AMPUTECHTURE

After something like 1 and a half year, Cedric, Omar & Co. are already back with their third full length album. I must confess I wasn't expecting a new TMV album this early. I have to conclude that these guys are extremely creative, much more then anyone in this world could ever imagine. While all the other bands I like take at least 3+ years to release a new record, this guys are release a so rich and complex super detailed album like this in one ear after Frances the Mute release. Thats really crazy, and must be registered here.

Now into the album. Well, Amputechture is a masterpiece. That's what art is about, it defines "art" actually. Omar is now full time as a producer, and it seems like he's learning fast. He did a flawless job here comparing to Frances the Mute. Now you can hear lots of saxophone, trumpet, keyboards, distorted guitars, and tons of electronic stuff everywhere in this album. The lyrics again, picks some religion (actually a lot more), people being possessed, immigrant marches. Cedric again says this is not about a concept album. Not in the literal way. He says each song talk about a different stuff, but they connect each other in some strange bizarre way. I can describe a lot of the Christian bible passages narrated by them in the album. Priests killing diseased people thinking they were possessed. This kind of stuff. But like he said himself, its all in a loose way. The only big theme you can pick in each track is the Christianism.

I wish I had something to talk about the album that bothers me , so I would sound more like a regular listener and not like just a TMV fanboy. I'm really trying hard to list some flaws here: First, I feel that they tried to bring the De-loused vibe back. I prefer Frances over De-loused, I'm with the fans that think the ambiance wasn't unnecessary, it was part of the evolution of the band, as a prog lover I couldn't get more exited when hearing cars passing by and people cursing each other in spanish (Cygnus), or creppy ghosts and birds sounds in Miranda, and now its all gone. A welcome change for most of people I believe, but not for me. Not that they just forgot about the 'noises', they are there, but in a very small proportion, and even worst: they are poorly made. When listening to Frances I could swear I was in some creepy place in Mexico. A cemetery, a lake in the woods, or whatever. Now it just feel like a stoned band in the studio. Oh well, I bet my two cents that this is Frusciante's fault. Being a rockstar, trying to 'teach the kids' that they must sound more MTV friendly and sell millions this way. The other small issue I can complain is the excess of Cedric's doubled vocals. They are like.. everywhere. Cedric's vocal had its best moment in Frances, now they could be more polished if they had put more time to work on it.

But do not fear, despite of some really small flaws, they won't let you down in any way. The album opens with the smooth Vicarious Atonement, which reminds me a lot of Shine On You Crazy Diamond intro. I hope they make it their new concert intro, it sounds really great and put you perfectly in the album mood. Tetragramation starts kicking out some crazy Teodore's usual drums, and insane guitar riffs, sounds like japanese anime a bit, but its still beautiful. This song is the big epic this time, almost 20 minutes long. I don't like Cedric backing vocals when he sings "I've been to the surface and nothing is there", it becomes a little repetitive after some minutes. Vermicide sounds like the single, even when they didn't confirmed this yet. For the first time I heard it I was like 'Eww', its like listening to The Widow, but today I have to recognize it has some cool moments: Cedric vocals gets very creepy when he sings "Embalming all the fluids I must / I prefer to burn them...", the electronic distortion works nice there, I love it. Meccamputechture opens wonderfully with a fast piece of cool sayings by Cedric, thats what TMV is about: a big explosive kick in for the upcoming 10 minutes, makes you wanna dance non-stop. Asilos Magdalena is one of the bests songs, almost 100% acoustic, all written in spanish, it only meets some creepy electric guitar in the last minutes. Viscera Eyes is easily the best song of this album. And easily one of Top 5 TMV songs ever. The chorus are so freaking crazy, Theodore's drums hits his maximum at this point, and Cedric sings are so sexy and powerful. I would say it is a kind of B-Side for Cicatriz ESP, it has an amazing drums/guitar/bass rhythm. I've listened to this album for more then 200 times now and I must say even today I still cant listen to this song and stay still at the same time. I mean, it's not made for dancing but it definitely will make you shake your hands or something. But if you want to dance, Day of the Baphomets probably will make you. After the stimulating intro, the song kicks in a crazy powerful moment like the Tarantism from Cassandra Gemini, its so danceable. Cedric yells the higher he can, there's a lot of space PF's sounds, not to mention the bass lesson, the best bass moment in the album. If they play it live I suggest you to take care and not get too excited otherwise you might break some bones while interacting with the crowd. And to prove that nothing is perfect, the album closes with the unnecessary El Ciervo Vulnerado, with is just nonsense goodbye noise to me. Some always bizarre reversed phrases, a sleepy bassist.. giving that feel of a stoned band playing in a studio I said earlier. I'd share this 8 minutes of blocked noise with the others songs, some more time to think between the tracks would be nice. But thats just me. An absolute progressive masterpiece anyway.