dohm2 (david ohm) said on Jul. 27, 2008 at 2:40 am:

Here we find the The Mars volta take on the difficult task of following up two monster concept albums ("De-loused" and "Frances"). Both discs focused on a struggling character/s, and followed them into the murky, chaotic depths of human emotion via the volta's Prog-latin fusion.
Though these adventures can be characterized as anything but predictable, they were focused where Amputechture is spacious, allowing the composers to explore more personal issues for the first time. Like many prog projects, TMV attempt to tackle only the largest of themes, the most noticable being religion and the taint it leaves on modern society. However, despite the inevitable cries of "pretentious", vocalist Bixler-Zavala's lyrics (even through the most unusual metaphorical tangents) coincide with the music to form an epic mass of music that sounds anything but insincere.
As far as the actual music goes, this album is pretty standard....for the Mars Volta: Classic latin tunes interwoven throughout anxious bursts of Prog-rock. However TMV's ever-increasing spasticity does hurt them on occasion. Several times (Meccamputechture and El Ciervo Vulnernado) it seems as if the song should climax but simply can't. The solution? Blast the listener with a whirlwind of seemingly random sounds. Despite this, it should be noted that these useless transitions never fully mar any song, and merely prove to be unneeded transitions.
The resulting effect on the listener is certainly something to savor, highlights include the 16 minute "Tetragrammaton" (another word for God), and the climactic multi-layered "Day of the Baphomets" where Bixler-Zavala's voice against modern evangelism can be heard clearly; "How long must we fold by hand? The nuns are burning wheels again".
This being the their weakest effort, it might be a good start for new listeners (as the adventure that is The Mars Volta will only progress from here).

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