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RELATIONSHIP OF COMMAND (AT THE
DRIVE-IN) (2000)
Key Tracks: "Arcarsenal," "One Armed
Scissor"
Quick Take: At the Drive-In reinvigorated American
postpunk, combining emo's unabashed passion with a politically
edged fury reminiscent of the MC5. Their major label debut,
Relationship of Command, ratchets everything up to 11. In
comparison to previous emo-influenced efforts, Command
sounds a little icy. But this is owed mostly to Ross Robinson's
all- edges production; ATDI play as deftly as ever, unleashing a
fireworks display of competing yet complementary sound bursts. The
sinisterly schizo "One Armed Scissor" enthralled indie-oriented
hard rock fans who had yet to hear from the Strokes or the White
Stripes, but personal differences broke At the Drive-In apart
before they could make a mark on MTV.
Relationship of Command (Virgin)
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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)
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FRANCES THE MUTE
(2005)
Key Tracks: "Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus," "The
Widow"
Quick Take: The Mars Volta's second album is an
exhilarating transgression: concussive, nonlinear rhythms; mad-dog
guitar algebra; bloody-nightmare suites sung in bilingual free
verse. In short, the beastly spawn of Radiohead's OK
Computer and Rush's 2112. The only word
singer-lyricist Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist-producer Omar
Rodriguez Lopez don't care to understand, in any tongue, is
compromise. The album's excessive earphone theater and contrary
mood jolts (like the Cuban-jazz languor in "L'Via L'Viaquez") may
make you impatient. But in both the terse fire of "The Widow" and
the thrilling eternity of "Cassandra Gemini," the Mars Volta show
off an intensity of focus.
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AMPUTECHTURE
(2006)
Key Tracks: "Vermicide," "Viscera Eyes"
Quick Take: On Amputechture, Bixler-Zavala and
Rodriguez Lopez work in the intimidating, uncompromising tradition
of mid-Seventies Yes and King Crimson: Three songs here exceed ten
minutes and are crammed with quantum-physics-level time signatures,
battle-to-the-death jousts between guitar and horns and
Bixler-Zavala's hummingbird keening. The lovely ballad "Asilos
Magdalena" is followed by "Viscera Eyes," where Rodriguez Lopez and
guest guitarist (and Yes fanatic) John Frusciante melt their fret
boards like Robert Fripp. In "Day of the Baphomets," a furious
salvo of percussion interrupts a vicious, vintage jam that could
have been on Larks' Tongues in Aspic.
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THE BEDLAM IN GOLIATH
(2008)
Key Tracks: "Wax Simulacra," "Ouroboros"
Quick Take: On the Mars Volta's fourth record,
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez work furiously to achieve prog-rock
transgression: compressing dissected time signatures and stammering
riffs into seizures that sound like three Mars Voltas going off at
once, splashed with the non-sequitur gore of Bixler-Zavala's
singing in tongues (inspired this time, the band swears, by lethal
spirits conjured on a Ouija board Rodriguez Lopez found in
Jerusalem). Parts of Bedlam seem indistinguishable from
the frenzy on Frances the Mute, and it gets precariously
close to nonsense. At one point in "Metatron," Bixler-Zavala
appears to be in a different key and headspace from the rest of the
Volta. But there is a great leap in the songwriting — closer
to classic hard-rock force and melodic drama — that, in
"Goliath," "Cavaletta" and the Holy City atmospheres of
"Soothsayer," is even more jolting than the weirdness.