Omar Rodriguez Lopez: The Essential Album Guide

DE-LOUSED IN THE COMATORIUM (2002)
Key Tracks: "Drunkship of Lanterns," "This Apparatus May Be Unearthed"
Quick Take: The almost absurdly ambitious De-Loused in the Comatorium — a well-received concept album about the drug-related death of a friend — moves like tropical weather, squalling in tremendous bursts, then settling into hushed interludes that sound like breezes playing on loose debris. Bixler fully releases his helium-fed voice, playing on every crash and whisper, while Rodriguez Lopez started exploring the limits of the noise his instrument could make, ultimately breaking through the cast of rage that defined At the Drive-In.

De-Loused in the Comatorium (Universal)