Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Mars VoltaEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2003-06-24
Music Label: Umvd Labels
Product features:
- MARS VOLTA THE DELOUSED IN THE COMATORIUM
- Son et Lumiere
- Inertiatic ESP
- Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)
- Tira Me a las Arañas
- Drunkship of Lanterns
- Eriatarka
- Cicatriz ESP
- This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed
- Televators
- Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt
Free Music Notes for De-Loused in the Comatorium
Free Music Review: lost no more
Hit: 5 Stars
The Mars Volta is a difficult band to classify. In sporadic fashion, they display a distinctly Latin vibe (similar to Santana), venture into prog experimentalism (not unlike Pink Floyd), bear the mark of post-hardcore punk rock (in the same vein as former outfit At the Drive In or their colleagues Coheed and Cambria), take part in pseudo-tribal percussion breakdowns (Rusted Root-styled), and even move forth in jazzy time signatures and meters (sorry, can't really think of a similar artist for this part). And this is all in just one song. All hyperbole aside (although it's not exactly exaggeration if you're telling the truth), the Mars Volta are by far one of the most innovative and sublime bands in recent memory. Guitarist / producer Omar a Rodriguez-Lopez and vocalist Cedric Bixler Zavala (both hailing from the now-defunct At the Drive In) have truly outdone themselves on this release, but the host of other musicians who contributed to this album is by no means shabby. Jon Theodore keeps everything rhythmic and precise with his ample percussion skills. Ikey Isaiah Owens and Jeremy Michael Ward lend the already superb music an atmosphere that is at various times eerie, gentle, or downright weird. Hell, the inimitable Flea even plays bass.
The strangest thing about this album is that it all falls into place with little to no trouble. Kicking off with the rather sedate "Son Et Lumiere," the listener is at once lulled into a false sense of serenity. The relative calm is abruptly shattered by jagged guitar outbursts at the end of the song, which lead directly into "Inertiatic ESP." By far the most popular (of course this IS the Mars Volta, so we all know it can't be THAT popular) and straight-forward (ditto) song on the CD, "Inertiatic ESP" features some extremely high-pitched vocals, quite different from Zavala's singing with At the Drive In. He sings "Now I'm lost" in his brilliant upper register, thus showing his diversity, vocal-wise. The first half of the song maintains this fast pace and relative frankness for a couple minutes, until it veers off into a slightly experimental, jamming section. After returning to its original theme, the song begins its spacey transition to "Roulette Dares (The Haunt of)." Not as immediately memorable as anything else on here, "Roulette" is rather unorthodox in style. Somehow, though, it is still catchy and will grow on you, and before you know it you'll be humming "Exoskeletal junction at the railroad delayed" to yourself. As you've probably gathered from that simple quotation, this band's songwriting is...well...imaginative. Wordy and creative, the album's lyrical content is at best cryptic and at worst indecipherable (and I mean that in the most positive way one can). Anyway, the song leads into the short instrumental "Tira Me A Las Ara'as" (literally "It throws me to the spiders"), an altogether work of filler with an Eastern-esque guitar part.
"Drunkship of Lanterns" revives the album, showcasing a distinctly Latin flavor yet keeping a hard rock edge. The drum work in this song is phenomenal to say the least, and really backs up the rest of the band well. The song pretty much keeps up the momentum it had from the start, culminating in a very Santana-esque guitar solo about two thirds of the way through. The song ends appropriately, with the percussion fading into mysterious rhythmic white noise. This continues for about a minute, then gives way for "Eriatarka." One of the most well-written songs found here (and with this lot, that's really saying something), the song starts off rather mellow, then builds to a rather Latin-themed, almost funky chorus. Flea's bass really shines here. After the first chorus, more space noise, until the second verse, identical to the first (structure and melody-wise, not lyrically) paves the way for another build up. The second chorus leads into a bridge of sorts, where Zavala sings "Evaporated the fur, because it covers them, if you only knew the plans they had for us." Again, interesting songwriting. The song then turns slightly mellower, until a very dramatic buildup to the third and final chorus. After this, another bout of high-pitched singing followed by more spacey white noise continues for a little while. Then it hits. "Cicatriz ESP" is considered by many (myself included) to be the best song on the album. A steady rhythmic section propels the song through its lengthy first verse, then drops out suddenly. After a few seconds of silence, helicopters can be heard in the distance, and we reach the simple yet effective chorus, consisting entirely of "I've defected!" The song follows this pattern once more, then yields to another guitar solo, which gradually dies down and then gives way to an entirely synth instrumental passage, kind of like something one would hear on an early Pink Floyd record. While some find this part of this song to be overlong and tedious, I think it builds the tension nicely, especially when the true "song" returns, this time accompanied by a very Santana-influenced guitar line. For another chorus the song presses on, then slowly dies down. "This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed" is probably the worst song on the album, but its bearable, and has a few saving graces (including Zavala's melodic screams of "Anonymous!") This song kind of pilfers out, as though it was trying to capitalize on the richness of "Cicatriz" and then realized it failed. It's good, just not THAT good.
At this point, "Televators," a breather of sorts from the hectic ambitiousness of its predecessors, takes the spotlight. Entirely acoustic, the song is another highlight of the album. Despite its simplicity, it holds its own very well, and retains the signature Mars Volta sound. Zavala's vocals are prominent on this song, and nowhere are they put to better use. After six or so minutes of acoustic meditation* (*used loosely), the song ends with a variety of soundscapes, the most recognizable being that of a warplane dropping a bomb. Soon, "Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt" opens with a loud clash of distortion, leading to a staccato, slightly polyrhythmic main riff. The verses in this song are nothing special (save for the lyrics, including the wonderful line "slice up and not across"), but the band's musicianship really shines of the pre-chorus and chorus. Soon a bridge passage pops up, and the song fades to a rather (intentionally) flimsy melody played on an instrument that I can't properly identify. Soon a bit of keyboard crops up, followed by a messy yet defined percussion backing and then a bass solo. The song then takes a more relaxing turn, with sporadic high pitch wails echoing from the guitar. These outbursts then form a melodic statement, until eventually the guitars take on an entire different texture yet carry on in the same melodic vein as before. Zavala gently croons "oooh" overtop the increasingly frantic and distorted line, until it kicks back into the same bridge passage that led into this section. It then evolves into a very rhythmic closing section, where Zavala sings "Who brought me here, forsaken, depraved, and wrought with fear, who turned it off, the last thing I remember now, who brought me here?" The song, album, and entire musical journey that it came hand in hand with, then comes to an abrupt and tragic halt.
As a whole, the Mars Volta's "Deloused in the Comatorium" is a great experiment. A fusion of very disparate styles, a debut album like this only comes around once in a great while, and these guys manage to accomplish this feat like experienced pros, which is exactly what they are. Although At the Drive In is extremely different than the Mars Volta, some of their stylistic tendencies are similar. They both feature drastic time and meter changes, and both rely on unconventional melodies, hooks, and lyrics to establish their point. The lyrical theme for "Deloused" is about a man named Cerpin Taxt who attempts suicide, fails, and then spends the majority of the album in a purgatory of sorts, exploring the world inside of his mind and soul. Apparently he doesn't like what he sees, because by the end of the CD, Taxt finally "takes the veil" and ends it all. Not a very pretty scenario, but leave it to the Mars Volta to pull this concept album off and not sound heavy-handed. Sure, the song lengths may bother some, but more often than not, those who don't have the patience to listen to an entire song are not deserving of any of the song's beauty and epic scale. And that's exactly what "Deloused" is: an exercise in beautiful epics, justifiably grandiose and irregular and yet ultimately powerful.
God, that was a long review.
De-Loused in the Comatorium Poster
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