Thoughts on this excellent new Mars Volta album? I can't go into major detail, as I have only just bought it.

"Vicarious Atonement" – 7:19: Quite a sad song, very un-Mars Volta like. Still love it though.

"Tetragrammaton" – 16:41: Great guitar solos ftw!

"Vermicide" – 4:15: Need to listen to it a few more times.

"Meccamputechture" – 11:02: Sax solos ftw

"Asilos Magdalena" – 6:34: Very emotional, Cedric goes quite crazy at times.

"Viscera Eyes" – 9:23: Brilliant, the 9 minutes flows along.

"Day of the Baphomets" – 11:56: One of the craziets songs i've ever heard, hence why I love it, and think it's the pick of the bunch on this album. Wtf is that sax doing in the song, roffle.

"El Ciervo Vulnerado" – 8:50: See Vermicide.

It is always exciting to hear of new TMV things, imo.

Although the couple of responses here should be pretty damn hilarious.

While I've only been listening to this through my computer, I'm reckoning I can put feasible judgement on a couple of the songs.

Vicarious Atonement - It's one of them few songs by TMV that are pretty damn sad. The guitar sound at the beginning is pretty neat, it must have been quite hard to engineer. Like the ambience panning from side to side, makes the experience cinematic.

Tetragrammaton - Can't review this fully, cause, not listened to it properly, but love the guitar riff after the intro, really winding and awesome.

Vermicide - Is neat as fook. The strucuture of the song is pretty generic, which is what makes it so fresh. I love the amplified chorus, without the other instruments, and the last verse, the falsetto's hit by Cedric are insane(ly) good.

Meccamputechture - Love the intro and sax line, but that's all I can say atm. Very funky.

Asilos Magladena - A sexy, chilled out song. Quite emotional too though, it sounds like Cedric's crying sometimes. While I quite like this song, it's probably my least favourite. Although the guitar riff is astounding.

Viscera Eyes - Awesome. It's a fresh song, because TMV aren't heavy. So to see Omar use powerchords with some distortion is nice to hear. It compliments, again, the falsetto Spanish that is the vocals. I love each part of this song, and it has probably one of the most intense chorus's out of most of their songs. The bassline in the I think it's 3rd bridge is amazingly simple, but cool. It's a song I'd kill to see live, even if at parts, it seems quite chaotic.

Day of the Baphomets - Sick bass solo, danceable, latin. That's all atm.

El Ciervo Vulnerado - Chillout, Ambient. That's all I have with that.

It's a 9/10 + album for me, based on what I've heard.

Lewis, I love you for taking the time to type a proper response like that <3.

I shall edit my opening post in a similar fashion, TMV deserve that much anyway ~

I always have time to review a band I love ^^.

Should be getting it by Thursday. I'm a die hard fan, but I physically couldn't afford it.

I got it on Friday and I have a lot of love for it already! I am not going to go song by song, but name drop instead. Which is unlike me.

So far Viacarious Atonemoent, Asilos Magdalena and Vermicide are the best. I haven't listened to it via headphones which I may do tonight, so I will be able to better judge the production of it, but so far

Better than Frances

This thread needs more posts. *coughCasspostyoulittlebint~cough*

Bought it today.

I will have listened to it through by tomorrow, which is when I will post.

Again.

^^

OK.

I can basically say I've listened to it through several times now, really.

This is a loud Mars Volta album, in general. I wouldn't recommend listening to it, if you get headaches easily.

I like the first song, it's sad, weird lyrics and a crazy outro. It goes into the next song pretty immediately; 'Tetragrammaton' which has quite an extensive intro, when it does break down, a rolling riff is played which is ONE of my hightights of the album, because if there is ONE definite thing that TMV do well in my opinion, it's breaking down from fast, loud sections, to slow,quiet sections. It's yeah, a pretty long song, but it doesn't really seem like 16 minutes. It's structure mainly comprises of verses, bridges and re-occuring choruses, which some people may not get on with, I'm personally passive towards that structure. Although I would like to point out that my second highlight is the sax jazz breakdown at about 11 minutes, with Cedric quietly singing in the background. It's pretty funky, and cool, I believe the correct word to use is.

'Vermicide' is neat. It's the easiest to like from a commercial point of view, because it's the shortest, and has a pretty regular song structure. I like the vocal effect on the chorus, and the falsetto chorus repeats at the end. Pretty magnificent.

A pretty acid punk vocal intro then becomes a dancable sax line and sprawling guitar that is 'Meccamputecture'. I love the intro in this song, and I love CERTAIN parts of the song, but not all of it. I like the banging guitar in the background, whoever has listened to it MIGHT know what I mean, it's quite hard to explain. On the occasional breakdown, you hear it. But yeah, my favourite part of the song is the sax line, in the intro, middle and outro.

Then 'Asilos Magdalena' comes in. I like Cedric singing in spanish, cause it's pretty sexy, and I quite like this song. The guitar riff is different, indeed. Something they've never come close to doing before. But, the song doesn't do THAT MUCH to me, really.

Ambience from the previous song then becomes power chorded 'Viscera Eyes', probably my favourite song. I like the way that it's bilinguical (sp?), and the chorus is probably the most intense chorus TMV have ever done in a song. The bridge is insane, and the bass breakdown is awesome. It's just all generally awesome.

'Day of the Baphomets' has a funky intro. Sick bass solo. Seriously. So fast it's unbelieveable. I'm not TOO sure about the song though. It's really loud, quite consistently. Maybe it's because I had a sort headache while listening, but yeah. The highlight of this song for me is towards the end, with the multi vocal "I am the reason for your missing child", it's just so psychadelic. Love it.

Then 'El Ciervo Vulnerado' kicks in from the last song, it's cool, calm and collected generally. Quite ambient at parts, and quite eerie.

Overall, I like it. Generally that's all it is. I'm a LITTLE disappoined, but not worried. I will still listen to it, but unlike the other two, I will need to be in the right mood. I would probably only listen to seperate songs this time round too.

If I was to give it a score, while Frances and Deloused would get 10, this would get 8.

But I would like to stress, that I'm not worried. Looking forward to more stuff in January, and will be getting tickets to see them live ASAP.

Nice review Lew, I have heard some conflicting opinions re. Amputechture from my friends, though they all generally agree that Day of the Baphomets is the best, specifically the percussion solo. I am going to have to pay more attention next time because I did not notice the drum solo, probably because I was juggling listening to this and playing FFIX at the same time. I have testes, I'm not good at multi-tasking!

One friend says that he, like you, still thinks that Frances is better whilst I think that it is between the two; above Frances, but not quite at the level of de-loused.

I think I'd say 9/10 now, for the record!

But, yeah. I still don't know where this percussion solo is..unless it's that part I mentioned with the "I am the reason for your missing child"

?

Nice review Lew, I have heard some conflicting opinions re. Amputechture from my friends, though they all generally agree that Day of the Baphomets is the best, specifically the percussion solo. I am going to have to pay more attention next time because I did not notice the drum solo, probably because I was juggling listening to this and playing FFIX at the same time. I have testes, I'm not good at multi-tasking!

One friend says that he, like you, still thinks that Frances is better whilst I think that it is between the two; above Frances, but not quite at the level of de-loused.

Pretty much agree with all that. Day of the Baphomets is pretty amazing, I love Viscera Eyes and Meccamputechure as well.

Favourite songs are pretty much Meccamputecture and Viscera Eyes.

I haven't listened to it yet. GETTING TO IT.

Get to it quickly ~

I've been proper rockin out to it recently. As in the past few hours.

Still would say 9/10 though. ;(

OK I FINALLY POSTED. HAPPY?

Vicarious Atonement: Really like this track. Smooth, sad-feeling, a little eerie sounding, maybe? But in a good way.

Tetragrammaton: Like the intro to this one, and love the bit where it leads into the vocals. Great guitar, great vocals. Great track all around. Transitions between parts of the song are a little... choppy, maybe? Although I like the section about 9 minutes in quite a bit.

Vermicide: One of my favorite tracks of the album. Shorter than most TMV songs, but like Lewis said, the set up of this song makes it fresh.

Meccamputechture: I don't like the vocal intro, but the musical intro that follows, I really enjoy. Another good, energetic track. All the little parts (vocals, guitar, background bits) fit in really nicely together. I'm not as good on musical critique terms as Lewis, so yeah. ;-; Love the sax bit in the 2nd half. Love the ending to this track.

Asilos Magdalena: Love this track. The Spanish influence in both guitar and vocals is wonderful. Smooth, another sad-ish sounding song. I love how simple this song is, compared to some of the more complex songs on the album. I want to get tabs to this song and make my grandpa play it for me. The very ending I don't like so much, I wish they would've finished it on the same simplicity as the rest of the song. Go look for the translated lyrics for the religious undertones. Catholicism or Christianity in the Latino world is a prty neato topic, imo. Dia de los Muertos and all that.

Viscera Eyes: Another spectacular intro~ Wonderful track overall, can't say much, other than that this is another favorite of mine.

Day of the Baphomets: Crazzzzzy track, but in a good way. Sax is lovely. This song is a lot of fun, energetic.

El Ciervo Vulnerado: Need to listen to this one a few more times before I can give a good review of the track. Right now I'm pretty indifferent to it.

Overall? I love this album. Going with the general consensus that nothing beats out Deloused, but Amputechture does better than Frances the Mute (in most areas). Would give this album a 8-8.5/10. Only loses points for not seeming quite as energetic as I would've hoped. I like all the songs, but I'm not really in love with any one in particular. Doesn't quite have the flow between tracks like in Deloused or Frances. I really do like the album though, despite having to be in a certain mood to listen some of the tracks.

Cassie <333

I love the intro to Mecca though ;(

I also love how Cedric hits, again, some impossible falsetto's.

If you want impossible falsettos you should listen to Man Man (also you should just listen to Man Man because they are awesome).

But, yeah. I still don't know where this percussion solo is..unless it's that part I mentioned with the "I am the reason for your missing child"

?

Yeah I noticed what he was talking about now, I think it is about 8 and a half minutes in to the song, though I can't remember precisely. It's really fast and cool.

Like the most of the album~

OK I FINALLY POSTED. HAPPY?

Delighted! It only took you a week and a half. :-*

So yeah, general consensus is De-Loused > All

And that Meccamputechure, Viscera Eyes, Day of the Baphomets win, although i'll have to go against you two and say I didn't like Vermicide, can't really say why to be quite honest, it just didnt do anything for me.

I'm itching to see these dudes live, but if they came to perform here, they'd get like 4 people coming to see them, cos when I mention their name, people are like 'wtf, who are they?' ;_;

I've only given this one listen, so I can't detail it up much (plus it was last night that I Listened to it)...

Vicarious Atonement: After the insane start of Frances the Mute with Cygnus, having a very slow, sad song to begin the album I thought was a little bit anti-climatic, but then I remember all the albums that I love taht start out with a slow number, like Scenes From a Memory by Dream Theater, and The Everglow by Mae. It's a great song. 8/10

Tetragrammation: Not the epic ppl make it out to be, IMO. The music in it is outstanding, don't get me wrong, but the smoothness of the production, and the progression that I look for just wasn't there for me. Still, it does show the expertise of the band. 7/10

Vermicide: I found this to be a pretty standard song for them, to be honest. Nothing special, but entirely listenable: 6.5/10

Meccamputechture: This is where the CD started to take off for me. Nice guitar lines and time signature changes. Overall, very excellent. 9/10

Asilos Magdalena: I absolutely loved this. I don't know a lick of Spanish, but nonetheless, this is superb. Cedric's vocals here were incredible. 9/10

Viscera Eyes: One of my two favorites on the CD. The beat and rhythm are addicting, the sogn is catchy, without TMV going against what they are all about as a band. Bravo! 10/10

Day of the Baphomets: It hooked me from the incredible guitar line in the beginning of the song. Amazing. 10/10

El Ciervo Vulnerado: A nice ending. Nothing spectacular. 7/10

good review Chris, you pretty much explained why i dont like Vermicide~

;(

Still haven't listened to it yet laffo. I swear I'm going to soon.

LAFFO

LAFFO

LAFFO

You should.

you really should.

O shit.

It's in my playlist guys ~

It's coming up in about like, 40 hours :D

Haha. Nice one.

Ktulu. I just checked out your MySpace music. The first song is fucking amazing. Pretty up my street. Didn't really have time to listen to the others though.

Thanks! I appreciate the compliment. I have a new one I need to upload but the site compresses it so much even though it claims it won't do that, so I'm trying to figure out the problem.

Anyway, I'm probably about to engage in some of the video gaming and then I'll listen to de album.

Yeah.

Well, at the moment I'm really into a lot of the Experimental, but relatively easy listening stuff. Really good listen. There isn't enough of this stuff around in my opinion, really.

TMV is tough for me to review even still, definatly a favorite band of mine but i dont want to ever admit they are better than at the drive-in was, as most fans probly know it was the band omar and cedric led during the 90's and had there last album in 2000. The remaining members started up the band Sparta who is also coming out with there third full length album later this month, which sounds great.

This TMV album, imo to sum it up quickly, is like frances the mute without all the ambient noise, its another incredible entry in modern progressive rock, i love these TMV albums, but more than anything i want to see ATDI back together.

At the Drive-In are good, yeah. They're just not as much "my thing" a The Mars Volta, to be honest. I do like quite a lot of their stuff, I think they nail 'post hardcore' pretty well, since I'm not normally into that stuff. They add a pretty different edge to it.

I still prefer TMV though, whilst I'm fully aware that there are a lot of people who prefer the Atdi days.

im more of a prog rock/abstract music fan myself, i spend hours in my room just zoning out to stuff, i mainly look at music as articulate expression and i can say TMV stimulates my mind and is very enjoyable to me. ATDI is just one of the first bands i got into when i was younger, i heard it in my cousins car and loved it, so i guess its mainly memories and familiarness that influences me to enjoy them more.

Guys guys guys I am listening to it ~

Sounds nifty, they have such wonderful guitar tones.

<3 to you man, <3 to you.

So many layers of guitar, haha.

It's insane, really.

I like that the guitar parts are relatively within the realm of playability for the most part, yet still so far removed from what most people would be able to come up with (i.e. way better and really creative.)

All of the guys play their instruments really well though, but you know, I'm a guitar guy so obviously that gets my attention the most.

Omar ftw.

he really shines on Amputechture~

Bryan, unless I'm mistaken, I think a lot of the guitar work is John Frusciante...

Rapture, I'm not really sure I could label TMV as post-hardcore. That would more belong to bands like Bullet For My Valentine, Protest the Hero, and From Autumn to Ashes...

I was listening to Frances last night for the first time in a while and it reminded me of how much fun I had last year

BTW I am really taking a shining to Tetragrammation and Day of the Baphomets lately. I initially wrote them off as long and pretty boring but now I consider them highlights.

Krel Krel apparently Omar did the solos and anything played by Frusciante was written by Omar anyway so Bryan's statement isn't that unfounded.

either way, I love the riff in Viscera Eyes, lol... I don't like Tetra much, but I love Asilos Magdalena, Viscera Eyes, Meccamputechture, and Baphomets.

Haha, yeah Omar wrote all the parts, and Frusciante learned them, I think mainly for live shows.

My favourites are still Vermicide and then Meccamputechture, but Viscera Eyes is up there.

And Krelian: Yeah, I didn't post that sentence very clearly, I was actually referrring to At The Drive In as post-hardcore - I reckon you might see it now ?_?

Krel Krel apparently Omar did the solos and anything played by Frusciante was written by Omar anyway so Bryan's statement isn't that unfounded.

he did~

Lewis: Ahh, ok... Umm, I honestly haven't heard much of ATDI, other than One-Armed Scissor (I may be completely wrong with that song title). I can't substantiate it, but again, when I think post-hardcore, I usually think of the three bands listed above...

I don't think ATDI compare to TMV, to be quite honest, sure they have similarities, but I much prefer TMV.

I guess I'm the first person who listened to it and didn't like it then? :/

deleted.

it isnt everyones cup of tea like, but yes, you fail. :(

I don't think anyone should ever get rid of music if they don't like it only after a first listen. I love a lot of stuff now that I really didn't dig at first. Always give things another chance eh

case in point, I didn't like TMV much at first myself. It takes a while.

Relik: my top 10 bands atm, hmmm
Relik: 1. Dream Theater
Relik: 2. Blue October
Relik: 3. The Mars Volta(fuck you btw)
Bryan: hahahaha


~

yeah, and I still mean that too. asshole. LOL. :)

haha, come on, you have me loving DT, only fair i return the compliment ~~~

I'll never actually *like* DT, goofy keyboard solos and shit ruin it for me, plus I hate the vocals, but I do respect them and their musicianship, is that fair enough?

I didn't really like this album - a few good tracks, but de-loused and frances the mute blew me away. can't wait to see this band dec 2!!!!!

and Dream Theater .. awesome.

didn't like their latest either though, octavarium or whatever.

You are lucky to be seeing them, again, I've heard they put on quite an astonishing show.

I didn't really like this album - a few good tracks, but de-loused and frances the mute blew me away. can't wait to see this band dec 2!!!!!

I'm guessing by the fact that your show is on Dec 2 that you are in Australia?

In which case you will now be seeing them in March

oh crap. lucky you told me that, I had no idea it was postponed.

Does this mean I need to refund my ticket and get another??

Man... I've owned this album for about a month and a half, now, and STILL have yet to sit down and listen to it! Shame! *Bows head* Next week, I should put it up on the MP3 player, and therefore I will have no excuse to miss out on it.