The Mars Volta - "De-Loused in the Comatorium" - C/D?

It is sooo Prog (Hard) Rock and really quite awesome.
It reminds me so much of the more proggy elements of Led Zep and some of the directions they seemed to be heading in on their last proper album, Presence.

The drums are a bit less heavy but a lot of the rhythms are so John Bonham. It's got 10 minute songs! Segues! Guitar solos! Organs! A concept!

Yay!

i couldn't agree more.

I popped into J&R Music Jail just for a looky-see around yesterday, and after grabbing a nine dollar copy of the re-release of AC/DC's Powerage (I needed to hear "Sin City" again desperately!), I
couldn't help but spot that they were selling De-Loused at the Comatorium by the Mars Volta for a similarly paltry price. Now, given that I actually DID enjoy At the Drive-In,, I decided to
give the album a try after all.

My enthusiasm is middling. It sounds a bit like Fugazi attempting to play Outside the Gate by Killing Joke (an abortive album with time signatures dictated by Numerology....yes, it's as bad as it sounds!) with a helium-huffing Rush tribute band singer.

I *DON'T* really dig it all that much. There are elements here that work, but it's so fuckin' all over the place and up its own clench-buttocked-ass that it fails to maintain any semblance of order. I think Bixler's vocals are great, but there's no coherence to the mess. In that manner, it's quite like the new Radiohead album. There are moments of greatness here, but they're buried amidst the megatons of self-indulgence. If I want wanky prog rock, I'll dig out a Crimson album and be done with it.

.... Alex In NYC in fire-dishonouring blasphemy shockah!!!

did you catch the blurb about the band comparing their music to santana in their press kit?

what, does rob thomas sing on the record?

hispanic last names does not a santana comparison make. call me crazy...

i was really impressed.

the cover art is totally appropriate to the music therein. would you want a yes album to be packaged like a st etienne record?

Thanks for making sure I never, ever, hear this record. I can't even imagine what horrid sounds would be appropriate for that cover.

A new insight: I can never love anyone who enjoys this music. If everyone else enjoys this music, I will forever be sad and alone.

What I don't get about the singer's very bad and annoying vocals: why are they mixed so high? Even if his voice were something you looked forward to, it shouldn't be mixed that high. It makes the rest of the band sound QUIET, even when they're maxing out their levels and bashing everything in sight. Any ideas??

(IMHO)

It's de-lightful, It's de-licious, it's de-loused! Actually, I don't like it at all.

"A new insight: I can never love anyone who enjoys this music. If everyone else enjoys this music, I will forever be sad and alone."

Kenan, you are so OTM. They are viler than a G!YBE press release.

Phil, yes they are quite prog, albeit not a carbon copy of Yes.

is this better or worse than a AYWKUBTTOD... press kit?

"A fully realized concept album inspired by the suicide of a close friend of Mars Volta founders Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavalas, De-Loused in the Comatorium’s narrative consists of fantastic worlds and adventures that Cedric imagines the friend experiencing while in a coma following an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Although the story ends tragically, the creators insist that this is a celebration of the adventurous and daring life that their friend lived."

All I can say is, OUCH.

Hell, I don't, but whenever I get around to hearing this album, it had best live up to billing.

Prog may be many disreputable things, but I don't think either of these adjective necessarily apply to it. Vintage King Crimson and Fragile era Yes are pretty vibrant. Pretentious? Surely, but not dispassionate nor cold.

I haven't heard the album, but I refuse to believe it can be as bad as that gig.

i interviewed them recently for Mojo, and Omar expounded at length about his love for latin music... Jordan, tell us more about Live And Cheap!! is it legit?

1) Roulette Dares (The Haunt of)
2) Drunkship of Lanterns
3) Cicatriz ESP
4) Televators

Live from a couple '03 shows in London, 42 min. total. I only listened to the first half in the car last night, but it's great. The sound is really clear and thick, and I think they make more sense as a band live (not that the studio album isn't really good, but they have a lot more dynamics live and just sound unleashed in general).

There's a really crushing moment when an improv ends up in free time and they stop on a dime and go into the main riff to (I think) Drunkship of Lanterns.

Oh, they use some triggered electronic beats every now and then, not really in conjunction with the live rhythm section though.

strangely, that's also how i feel about radiohead.

This is a highly diverse album, but it's at least 1/2 pure
unmitigated prog.
If you love this but don't know shit about prog, I suggest
you investigate.

The best part about music like this is they can pretend to be influenced by free-jazz and krautrock, which I believe was mentioned in their press stuff. I actually think there are less absurdly pretentious lyrics than ATDI suffered from occasionally.

In my heightened state when I saw them I thought they were unique, impossible to pigeonhole. Whenever I thought they sounded like prog, then they sounded latin, then electronic bleeps would appear, then jazz, then the spirit of Led Zeppelin (particularly 'Percy' Plant). Their latin and Santana ifluence was evident by the bongo drummer, and the guitarist at times. The music was very rhythmic, yet rarely conventionally 'groovy' (maybe that's why I thought prog). The blistering passion they put into the live performance is matched by their delivery. I was sold.

Someone say they're crap.

But I actually don't think that, I like 'em.

I think they're crap... I can't listen to the album at all. Oddly I don't hate them as much as I hate other things which I can bear to listen to, I understand why some people might love them... but I think it's just an unredeemable mess.

One last note: Although I much prefer_Deloused_ to
_Relationship Of Command_, no one Mars Volta song approaches
"One Armed Scissor" (one of my favorite singles of
the century, to date).

The singer still sounds like Geddy Lee sometimes. This bothers me if I think about it too hard.

What's this?

My lil' sister's boyfriend was trying to get me into Coheed and Cambria. They suck ASS. But he's only 17 so I let him off the hook.

I like Mars Volta though.

Coheed & Cambria don't deserve our attention. Let's not talk about them.

Stone. Cold. Classic.

Best thing they ever did as The Mars Volta, IMO.

Frances the Mute is amazing too. Amputechture is goofy but great. Bedlam was bloated and spotty, didn't bother with last two. My favorite band in 2005

i don't think anything mars volta did is classic but i love that you guys do. i am happy they exist

tremulant ep still goes so hard and i've come a place where it's their best release

completely perfect ep

To answer the question of the OP: It's the only Mars Volta I ever really liked.

I know a guy who recently bought the 1-of-1, original cover art pieces for De-Loused in the Comatorium — both the gold head and the severed head versions — and now has them framed and hanging on his wall, which still kinda blows my mind.

they added the pre-release version of comatorium to their bandcamp: https://themarsvoltaofficial.bandcamp.com/album/landscape-tantrums-unfinished-original-recordings-of-de-loused-in-the-comatorium

i listened to this version about 1000 times on a burned CDR before the album came out

total classic btw

jon theodore is a fucking beast, his drumming on this still blows me away as much as it did when i first heard it

Did not know about the original versions now on their bandcamp, thanks!
Good old alb, though takes some getting used to, worth it.
Included with some other outliers in a Voice round-up I did back in Nov. ov '03:
Mars Volta. Whose big bananaspots slip electrically elsewhere: through stabs
of light (purple bursts of trans WhoZepYesRush-
QueenQueensJaneRageSystemRedHotFugaziSantanaAtTheDrive-InEmoScreamo trajectory),
which nevertheless tend
to bounce off crystalline towers of voice, on account of "Joycean wordplay" in
the midst of Revelation. It's a challenge, but appropriately so. For inst.
(one of their easier pieces), song-title "Cicatriz esp" can refer to headshrink
and/or vaccination mark: Either way, you're in goood hands, Mr.
De-loused at the Comatarium blackhole-visionary guy. Whose defiantly
creative/self-destructive internal cosmography (runs) rings through
ricochet-maze/shields of gloved ones Mars Volta's implosively arty art. Once, before
artist-junkie-De-Loused dedicatee Julio Venagas woke up and finally succeeded in killing
himself, he and MVs/ex- At The Drive-Ins Cedric and Omar were friends, and it shows.Awww. It's true!

Very fun album. Cedric is a good instagram follow for old wrestling clips, though his recent Will Smith take was lame

Also, from my Pazz & Jop comments on 2011 picks:
Thought I had more about Omar Rodriguez Lopez and Telesterion, but it's sharp-edged, fluid analog musk, more astute than noodley, any purple more blended than The Mars Volta's reigning peacock screams. Latin rock with jazzy tendencies, rec to fans of early Santana, Rock En Espanol, whatever just went out of print on Shadoks. A personal Best-Of; you can stream it on Spotify, and a ton of his other albums here:
https://orlprojects.bandcamp.com/

(Zechs Marquise, Omar's younger brothers' band, also has a 2011 album. Getting Paid. It's uneven, but worth checking out here: http://zechsmarquise.bandcamp.com )