De-Loused in the Comatorium
Having received this album over the course of the Christmas season, I felt it only fitting to update the blog by writing a review of it.
Coming from pretty much nowhere in 2003, The Mars Volta came out with their first album, De-Loused in the Comatorium. The members of the band were at least partly formed from the ashes of Hardcore band At the Drive in, and this background influences the album with it’s strange lyrics, wall-of-sound guitar work, and pounding drumming.
De-Loused is a concept album, telling the story of the mental battles of a comatose man following a failed suicide attempt, and the strange places he visits in his own twisted imagination. The story itself was inspired by a similar suicide attempt by one of singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s friends. Coincidentally, the band’s sound manipulation artist died of a heroin overdose one month before the album’s release.
The lyrics are possibly the only questionable part of this drug-addled mixture. They make very little sense even at the best time, and often drift in and out of the spanish mother tongue of the singer. This probably reflects the hallucinogenic premise, and although an acquired taste, appeal to me at least. The music is not something that you listen too lightly, it’s intensity and length demands you give it your full attention for the whole 61 minute playtime.
Although many will find the music contained within obtuse, impenetrable and ever so slightly nonsensical, i nevertheless recommend De-Loused to anyone willing to throw off the shackles of genre conventions and try something new for once.
8/10
Ghostly Noises?
There’s a sound that seems to play about a third into the song “Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt” by the Mars Volta that sounds exactly like a phone vibrating on a desk, and it makes me frantically search the desk every time it goes off. Am I imagining things?
Hostel II: or, How Not to Make a Good Viewing
Last night I watched a film known as Hostel II on DVD, provided by my sister’s boyfriend. I can safely say it was the most illogical, boring horror movie I have ever seen (which in an entire genre of mostly filler, that is saying something).
Once past the obligatory reminder/excuse to decapitate the survivor of the previous film, things start badly with an introduction to the three main characters, who are at best a gallery of stereotypes. It seems the director thought that the previous film with it’s all male cast did not appeal enough to the pre-pubescent hormonal boys i can only assume this series is designed to appeal to, as they have been replaced with a gaggle of female leads, taken straight from any teenage flick you care to mention- the geeky one, the rich one and the annoying preppy one.
All three of them are for some reason seduced into coming to Slovakia while on a trip across Europe, where they check into a normal seeming youth hostel. It turns out that the hostel is actually a macabre business which allows incredibly rich 40-somethings with nothing better to do with their lives to bid on the lives of young innocents, and continue to maim and dispatch them in whatever gruesome way pleases them most. In this way, the film draws many parallels to that most despicably pointless series of films, the Saw franchise, in that it is an excuse to see (vaguely) attractive young things get horrifically mutilated in increasingly foul ways.
The film focuses mostly on one of the girls, along with two brothers, one of which has paid for him and his sibling to come with him on a “business trip” and prove that he has the guts to kill another human being (the reasoning being that Slovakia is a lawless country where they will not get in any trouble back home). The film shows some promise of depth when one of the brothers starts to have second thoughts about the whole thing upon meeting his destined victim, but at that point the director decides, that no, he’d rather have lots of people die instead, and everything goes down the swannee. Lots of swearing, genitals being mutilated, faces being sawn off, and one unfortunate man being mauled to death by a pair of Dobermen.
If this loss of a completely decent (if predictable) ending was not bad enough, the single heroine left over by now (the rich one) ends up armed with a pistol, her assailant dying, and what i was expecting to at least be a half decent shootout scene. But the director decides on yet another cop out, with the lass deciding to buy her way out of the situation. I’m sure this was supposed to be some kind of commentary on the inherant corruption within the business of today, or america’s ability to buy itself out of everything, but such things do not make for good viewing no matter what the message is.
All things considered, I came away from my seat in the living room disappointed. I’m really quite glad that I didn’t have to pay for it at the cinema, in any case.
1/10
I Love Explosions
…. And in the game! Anyway, after watching a fireworks display in good old Market Rasen and then talking to Sarah, I felt compelled to put a link to a Java game she showed me, complete with unlimited free clickable noisemakers!!! Enjoy tbh.
An Airbag Saved My Dub
I know this is an unconventional type of music for me, but this Jamaicafication of one of Thom Yorke’s best works has an odd appeal. I guess it’s the correlation between OK Computer’s theme of alienation from society, and the Rastafarian way of shunning the ordinary, mundane life found everywhere else in the world. Whatever the reason, I really quite like it.
My Fake Plastic Love
My god, this resurgence in Radiohead listenage I’ve been going through is glorious.
Fake plastic trees must be one of the most brilliant tracks ever, just listened to it and got the feeling you get when a song is just “that” good.
I also finally listened to the entirety of Hail to the Thief and it was a revelation to be quite honest.
Portal-ey goodness!
Seeing as I probably won’t be able to afford the orange box anytime soon, I found this pretty damn amazing flash version of it on newgrounds, thought others may just be interested.
It’s pretty darn tricky later on in the game, I got stumped a few times, at least 30+ levels.
The Running Free
Just listened to the sample track to the new Coheed album, “The Running Free”, and I must say I’m impressed that it’s really quite good, despite being quite dissimilar to their older material. It sounds a bit like there’s a little bit more synth influence added in the background, while remaining remarkably “proggy”.
Also, Claudio’s voice is still unnaturally high pitched.
In other (quite possibly old by now) news, here’s a bit of Team Fortress 2 machinima, to entertain and educate about how bloody ace the game looks. Enjoy.
Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume 1.
The true album art, hidden under the rather mundane cardboard sleeve.
I was introduced to this album in the baptism of fire that was joining my first band, about a year ago. I entered the house and once everything had been set up, we went through track 3, “Welcome Home”. Admittedly the practise did not go very smoothly (I was astonishingly poor at playing my part (and still am tbh), but the seed of Coheed & Cambria was planted. I eventually acquired my own copy of the whole CD, and was suitably impressed.
The first thing you notice is most definitely the vocals. Claudio Sanchez, despite being a veritable afro-bear of a man, has one of the eeriest, and also most high pitched voices I’ve ever heard. Some people may find this a bit of an acquired taste, but In my opinion it just adds to the uniqueness of the music. The music itself consists of heavy rock guitars, drum and bass, as you might expect, but the style has a very grand feel to it, and other instruments such as strings and piano also lend a hand in certain songs, such as the classical first track.
Although a newcomer to the series may not notice, there is a huge sci-fi story encased in all this prog rock. The Amory Wars, as they are called, are something akin to Star Wars crossed with Lord of the Rings, telling the story of Claudio Kilgannon (the similarity to the lead singer is most likely intentional) and his quest to bring down a galaxy spanning dictatorship by destroying all civilisation. The references to what is going on are slightly obscured compared to earlier albums, but a good listener shoud be able to work out what is going on (failing that, there is also wikipedia).
The thing that impresses me most is the consistency of quality between all 15 songs on the CD. The complexity of lyrics and chords never lets up, and the final five songs make up their own mini series of extreme progginess, each one well over 7 minutes in length. The album artwork is also very impressive (I obsess over such things in a CD purchase) with detailed and well coloured depictions of the major events in the story.
Although I can only imagine the naysayers who tar this album with labels such as “emo”, I myself was very pleased with my purchase, and would recommend it to just about any of my friends. A very clever and most of all, different piece to listen to.
9/10
Our Ever Loving Benefactors….
I need to find a copy of Half Life 2: episode one somewhere, somehow. This may be one of the main reasons for buying the Valve Orange Box. Not to play the games contained within (at least, not yet), you understand, but to play the final chapter of the Minerva: Metastasis mod series. I’ve played the previous two chapters, and being unable to access the latest one is torture tbh.
