C
The Mars Volta is one of my favorite bands of all time, and their debut album, De-Loused in the Comatorium, is still my favorite of their discography. I can't believe I didn't find this companion book earlier.
This companion book is an expansion on the story of the album, in which a man overdoses on rat poison and morphine, and has grand visions during his coma, before waking up and committing suicide. Much like the lyrics (which are interspersed through this book in sections that serve as intermissions between passages), the prose is incredibly cryptic and the narrative abstract. It simultaneously provided a lot of context behind many of the songs, and left me with even more questions. As a fan, this is everything I could've asked for. But as a reader, this does feel a bit amateur.
While the opening of this story is incredibly vivid and poetic in its description, the middle section of this story is wildly inconsistent. It often feels like a first draft, with poor grammar and spelling making an already hard to read story even harder. The POV of the narrator also shifts around frequently, but their voices blend together to be indecipherable. And I wouldn't say the comatose dream of Cerpin Taxt has no purpose to the narrative (this isn't an "it's all a dream" story), but it does stray far into unreality to a point where it feels like it's too far removed from the psyche of Cerpin.
Despite the heavy connection to its source material, I do think this story can stand on its own. It may lack the brilliant cacophany of sound that the instrumentals bring to compliment the cryptic lyrics of the album, but it makes up for it with a unique voice that may take a couple re-reads to fully appreciate its ability to paint a mental picture.
The Mars Volta is one of my favorite bands of all time, and their debut album, De-Loused in the Comatorium, is still my favorite of their discography. I can't believe I didn't find this companion book earlier.
This companion book is an expansion on the story of the album, in which a man overdoses on rat poison and morphine, and has grand visions during his coma, before waking up and committing suicide. Much like the lyrics (which are interspersed through this book in sections that serve as intermissions between passages), the prose is incredibly cryptic and the narrative abstract. It simultaneously provided a lot of context behind many of the songs, and left me with even more questions. As a fan, this is everything I could've asked for. But as a reader, this does feel a bit amateur.
While the opening of this story is incredibly vivid and poetic in its description, the middle section of this story is wildly inconsistent. It often feels like a first draft, with poor grammar and spelling making an already hard to read story even harder. The POV of the narrator also shifts around frequently, but their voices blend together to be indecipherable. And I wouldn't say the comatose dream of Cerpin Taxt has no purpose to the narrative (this isn't an "it's all a dream" story), but it does stray far into unreality to a point where it feels like it's too far removed from the psyche of Cerpin.
Despite the heavy connection to its source material, I do think this story can stand on its own. It may lack the brilliant cacophany of sound that the instrumentals bring to compliment the cryptic lyrics of the album, but it makes up for it with a unique voice that may take a couple re-reads to fully appreciate its ability to paint a mental picture.