Listening to the Mars Volta is a little bit like getting really messed up on quaaludes and absinthe and then watching a David Lynch movie. By yourself. At 4 in the morning. After 48 hours of no sleep.
I say this not to disparage the group – they are a very talented group of musicians, and their newest offering, “Amputechture,” will disappoint neither critics nor fans of music that dares to be different – but to emphasize exactly how different the Mars Volta is even from their nearest neighbors in progressive rock, the genre which they have awkwardly been wedged into by people who insist on labels.
The band was established by its core members, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, with the intention of going in a different direction from most established acts, and in that goal they have definitely succeeded.
“Amputechture” is the sixth full-length offering from the band, and the first to lack a central theme or concept. The album lists only eight tracks, but that is a little misleading; the shortest track is four minutes and15 seconds, and the longest “Tetragrammaton,” is almost 17 minutes.
Bizarre (but incredibly interesting) lyrics abound, ranging from broken love to severed human limbs to vampirism; the titles of the tracks skip from subject to subject (one refers to a substance used to kill intestinal worms, while another refers to the religions doctrine that Jesus died in the place of humans that sinned).
The band stays true to its previous musical formula, with many brassy horn lines, frantic guitars and plenty of disparate rhythms and jangling disharmonic chords are thrown in to add to the confusion. “Vermicide” comes closest to sounding like a potential radio single, but those looking for something to listen to should still look elsewhere.
The whole CD is wrought through with an anxious, pulsing tension that takes awhile to build and then explodes in messy, screaming guitars, sometimes taking more than 10 minutes to properly diffuse. The Mars Volta’s heavy roots in punk, acid rock and Latin music are audible, not only in the Spanish lyrics and Latino melodic riffs, but also in the heavy power-chords of tracks like “Viscera Eyes” (which is the CD’s first radio release). Despite its difficulty, the album is a rewarding listen and diverse enough to prompt repeated listening just in order to really “get” the whole feel.
The Mars Volta will be coming to Columbus and opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers this fall. They are touring in support of the album and no doubt blowing a few people out of the water with their notoriously energetic and impromptu live shows.
