was when I first heard it; in college, listening to it on campus with my first mp3 player. I think it's in my top 10 or 20 favorite albums but do find these days I have to be in the mood for it. I've liked most of their later albums, but love the frenetic raw energy of De-Loused... Inertiatic, Cicatriz, the closing track.

Great songs. Close to At The Drive-In

Has a energetic powerful ambience. The instrumentals remind me of TOOL but the sometimes the irrational lyrics remind me of some of SOAD works like “Peephole” where they seem nonsensical but are anything but. Very fun album.

One of those albums that just explodes your head the first time you hear it. Unlike anything else. Unbelievable talent on display and killer, weird tunes.

this is so 00s. I was a teenager in the 00s and I didn't like the mars volta, but now listening to their first album, I see it was consistent with the type of music that was being done in the 2000s. It feels nostalgic to listen to it in the 2020s.

Genre: Progressive Rock 5/5 A debut album from a band I was familiar with by name only, from a genre I’ve grown quite fond of since I was young, and good grief this thing was an instant love for me. I had initially been apprehensive, having read that the vocals were hit-or-miss and the music itself could prove too dense for some. But, man, I was absolutely floored. And also to the harsher critics out there, there is WAY more progressive shit that you would absolutely HATE. This is almost easy listening. In the same way you can hear Radiohead’s OK Computer write the careers of their contemporaries (Coldplay, Muse, etc.), De-Loused in the Comatorium (ugly name and ugly album cover aside, lol) is proto-screamo in the best way, and Attack, Attack, Of Monsters and Men, and Coheed and Cambria (among others), owe a huge debt to this project. Technical, talented playing, Rick Rubin’s essential wall-of-sound production, vocals that ascend to the heavens in nearly every track, and relentless pacing, this album seemingly helped forge the path for where rock would go over the coming years. Really impressed, absolutely loved this. If you like rock music, this is for you. Sending Drunkship of Lanterns to my dad right now.

One of my favourite albums of all time 😍 I still remember when I first discovered them at uni and was blown away by such a perfect blend of structure/batshit craziness. Also in my top 5 gigs. So fucking cathartic! Fav new track: N/A, but it's between the transition from Son el Lumiere into Inertiatic Esp and Televators...

Gonna have to re listen to this one a few times. I like it.

The lore… woah.

Refreshingly different and a good listen. Very similar to a lot of the post -hardcore I listened to back in the day.

This is the greatest album of all time for theory guys who were just smarter than you and knew what classified as good music. If you don’t like this, you’re probably just not smart enough. And that’s okay. There’s always Kelly Clarkson for you. But you know what…this kind of fuckin rocks. I never really could get into these types of guys back when they were blowing up, but I’m thinking missed out a bit.

I was not expecting that type of percussion in progressive rock. It's kinda groovy. I thought some sections were a bit long and some messy, but overall it was interesting.

Wow. Never heard of this lot before. The most interesting album so far. Will have to listen to this a fair bit to get to grips with it.

I didn't like this much when it came out, but it's grown on me honestly. Over the top frenetic prog emo, it's love or hate for sure, but... I think it deserves the 4.

This is a potentially phenomenal album that’s brought down by bad vocals. The music is like nothing else ever to exist, and the singing sounds like any of a thousand mediocre emo bands from that era. Still four stars because the music is that good.

I was not familiar with this album or the band but I really liked it! Lots of echoes from favorites past, but blended in a way that makes the music fresh. I like Cedric's voice a lot. And the band is skilled and tight, allowing them to achieve a lot of different sounds.

If you’re a fan of well conceived song intros, you’ll love this album….especially tracks 1 and 9. Rubin is one of my favorite producers. He knows how to catch magic as my artist son would say. This is their best and last (as the death of a founder, Ward, occurred a month prior to release) collaborative effort.

Vibed really hard. Fav songs cicatriz esp, inertiatic esp, roulette dares

Fuck my opinion just listen, it will move you.

I really enjoy this album, but it might as well be in a foreign language. 😵‍💫

- really interesting base and drum lines. Elements from salsa, ska, punk, and classic rock. Features guitar licks one second reminiscent of pink floyd, and then suddenly ramones/ rage against the machine esque rips. - Some parts of the album are a little thrashy which combined with the singers sometimes harsh / pitchy vocals can make difficult for me to listen to (though this is likely intentional, and definitely furthers some themes of the album). This is not a negative, just a comment specific to my taste.

Dynamic and interesting album. Repeated listens are rewarded. Not exactly sure what they are singing about all of the time!

Organized chaos, I loved it

Prog rock pas mal en vrai

Taking classic prog into the new millennium. Dense, cerebral, mesmerizing.

Not my kind of music but I can appreciate it for what it is.

Pleasantly surprised. Fast paced songs. Heavy rock on a lot of songs. Sounds a bit like Rush without the long hippy nerdy interludes, and with maybe some Rusted Root percussion thrown in on some and some fast System of A Down or Tool type patterns on others. Definitely some tricky drum rhythms. There are some slow filler type songs mixed in that I would rather skip, but the fast ones hit pretty hard.

Fun one. Tapped into my 70’s prog rock concept album pleasure center. A little like Muse making The Wall.

The most insane prog rock album since the 70s. Fast and loud with a vocalist that reminds me of Tool's Keenan's vocal style, they utilize such a dynamic and atmospheric use of sound that keeps you on your toes for every minute. You could hear the prog influences all over, King Crimson prominently in "Roulette Dares," while "Drunkship of Lanterns" shows characteristics of Yes, Pink Floyd, and contemporary math rock. It's very modern... not only is it well-polished, but it uses state-of-the-art production techniques I recall hearing in prog metal and post-rock of the era. It's a wild ride from start to finish you couldn't feel bored by... there's so much to like about each track. I'll be revisiting this one often.

Un album assez difficilement appréciable tant la tête dont il est ici question ne cessera de nous cracher sa lumière à la figure du début à la fin du projet. On en sort totalement ébloui mais surtout très énervé.

Good prog.

Another one I was not expecting to enjoy as much as I did. Probably cause they got kinda jammy so I appreciated their extended songs. Dudes got a voice too.

Good album. Few bits a bit too abstract for me but enjoyed it 3.4

Deserves another listen

Kind of like a good, strong shot of espresso—it’s invigorating, it’s robust, and it’s best consumed in small doses.

The music is pretty good, but it feels...overbearing? There are some points where it feels like I'm getting sensory overload just from listening, and that gets to be a little much over the course of an hour or so

Better than expected

There's a lot going on here. The music itself is dense but very enjoyable. An easy 4 on its own. The vocals, on the other hand, were shrill to the point of distraction and annoyance at points. Would love to listen to a fully instrumental version of this.

3.5 Clearly a bunch of bands I grew up listening to took influence from these guys, so I don't know how I've never heard of them before. Throughly enjoyed this album even if lyrically is a bit nonsensical. But prog rock/emo is my vibe so I'm bias.

Quite fun early emo vibes

a little too emo honestly

I'm not in the mood for metal and rock after the last album. I've seen this album cover, but never listened to the songs somehow, weirdd, I do like it tho, it's unique. SHIT ON IT, I did a review of the first, second and third song and they are not here anymore, I'm a day late so I couldn't save it, ughh. First song, was an interlude, great transition, nothing else happened, it was nice to hear it tho, some parts in it, otherwise nothing special. Second song, I said he has a raspy voice, but not sure if I even know what that means. He sometimes sounds like a woman not in a bad way. I liked the instrumentals, gave it 7.1, not impressed I am. Third song, it was slamming guitar and then it got slow, which was nice since it's rare. Then the beat drop was amazinggg. Otherwise it's quite same niceness. The chaotic singing is expected. Just realised this is 7 minutes, didn't even notice, since it is going smoothly. The slow part came backk. Lyrics are ending soon, and I expect an instrumental outro. Ooh the beat drop was again good. It switched from being slow to metal-ly and now it's jazzy slow, and that was the rest of the song. Solid 7/10, it's nice just not special. 4th song, it's an interlude, getting loudd it was chill before and one of the best build up transition I've heard for a while. 5th song, starting off with a beat drop from the last song continuation. I hear operatic voice of him, quite fun. Wow again 7 minutes. I don't know why this is here tbh. I'm not bored, just not impressed either. The instrumental fusion is great, but his voice is not the vibe at all, toooo basic, only when he sings in an opera way is his voice different, but not perfect. I'm not satisfied with this. I repeat that the guitar playing especially is great, just it doesn't sound different from what I've heard before. Mm I say 6.8/10. 6th song, loud start and slow continuation, not complaining. The slow part was really good, I got into the vibes, then after a short instrumental break his usual screaming-singing began and it became bland. After that it's break again, and I love the guitar here, also it's slow. I'm not gonna write, it was overly very good 7.9/10 seems valid. 7th song, 12 minutes?! What has he got to say this much. Last song had another better vibe into it. I'm not catching anything here. Oh, it fully stopped, and fast beat(helicopter like) is getting closer, it happened and guitars and his vocals came in. It was loud, but it's chill now, not much lyrics. It's getting weird now, not even a guitar playing. The loudness came back, not the best they have done. Lyrics are only at the very end, and it's much fast paced too. Overall I didn't like the fact that it was this long, not Pink Floyd, which I can stand in that matter. So sadly it's a 6/10. 8th song, it had a big intro, less loud than when lyrics came in, which is screamy. Guitars make different sounds in ears(left is louder). It was as relaxing as a rock could be, and now it's slow lyrically too, but it feels progressive, aaand yes it got fuller. The lyrics are catchy. What a weird ending, giving Björk. I'd say 7.8/10. 9th song, bird sounds. Unexpectedly slow, intro is also long, he joins in softly. This will get punky soon I think. It's still slow, I'm impressed. It's giving arcade fire with the instruments. There was one shirt part of him almost screaming, however, the guitar remained just a slight louder. Again weird outro, I'm giving this, one of the most uninteresting songs here, so 5.9/10. 10th song, screaming and classic rock vibes. Fun, nothing fully amazing, It could have been interesting if it stand out from the album. Well I'm not amazed it was way too overused, the style and the sounds. I needed more. Anyways I rate it 3 stars and that's because I like the genre and this albums also had some unique stuff in it, which I liked.

I always associate The Mars Volta with the standard emocore movement from the 2000s (I like it), but when I listened to this album, I saw that they are in a high opposite direction. Of course, they have something from emo, but they are much more complex than that.

I'm not sure that I totally get it, but I think I like it. I could see listening to this one again.

I actually kinda liked this for the most part. Liked, not loved. Thought the instrumentals and vocals on most were pretty energetic and talented, though there were some tracks on the back half of the album that I did not like. “Its matter was fecal in origin” is a cringe line. 3 stars.

Sonorités et compositions intéressantes, à écouter plus en détail.

At times this album is reminiscent of At The Drive-In and occasional flashes of Santanaesque guitar although clearly more prog rock than the full frontal assault of the former. This is only the second listening, having completely dismissed it first time around and it has grown on me. I think there is more to explore with The Mars Volta.

In a nutshell: Messy. Bloated. Frantic. Confusing. You’ll either love it or despise it. It’s supposed to be a concept album but I don’t understand the brief. The bass and drums are amazing (the galloping beat, swoon!). Can hear the Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa and Aphex Twin influences; perhaps early My Chemical Romance or early Muse (Absolution was recorded at the same time as De-Loused and released in the same year). I’d say this is an influential album, just not for me. Overall: 5/10

I feel like I've listened to this a long time ago. The musicianship is top notch and I probably would've liked this a lot when I was younger. It's a little too busy for me now, but it's still solid.

Almost enjoyable. Talented musicians. Hated the lead guitar tone. Needed to let songs breath more often instead of cramming 100 notes in a measure

It was fine, not my favorite

Mars Volta are a band that for the last two decades I’ve blithely assumed to be terrible without giving them a chance, so I’ll strap myself to the mast and order the cabin boy to press play. …sorry, the waves of raving voice and proficient axe-worked lulled me. Is that a Flea I hear at the low end? This has a lot of dynamics and agitation that bring to mind post-hardcore botherers - Drive Like Jesu, say - but what I hear is not catchy. Cabin boy, listen: I’ve frolicked to enough freak music, free jazz, noise rock to fill a week of hedonistic abstract dance, and let me tell you repetition is not essential for catchiness. Want me to hum the opening to “Clear to Higher Time” by the Blue Humans to you? Wet my lips with rum, Seaman Staines, and bend your ear. Memorable music doesn’t need repetition: there are blasts of random guitar feedback, drum fills, extravagant sweeps of synth and lone yells that I count among my favourite sound moments. I did not find that here.

Demonstrative but not impressive. Too emo.

Progressive rockart rockpost-hardcore. Rollo.

Okay... I'll start by the saying the instrumentation is pretty good. Drumming is good, guitar is good. Bass seems functional as far as I can tell. The main flaw of the this album are the god awful lyrics. I'm not much of a lyrics person myself, I normally ignore them to focus on the melody but my god these are bad. If there's some kind of deeper meaning it's too deep for me, sorry. This sounds like nonsense and looks like nonsense when written down. Unfortunately, the terrible lyrics aren't supported at all by the repetitive and boring melody writing. Whereas potentially weak lyrics from a band such as Oasis are passable, with the catchy and enjoyable melodies, these just fall flat. I truly don't understand the reviews calling this the greatest prog rock/metal of the modern age and/or the 2000s. Go and listen to Porcupine Tree's In Absentia (2002) or Deadwing (2005) or Tool's Lateralus (2001), or The Pineapple Thief's Your Wilderness (2016). Some of my favourites which are miles and miles better than this. Yeah. 2/5

Hyvin lähellä ettei jäänyt yhteen tähteen.

All the cool kids loved The Mars Volta. Either I’m old or all the cool kids were wrong. This just sounded loud.

Mid.

Ok

Hmmm… I don’t know about this. It’s like a lot of stuff I don’t like. Very dramatic and loud. Reminds me of Rush and Yes. And I don’t like them either. The instrumental was alright. Clearly there is talent here. But this record is not essential and I hope I never have to hear any of this ever again. Too far up its own ass to be anything but boring.

Mér finnst Mars Volta mjög skemmtilegt band þegar ég heyri í þeim í útvarpinu og mig langar alltaf að hlusta á meira og ég set þá einhverja fína plötu frá þeim í gang og eftir nokkur lög er ég kominn með alveg upp í kok og nenni ekki að hlusta lengur. Svo seinna heyri ég í þeim í útvarpinu aftur og endurtek söguna og læri aldrei af mistökunum. Sagan endurtók sig með þessa plötu.