De-loused in the Comatorium

As a lover of prog/jazz/metal/fusion rock, The Mars Volta are right up my street. I had occasion to visit my 80 year old mum & happened to have Deloused In The Comatorium with me. "Ooh, what's that?" she asked, put it on. So I did. When the CD had finished I asked her what she thought. "Well," she said. " That's a beautiful CD, though the songs are highly complex & the time signatures are at times bewildering, you can tap your feet to it." " That'll be your Parkinsons mum", I replied. "Yes, but it seems less angular in structure than later CDs like Bedlam In Goliath & more cohesive as a whole than Aputechture. Cedric Bixler-Zafala's singing is less frantic, gentler even in spite of it being obscure lyrically & Omar Rodriguez-Lopez certainly knows how to handle a guitar. It says in the little book that Flea plays bass on it & that other man from the Chilli Peppers, now I like those........are you going already? Next time bring Frances The Mute!".Nothing more to add, mum. See you!

I heard of The Mars Volta ages ago and had heard a couple of tracks but didnt think that much of them... for some reason recently I decided to buy this album as I remembered vaguely liking one song off it. Now I am hooked, this is the best album I have bought for a while and I have just ordered the rest of their albums (dont you love it when a band you have just got into have got loads of albums!)The 30 second previews on here do not do the songs justice at all and you really have to hear a couple of the stand out tracks all the way through a couple of times to see how great they are.

The two singles 'Inertiatic ESP' and 'Televators' are the only two tracks that are anything close to your traditional 'single' and even that's pushing it! Like many concept albums, it's best to listen to the album as a whole to really appreciate the music and the songs, isolate the tracks, and while they're still excellent, they do tend to suffer without continuity from their neighbouring songs.'Cicatriz ESP' is a glaring example of this, as it fits well enough into the mix, on its own...it's pretty dull and much too long - especially its long, drawn out outro.If you already have this album and are buying for the bonus track 'Ambuletz' - don't bother - it's TERRIBLE! It's basically a dull instrumental with some wailing, aimless vocals - pure filler and thank God it was dropped from the main song list.The production (credited to Rick Rubin) sounds very organic and really suits the music and the trippy, psychedelic nous of the album, as opposed to the clinically sterile over production of most rock and metal bands post 2000.NOTE : This album is also pretty unique as its one of the few non-Red Hot Chilli Peppers recorded appearance of their much lauded bassist, Flea.

It arrived super quickly and is true to the description shown 😁 - would recommend to all

Fantastic album

A masterpiece. No other way to describe it.

good value for money

Good high energy metal/prog.