The album cover is very strange, but in a strange way, it is a good illustration of the music on this album. It's a bit scary, definitely quite sci-fi and just plain strange. I've never seen the band live, but I expect they were quite good. This is one of those bands that get lots of points for difficult playing. The band members are clearly very talented musicians and they're willing to show all of their talent on this album. However, the musical showing off comes with a price, at least to me. Most of the songs have been filled so full of sounds and instruments that the result is messy and difficult to enjoy for longer periods of time. Whenever the band tones the tempo and sounds down a bit, they actually sound excellent, but in my opinion it doesn't happen often enough. An interesting fact is that the bass lines are mostly played by the Red Hot Chili Peppers bass player Flea.
The album starts beautifully with some space sounds and rising guitars and vocals in Son et Lumiere. This is basically just an intro to the album, but it sounds really glorious. When I first heard these first seconds I was really impressed. This song continues straight into the first full song Intertiatic Esp, which has some excellent melodies and even though it's a very hectic song, there are enough slower slumps to make it really enjoyable ride through some progressive space rock landscapes. This is followed by Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of). This song is really not one of my favourite songs and it is a good example of why I find it difficult to listen to whole albums by The Mars Volta. There are some beautiful slow parts, but the fast paced noisy parts are difficult to enjoy. Tira Me a Las Aranas is an intermission song with some strange and psychedelic guitars. Drunkship of Lanterns has some wild latin-style rhythms and a hectic fast tempo. It's difficult to keep track of the melody which definitely isn't the main feature of this song. Eriatarka is one of the best songs on the album. It has some nice sharp space rock guitars and slow parts where the vocals are toned down so that you can appreciate the cool sound of the voice. Also, the bass lines are innovative and beautiful. Cicatriz Esp is a hypnotic song that kind of progresses through loops of rhythms. This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed has some muffled vocals and very strange melodies and rhythm changes. It's one of the most progressive rock styled songs on the album. Televators is my absolute favourite song from the band ever. I guess you might call this song a ballad, but the important part is that it sounds beautiful, yet it still maintains the crazy space mood of the album. The album ends with the most hectic and noisy song Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt.
De-Loused in the Comatorium is a concept album telling a story about a man who enters a week-long coma after overdosing on a mixture of morphine and rat poison. This is somewhat ironic, since one of the founding members of the band, Jeremy Michael Ward, died of heroin overdose one month before the release of the album.
I'm not really sure if this is actually an official video or a fan made music video, but in any case, it is phenomenal! This computer-made animation for Televators is really beautiful and just as psychedelic as you might expect for this album. If it's not an official video I really tip my hat to whoever made it!
The Mars Volta may not be one of my favourite bands, but they surely have their moments and I'm glad I own this album. They certainly sound like no-one else on this planet and that is a great accomplishment in itself. Also, if you focus on the best songs on this album, it's an amazing psychedelic ride.
Listen to the album on Spotify.
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