Grapthar's Daily Hive Music Feature: The Mars Volta - 'Tetragrammaton'

The Mars Volta, I was instantly hooked. Their first and second full length albums (Deloused in the Comatorium and Frances the Mute) were mind blowing, and massively influential to me. They helped to open me up to new sounds and ideas, and pushed my own playing as I tried to learn their songs. However, at some point, I sort of lost touch with the group, revisiting these first albums at random times, but not really keeping up with the band. In the last couple of years, I decided to go back and see what I had missed in that time period, which is the vast majority of their discography, hehe. I do remember hearing random songs from these releases over the years, but each time I felt like they didn't hold up to the first two releases, which I think biased me to checking them out in full. After going back and listening to these albums as actual albums, I've found that I love Amputechture, their 2006 follow-up to Frances the Mute nearly as much. I don't think it's as solid overall, but it's still great... it's definitely a lot *more* of their wild, proggy stuff, which they seemed to lean into on this album, but that is appealing to me as well, just depending on my mood and tastes that day. This song is the second track on that album, and is a wild ride of MANY guitar layers and proggy goodness. The intro to the song essentially planes the same riff up and down, constantly shifting key centers, all over a really interesting meter. Cedric's vocals on this song (and album) feel more high-pitched and psychedelic, which I think works great with the overall vibe.