The Mars Volta
De-Loused in the Comatorium

THE REVIEW

"But who is this Moatillatta?... bah!.."  

These Mars Volta, they've really come a long way! I still remember the first reviews of this mysterious album/object, the latest project of the At the Drive-In frontmen. Some dismissed them as pretentious charlatans while others praised them as the rediscoverers of '70s prog.

Then I bought this CD by chance. I had set out to get the self-titled album by the Deftones, it was 2003, and "Fire" by Electric Six, a discorock band (those indeed, real charlatans!), and along with those, with the box still (half)closed I also slipped in this De-loused, because the reviews piqued my interest... why not...

They were a peculiar discovery. So it was them playing that strange song that radiorock always aired at two in the morning, right before I lost consciousness! .."is anybody there ... these steps only multiply..." sung by a voice that at times resembled Freddie Mercury's...

A concept album about someone trying to commit suicide, failing, but ending up in a coma and wandering through the depths of their subconscious. Then they wake up... and decide to end it by jumping out of their hospital window! Not bad, but what impressed me was the power of this album: an explosion of drums and basses pumped to the extreme... no wonder old Rick Rubin is at the control booth. Soon De-loused wiped both the Deftones and the disco-charlatans off my stereo. Now, I'm not a musician (I strum a few simple chords on the guitar) nor do I claim to be an expert in music criticism, but to this day this remains one of the best albums I have ever listened to, perhaps the best among my CDs (and I have quite a few, I listen to a bit of everything).

It's a psychedelic avalanche of hard sounds mixed with Latin rhythms and melodic bursts, a succession of violent and syncopated percussion with incredible sweet openings (see "Eriatarka"), and endless orgasms of notes ("Cicatriz", "Roulette Dares") that ultimately leave you with the impression of having traveled for an hour. And what about the last thirty seconds of "This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed," when it feels like a massive locomotive is being hurled at full speed out of a psychic tunnel?

Yesterday, when they first emerged, the Mars Volta were "those from At the Drive-In...", a band whose live performances were often drowned out by the ignorant boos of those who still preferred to compare them to their past, and who unfortunately lost their effects man on the eve of their first album release (curiously, all their music is permeated with themes and atmospheres related to death). Today they are a cult band, appreciated and followed worldwide, much more than in the AtDI era. In today's musical landscape, they are original and experimental, and for me also innovative; now let the experts contradict me, but I've never heard progressive mixed with hard rock, dub, salsa, and Latin rhythms à la Santana before. Certainly, Cedric's voice live is not that of the god it seems to be on the CDs (...it's quite a disaster in some live shows! ed.), but I've already got the tickets for the concert in Ostia Antica and, I'm telling you... I'm waiting with some anticipation!