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?
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.
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
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
Just listened to the new Foo Fighters album in it’s entirety, and I must say it was a dissapointment. I heard the pretender a few weeks back on the radio, and I was quite impressed by it, it seemed like a return to form after the slightly boring (especially the acoustic bit) In Your Honour.
I think it failed on that front. I think I fell asleep at some point.
I know it was a first listen-through, and I may have moved on since my foo fighters phase, but I don’t think it’s a good sign if an album makes that bad an impression, s’all.
