Mars Volta???????????

[unleasHell]

Anyone seen, heard, like or hate them?

They were recommended to me, but so far I have not heard a thing from them...
And they are on Tour and selling out a lot of places...
thanks

[-Jar-]

Anyone seen, heard, like or hate them?

They were recommended to me, but so far I have not heard a thing from them...
And they are on Tour and selling out a lot of places...
thanks

from what I know of your tastes, I would suggest trying before buying. Imagine a weird combination of hardcore punk and early 70's Santana. Maybe a little Crimson thrown in. Definately an odd brew.

-jar

[nobody]

I Hate 'Em. I Hate 'Em. I Hate 'Em!

That's just from hearing a couple songs and one video though. Hard psychedelic rock that meanders aimlessly from what I heard Sounded to me like Led Zeppplin just decided to stop playing songs and just jam with no rhyme nor reason. If you'd be into that sort of thing...they'd be good. I'm not, so I can't stand 'em. I have seen them get a bunch of good press though, so I may well be in the minority.

[unleasHell]

cool guys thanks, that's two thumbs down and one finger up for the Volta....

[ForeverAutumn]

Anyone seen, heard, like or hate them?

They were recommended to me, but so far I have not heard a thing from them...
And they are on Tour and selling out a lot of places...
thanks

I like 'em. They were recommended to me by a kid in a CD store when I asked for the new Dream Theater disk (which they didn't have in yet). They are pretty heavy, but if you like that sort of thing they're pretty good. I posted about them a while back and many folks here didn't agree with me. The try before you buy suggestion is good advice. Apparently, they aren't for everyone.

[Troy]

I posted this a while back:

They're getting lots of comparisons to all manner of old-timey hard rock bands like Zeppelin, Santana and Rush in the press. I hear all those bands in here along with stuff like Bends era Radiohead and even some new-metal hardcore noise. It creates a hodge-podge sound that is too hectic and disjointed and just kinda ugly. The songs sound like the titles of the songs read. "Cicatriz ESP"? "Inertiatic ESP"? Inconprehensible and pointless.

There's a lot of spacy effects sections in the long songs sandwiched between lots of heavy metal punch. No question, the thing rawks and rawks hard, but none of it really makes sense or fits together. Just because you can build a 45 second trippy swirl of space synths for every six minutes of other music doesn't mean that you can just stick it anyplace. These guys don't understand that these trippy sections HAVE TO serve the musical parts of the song. The writing is just plain weak, forgoing any melodic sense for the big and nasty sounding guitar grind, VERY typical of hard modern rock.

I don't dig De Loused. It's just not this old geezer's bag. But I bet there's a lot of 25 years olds out there that WILL. There's a whole lot better music out there that falls under "challenging" and "artful" that deserves this band's press.

[Dusty Chalk]

I love 'em, and definitely think you should at least try them. From what I know of your tastes, I would think you would like them, but I've been wrong before (case in point -- I was sure that Troy would have liked them, but I was wrong), so at least find some way to listen to them.

They're in my top 10 favourite disks from last year. I agree with Troy that it's disjointed, but I disagree that it's a bad thing. I think it flows like geography, and the Oldfield-esque harsh transitions are a joy -- they are the sorts of things that one looks forward to after repeated listens.

This 40-year-old 25-year-old gives the ol' three thumbs up!

[tentoze]

Anyone seen, heard, like or hate them?

They were recommended to me, but so far I have not heard a thing from them...
And they are on Tour and selling out a lot of places...
thanks

I heard parts of De-Loused a couple of months ago courtesy of Unklebob's twin, zachor, and parts was WAY plenty for me. Cacophonic horrors. But, I'm an old frint- agree with the statement that said the younger whippersnappers might enjoy banging their collective head to MV- not me.

[bacchanal]

Mars Volta is not a studio band. If you've ever seen them live, you know what I mean. They play VERY hard...and this is their personality, their schtick. Doesn't come across so well in the studio...just sounds like a mess. It's fun live though....

[mad rhetorik]

I dig The Mars Volta, and personally thought that Deloused In The Comatorium was one of the best and most unique albums offered last year. However, be warned: They are an acquired taste, and contrary to what the media says they don't sound like Santana/Led Zeppelin/Pink Floyd at all. Maybe a vaguely similar element or two but that's it. The comparisons to Rush are a little closer, but even that comparison isn't really accurate.

The best description that I can think of to characterize TMV's sound would be "At The Drive-In Went Prog." Which makes sense since Cedric Bixler (vocals) and Omar Rodriguez (guitar) were the creative center of At The Drive-In (which is now defunct). TMV's music is hammering prog metal mixed together with spacey electronic interludes and Latin-styled rhythms and percussion. The music switches between these styles very suddenly, which gives the illusion of disjointed song structure but for this fan of strange, intense, unpredictable music (ex. Dillinger Escape Plan and Mr. Bungle) it's like manna from heaven. The lyrics and song titles are pretty bizarre and incomprehensible ("Cicatriz ESP?" "Drunkenship Of Laterns?" wtf..) and the rumoured prescence of a concept storyline in there is questionable, but beyond that I definitely like this record.

Try TMV out, and if you like 'em also check out At The Drive-In's last album Relationship Of Command, which is my favorite post-hardcore album of all time.