DE-LOUSED IN THE COMATORIUM

I'll be honest, if I were any bit smarter, I would have entered the Mars Volta's musical world through this album. If I did, I'd easily give a masterpiece rating to it. However, I got started through AMPUTECHTURE, and unfortunately, DE-LOUSED ended up not being that much of a surprise.

That's what makes the Mars Volta such a powerful band to first time listeners; the surprise factor. Listeners will be lulled into a beautiful guitar figure at the beginning of ''Son et Lumiere'' until the band just spontaneously explodes; before you know it, we're right into ''Inertiatic ESP'' with that same intensity. And just as quickly as the sound swelled to ear-piercing, it just as quickly recedes to a tangible, sane level until feeling the urge to go nuts again. The band constantly pulls these sound dips (where the dynamics drop to sane softness for some time until the intensity is regained) throughout the album to great effect.

The effect is worked very wondrously on ''Eriatarka'', probably my favourite track out of the whole bunch. After the ambient stuff ending ''Drunkship of Lanterns'', a schizoid guitar riff just erupts from out of nowhere, and before you can curse, it gives way to a peaceful verse section. After free flowing for a bit, it steadily climbs back to the dynamics in the beginning, yet this time preparing the listener for the onslaught. And this happens several times throughout the song with Cedric's voice knowing exactly how to be effective.

Sometimes the craziness can get too out of hand like on ''This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed'', sometimes the psychedelic ambiences get too long-winded like on ''Cicatriz ESP'', and in many cases, songs end in odd, out-of-place twiddling. But, the sounds, ideas and intensity overwrite many of the faults. I don't feel like getting in depth into any more songs, but to briefly give other highlights, ''Drunkship of Lanterns'' has wild percussion parts running about and ''Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt'' is a perfect closer with one of the weirdest sounding guitar solos I've ever heard. If this is you're first Mars Volta album, be prepared to be blown away. Else, you've heard this kind of style before only not quite as complex.

It will pain me, but not hearing this first in the Mars Volta discography makes me drop the rating to four. I can't find it in me to give any higher rating.

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