It’s a giddy rush trying to process all of these shifts in timbre and tone, and the noise hits harder when balanced out with groove.Ībout five minutes deep, Flea (on loan here from future Mars Volta tour mates the Red Hot Chili Peppers) digs into a ridiculously funky bass riff – one punctured with icicle sharpness by Rodríguez-López’s guitar. (Around the 3:40 mark is a bizarre, liquid-like run that segues into a satisfyingly scrambled squelch.) Like many of the album’s heaviest bits, the main riff here is like At the Drive-In meets Red-era King Crimson: rabid and snarling, but with a harmonic richness that raises an eyebrow and leaves you a bit disoriented, like you’re roaming around the Comatorium yourself. (It’s impossible to explain the story in a quick blurb, but let’s just say it involves suicide, comas and a bewildering dreamworld that makes Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway feel childlike in comparison.)Īn eruption of molten lava after the tranquil ocean waves of acoustic ballad Televators, closer Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt cranks the intensity to a 20 out of 10, both lyrically and sonically. Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt (from 2003’s De-Loused in the Comatorium)ĭe-Loused in the Comatorium is such a dense, hallucinatory concept album, you need two essential tools to follow along: a thesaurus and a copy of the companion book, which fills in some narrative gaps. But when he takes the spotlight, he isn’t shy – just dig into those chunky funk-punk chords that first swoop in around 1:29 or the creepy-crawly, Zappa-tinted solo around the four-minute mark. Here Rodriguez-López is part of a brutal prog orchestra ducking out occasionally to make room for a scurrying fusion saxophone lick or brooding piano chords. Here Rodriguez-López is part of a brutal prog orchestra ducking out occasionally to make room for a scurrying fusion saxophone lick or brooding piano chordsīixler-Zavala sprays out Dali-like surrealism over the din (“ Primordial cymatics giving birth into reverse / Serrated mare ephemera undo her mother’s curse”), now several tracks deep into a lyrical concept that may or may not involve a cursed ouija board. The song’s opening seconds offer a roadmap: a shrieking guitar fades in from nothingness, leading to a jolt of superhuman snare rolls and distorted prog convulsions. The appropriately titled Bedlam is the apex of the band’s naked aggression and sonic mayhem, piled to the brim with limb-flailing drum fills, harsh vocal effects and ungodly guitar noise.Īt its most bombastic, like Cavalettas, it’s all a savory headache, teetering on the border of nervous agitation and sugar-rush excitement. Nonetheless, some of the Mars Volta’s most impactful music – particularly the heaviest moments of their fourth LP, The Bedlam in Goliath – is downright violent, approximating the force of being blindsided in the jaw with a nail-covered 2-by-4. “I try to channel that anger into creative energy rather than pound my fist against the wall or another human being’s head.” “There are a lot of things I see going on in the world and lots of things I read about that make me very angry,” Rodríguez-López told Guitar Player in 2012. Cavalettas (from 2008’s The Bedlam in Goliath) “I don’t know a greater happiness than losing ‘fans.’ A true fan is someone interested in what’s happening now, and then there’s everyone else trying to control what you do or project onto it.” 9. Their loss! “Losing ‘fans’ is baked into what we do,” Rodríguez-López told The Guardian in 2022. It’s possible that some jaded diehards might not give The Requisition a fair shake. The dissonances and spindly fills even flirt with the menace he utilized so brilliantly throughout De-Loused in the Comatorium – but in keeping with The Mars Volta’s broader aesthetic, the context feels fresh. But the vibe turns more sinister from there the processed drums lift us into a more traditional rock setting, and the guitars snarl and spasm with distortion and wah. Rodríguez-López keeps his parts pared down for the verses, picking a clean two-chord pattern with occasional sun-ray overdubs. The most obvious “guitar song” here is pseudo-epic closer, The Requisition, one of only two tracks to run past the four-minute mark. The Mars Volta’s self-titled LP may frustrate fans who crave nothing but gargantuan phaser solos and tricky time signatures it’s slicker and more hook-oriented than any of their previous six albums, with Rodríguez-López exercising admirable restraint in his quest for reinvention.īut you’ll still find plenty of choice riffs on this self-described “pop” project – they’re just more subtle, typically supporting the vocals and blending into the bigger sonic tapestry.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |