The Mars Volta - De-loused At The Comatorium

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The Mars Volta - De-loused At The Comatorium

Artist:	The Mars Volta
Title:	De-loused At The Comatorium
Label:	Universal Records
Length(s):	6? minutes
Year(s) of release:	2003
Month of review:	[11/2003]

Line up

Omar A Rodrigruez Lopez - guitars
Cedric Bixler Zavala - vocals
Jon Theodore - drums
Jeremy Michael Ward - bass?
Ikey Isaiah Owens - keyboards
with
Flea - bass
Lenny Castao - percussion
Justin Meldel Johnson - upright bass on 9
John Frusciante - guitar and a100 treatment on 7

Tracks

1)	Son Et Lumiere	1.35
2)	Inertiatic Esp	4.24
3)	Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)	7.31
4)	Tira Me A Las Aranas	1.29
5)	Drunkship Of Lanterns	6.20
6)	Eriatarka	7.06
7)	Cicatriz Esp	12.29
8)	This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed	4.58
9)	Televators	6.19
10)	Take The Veil Ceirpin Taxt	8.42

Summary

Probably the first album on a major label on this website. The band came from nowhere and seems to have decided the reviewers into two camps: those who love it and those who hate it. Note the name of Flea and Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers in the line up.

The music

Son Et Lumiere is the noisy and disquieting opener. The vocals are transformed, vocoded while retaining elements of Britpop. However, the music is too rough and too epic. In fact when we move into Inertiatic Esp, the first musical likeness I hear is to Muse, but more complex and fickle. The vocalist sings his heart out and wails in a rather high pitched voice. The rhythms can be quite modern and the guitar playing is full of effects. In all this chaos, it may seem at first that the melody is the one left standing, but this is not the case. Same as with Muse, the melody remains important and there is also some variation as to the melody. At the end the song quietens down strongly and we close with some reverb.

Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of) is a bit more epic, but with the same youthful vocals. Quite a bit of wild distortion here too, and the going gets to be quite wild here. Tira Me A Las Aranas is a short acoustic excursion, maybe a bit in the line of John Frusciantes solo album. On the other hand, we might also simply call it psychedelic, with some soundscape effects in them.

Back to rock with Drunkship Of Lanterns with opens with a fast samba. The fickleness of the music, and sometimes the vocals even, remind of Bjork here. The guitar work lies disquieting beneath the vocals. The band holds itself in it seems, except for the vocalist. There is a lot of variation here with various different passages being alternated, all in a different tempo. The samba seems the most dominant one. The guitar has a strong desert twang. The close is noisy.

With Eriatarka we open ballad like, one is tempted to say a bit in the vein of Porcupine Tree. The band does take some gas back, also in the vocal section, and that is a good thing. The music is rather psychedelic and effect rich, building up melodically to a hectic passage with rattling drums and guitars. These two passages are repeated later.

Longest track by far is Cicatriz Esp. Don't ask me what the titles mean, but they are not the usual fare, that's evident. The style of the song is not different from the aforegoing. Melodic vocals, an a hectic wall of sound with lots of effects and noises, but also quieter more moody passages. This happens especially in the middle where the music goes down to almost nonexistent and builds back up to a Santana style samba. We close with a frantic vocal passage.

This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed opens strangely, to erupt into wild distorted guitars, like a frenetic waltz. The vocal choruses are extremely catchy, hidden under layers of modern Crimsonesque guitars and with a jazzy tone to them at times as well. Vocoding is the word again. Very good this. The band tries very hard to go over the top, any top and well they likely enough succeed.

With Televators we take some gas back again. Moody guitar lines and a depressed vocalist start it all off, the sad chorus with its doubled vocals is quite emotional. Latin American influence are also present in the percussion and acoustic guitar playing.

Take The Veil Ceirpin Taxt is the closer, opening with Crimsonesque guitar lines. This song is definitely more up-beat and also a bit less melodic. An auditive orgasm, flowing over in a passage of soothing mellotron. Then Fripp comes back into play in the repetitive guitar lines, followed by meandering instrumental sections and relatively few vocals.

Conclusion

That the usual music press sometimes has problems in appreciating this band is not surprising. A manical mix of Muse and modern King Crimson does not leave one indifferent. A band to love or to hate. If the theatrics of Muse are to your liking, or the avant-gardistic side of King Crimson this is certainly worth a listen. What in my opinion is to be admired in this band is that notwithstanding the experimental aspects, the unsuspecting listener can latch unto some good melodic material as well.