DE-LOUSED IN THE COMATORIUM

A strange beast, this one. This album being my first legitimate encounter with the mythical animal that is prog, it should be obvious to anyone that I hold De-loused, Texas-based progressive band THE MARS VOLTA's debut album in high regard. But even after taking a less subjective outlook on it, it remains a great album. It is apparently a concept album based on a story written by two of the band's members, detailing the journey of a certain Cerpin Taxt through morphine-induced coma, and his subsequent suicide. The first track, Son et Lumiere, serves as an introduction to the album. It starts out with some electronic-sounding sound effects, quickly joined by slow keyboard washes. Shortly after that comes the listener's first taste of the lyrics, and they provide a good insight of the kind of odd lyricism (to say the least) that will appear on the rest of the album. At the end of the track some guitar joins in to build up the aggressivity before segueing into the next track, Inertiatic ESP. Within the first few seconds of the song, you hear vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala scream 'now I'm lost' passionately, and that's where the album really grabs you, and does not let you go until it ends. The next few tracks are alternations between fast and heavier passages, in which the frantic guitar playing stands out especially, and calmer moments, which really showcase the production of the album, which is surprisingly competent for a debut effort, and suits the overall theme of the album very well, in my opinion. To me, the insane guitar playing, the side-by-side use of fast, heavy and passionate sections with slower, calmer and more atmospheric sections, and the deliciously strange drug-induced lyricism. The album ends with the very King Crimson-inspired track Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt, and should leave any listener speechless, if not downright breathless. The strongest songs on the album are Drunkship of Lanterns and Eriatarka, and the weakest songs, although on this album 'weakest' certainly does not equate to 'bad' in any way, are Tira me a las Ara'as and Televators. A definite 4 stars for me.