The Mars Volta continues to be the frontrunner for experimental prog-rock. On their first major-label release, De-Loused in the Comatorium leads the listener through a maze of blistering guitar effects, amazing drum syncopation, and wild, controlled-chaos vocals.
The album was inspired by the life and times of Julio Venegas, a close personal friend of the band who slipped into a drug-induced coma. During his coma, he had visions of his own suicide, and when he recovered, he ended up killing himself anyway.
The album starts with the intro track "Son Et Lumiere" (Sound And Light), which serves as the first time we meet Julio (personified by the character named "Cerpin Taxt").
The album progresses from his slip into the coma, through his coma-dreaming, and then when he awakes until his eventual suicide. Although very metaphorical and ambiguous, the lyrics give us certain hints as to Cerpin's state of mind and adventures, as is marked in the second track "Inertiatic ESP". The "ESP" serves as an "enter sleep point", in which Julio just begins to slip into his coma. ("Now I'm lost...")
Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of), the third track, all the way to the sixth, "Eriatarka" elaborate on his comatose dreaming until we reach track seven, "Cicatriz ESP". Again, here we are told that this is the "exit sleep point", and Cerpin is now awoken. Track 8 and 9, "The Apparatus Must Be Unearthed" and "Televators" respectively, tell us of Julio's time spent after his coma, in which he plans his own suicide.
And finally, in the last track "Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt", our hero Cerpin Taxt (a.k.a. Julio), dies.
Throughout the album, guitarist and producer Omar A. Rodriguez-Lopez serves up a delicious concoction of guitar effects and mutated chords and progressions to aid the listener with the general feel of chaos and dissonance in the album.
The intruiguing, at times confusing lyrics of The Mars Volta only serve to give the listener a deeper insight as to what the album is all about. Even if that insight is, in fact, confusion. The lyrics fit perfectly to the music, as they are both strange and haunting. The lead singer, Cedric Bixler-Zavala has an amazing voice, punctuated by screetching highs, and haunting lows, his voice works as almost an instrument by itself.
The Mars Volta is beyond comparison, since no band comes even close to duplicating their sound. Everything has it's place, and everything is made to work in the context in which it is portrayed. An amazing album full of intricacies and metaphorical double meanings and messages.
