The Mars Volta breaks concept-album stigma

The Mars Volta is At The Drive-In after reconstructive surgery. Not the barely noticeable nose job kind, it’s the all-out, cut-everything-off-and start-from-the-ground-up approach that Cher got.

There are only two members of ATDI present on “De-Loused In the Comatorium,” and things have radically changed since those punk rock-filled days.

It’s easy to get a bit skeptical when the words “experimental” and “concept album” appear in every review of an album, but creativity and skill work hand in hand enough to ease the fears brought on by the terrifying amount of praise this album has received.

On “De-Loused,” magical riffs spill out of nowhere meanwhile Jon Theodore pounds away on the drums with the kind of energy that can only be achieved by a cocaine addict after six cans of Red Bull.

While at least half of the tracks leave an impression of insanity and disregard for conventional song structures, every explosion of sound is too calculated to be passed off as a noisy temper tantrum.

The Mars Volta set out to inject artist Julio Venegas’ suffering into the sound and lyrics on this album, and that idea works out with fascinating and even eerie results.

“Roulette Dares (This is the Haunt)” pummels you with deafening, fidgety guitars and then snores off into a light slumber. The sudden shyness lasts through the following instrumental song, which changes the pace drastically after the bursting, desperate sounds that littered the second and third tracks.

Instability becomes a theme on “De-Loused;” at times this dual afro-powered post-punk prog-rocking band’s decisions seem almost as neurotic and random as Perry Farrell’s wardrobe. However, any hopes of a more traditional direction brought on by the calm “Tira me a Las Ara