AMPUTECHTURE

Introduction

Mars Volta's third work comes out from the long and controversial Frances the Mute, as the previous works the album is a concept one and this time TMV talk about the differences between faith and church: almost all tracks' name have references with religion or catholic church (I'll say nothing about their meaning, since the group leave the meaning of the lyrics open and without the full explaination).

Main Theme

Comes out from the first track that we've not another Frances, this time the music is the main meal and the psychy Vicarious will satisfy a lot of people who aren't long date followers of the group, while the voice from Bixler-Zavala sounds more mature than before, giving of himself a deeper interpretation of lyrics, this intense work from him seems almost vanished in Tetragrammaton! Anyway the song is maybe the best of TMV past and present, and the screamings are contained in greats moments of unforgivable music, with slow moments and furious reprises. Here we see a more dynamic TMV capable of great soundscapes already seen in Frances without forgetting the real music. Superb the guitar from Rodríguez-López. Vermicide is a quick interlude which shows a great crescendo between the voice, guitar and drums. The third great song (Mecca, amputate, technology, architecture - evolved from the neologism which names the album) is a frenzied movement that sometimes falls in a slow ballad, again the voice isn't perfect but the shouts are contained in some way. Asilos Magdalena begin as a slow & decadent ballad, too bad the end is pointless and bring back the second part of The Widow (from Frances). Viscera Eyes lasts 9 minutes it's maybe the second best track from this album and shows how great can be the musical composition from Rodríguez-López and even the voice does the works perfectly joining with the other instruments.

Reprise

I'll sever the album here for two reasons: first look at the title, second 'till now we don't have got any flaw. The last two songs don't add anything new in the scene and after almost an hour of intense music, the frenetic lyrics from Day of the Baphomets (shouted almost for the full lenght!) are almost excessive, sum the music a bit too redundant for 11 minutes. Last track is a merely reprise from Vicarious more decadent, again a nice spacey sound as the coda of the album, a good song taken alone, but counting the lenght of first track and the way how they explored it, maybe 9 minutes are a bit too much and 76 for the whole album get me frustrated all the times.

Coda

Like italian pasta coocked too much Amputechture gives the feeling that something went wrong, and in this case the similitude is perfect: as pasta became a disgusting quaggy thing, this album get the listener bored! Don't misunderstand me, almost 'till Viscera Eyes everything works fine and if you just skip the last two maybe this album is really a masterpiece, too bad I cannot rate the album severed, so it's 3 stars even if Tetragrammaton is really essential TMV!

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