DE-LOUSED IN THE COMATORIUM

This really is a good album, 4.5 stars. It certainly is unique in it's ability to fuse together prog rock, punk rock, latin and salsa influences, and a hint of jazz-rock fusion. It is about the life and times of a character (Cerpin Taxt) based on one of the bandmates' friends, who attempted suicide by overdosing and entered a coma. He struggles to decide whether to live or go through with the suicide. When he awoke, he decided to finish the suicide and jumped off a building. It takes a sort of prog cliche (used in Ayreon's "Human Equation" and "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway): the cliche of dying/entering a coma and going through an introspective journey and deciding to live, and twists it. Cerpin Taxt decides to die. Not humorous, I know, but even death can be ironic.

The first track serves as an intro, and an excellent one at that. Everything builds up as Taxt reviews why he wishes to die, and injects rat poison into his veins. The guitars slash into the flowing keyboards multiple times, then everything stops. A huge strike on the guitar, and "Inertiac ESP" begins. I don't know what Bryan Adair is talking about; this is one of the best songs on here. It is very dense, but not chaotic. And the "now I'm lost" vocal is simply wonderful. Taxt's journey has begun.

"(The Haunt of) Roulette Dares" is a fairly good track, but is not my favorite really. Following it is a short acoustic instrumental ("Tira a Me a las Aranas" -- translated as "throw me to the spiders") which leads into "Drunkship of Lanterns," a great and varied song. "Eriatarka" is another winner, a veritable roller coaster of sound.

"Cicatriz ESP" is a good song, beginning and ending in a beat-based rock fashion which sandwiches a keyboard psychadelic interlude. In the next track, "This Apparatus Must be Unearthed," Taxt wakes from his coma. The instrumentation is extremely chaotic, but by no means bad. Then the music cuts, and we are left with the sounds of birds chirping.

This leads to "Televators," a sad acoustic epilog which tells of Taxt's choice to commit suicide. But it's not over. We are flung into a band frenzy for "Take the Veil," a sort of odd ending. It functions about the same as "Cicatriz ESP," and seems to be about Taxt just after he dies, and he is in purgatory. Or something.

All in all, it really is an essential album to any new-school proggers. Old-schoolers should try it, but don't be disappointed if it doesn't work for you.