Amputechture

On *Amputechture*, the prog gods step back from universe-building to focus on songs. Evidenced by the brass-blaring \"Meccamputechture,\" The Mars Volta still trade in jittery rhythms, mercurial grooves, and freaky guitars—all the more with John Frusciante sitting in—and three tracks blow past the 10-minute mark. Nevertheless, Omar Rodríguez-López aims his elastic nonet at cranking out tightly gnarled, darkly rocking jams like \"Viscera Eyes.\" Without hard transitions, Cedric Bixler-Zavala\'s falsetto becomes soulful, while his lyrics clarify into barbs spat at institutions using faith as a cudgel.

AMPUTECHTURE would prove The Mars Volta’s most diverse set yet, drawing into the group’s tornado of influences moments of fiery jazz spirituality and esoteric folk introspection, finding space for passages of devastating subtlety and also their most fierce and full-on moments to date. Fearless, insatiable, unstoppable - it is unquestionably the group’s most thrilling but also darkest record yet. 1. Vicarious Atonement 2. Tetragrammaton 3. Vermicide 4. Meccamputechture 5. Asilos Magdalena 6. Viscera Eyes 7. Day Of The Baphomets 8. El Ciervo Vulnerado

The Mars Volta's new album is partially a Lynchian pro-immigration statement that, we assume, will thrill lovers of musical onanism.

Outside of Dream Theater, The Mars Volta is the only band making a case for virtuosic, high-concept progressive rock as a mainstream crossover tool. Granted, it helps that the group's core—singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist/chief songwriter Omar Rodriguez-Lopez—first conquered the mainstream in '90s punk…

The Mars Volta are continual contenders for the mantle of most experimental high-profile metal group, along with System of a Down, an artist they've toured with but who usually sell 20 times more records.

Never keen to make a song four minutes long when seven or eight will do, The Mars Volta - the creative alliance formed between former At The Drive-In members Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Cedric Bixler-Zavala - have forged a fearsome reputation for the most experimental mind-bending prog-rock imaginable.

Amputechture shows a band honing their eruptive sound and bringing it into tight focus for the first time.

There's not a rock band making music today that requires of its listeners the sort of patience that The Mars Volta does.

The Mars Volta - Amputechture review: Creatively this was the highest point in the band's career.