Their hands secrete a monument. Transient jet lag ecto mimed bison.
Words cast into the uncaring void of the internet.I used to dislike them a lot, but as I "matured" musically, I stopped hating them (which goes hand-in-hand with becoming less hateful altogether). I haven't listened to them in ages, though.
I remember that the vocals annoyed the fuck out of me, but I like plenty of artists with vocals I find somewhat annoying (including the vaguely-similar Coheed and Cambria), so it's not much of a problem for me.
last.fm | RYMCan't ever replace the all-out face melting musical juggernaut that was At The Drive In.
That said, there are far worse follow up bands from splits (and I was never hugely keen on Sparta). In particular, I like De-loused, being the most ATDI like.
...is out to lunch.At The Drive-In >>>>>>>>>>>
The Mars Volta just seems overrated to me. I've heard Bedlam and Deloused in the Comatorium: the first was awful and the second was good but not great.
edited 2nd Jan '11 1:49:19 PM by Neccy60
http://www.last.fm/user/BlueGhost60They're a bit overwrought sometimes and I find it very silly, but mostly they range from pretty good to really good. I like 'em.
I prefer At the Drive-In in pretty much every way, though. One of the best bands ever.
They're off the streets now, and back on the road on the riot trail. http://www.last.fm/user/sca_punkI love them far, far too much. Octahedron was their weakest yet in my humble opinion, but nevertheless an album with some seriously rockin' songs (Cotopaxi, anyone?). I haven't listened to them much recently, but that's because I'd been listening to them so much before.
To be honest, I couldn't pick a favourite out of their other four albums, though I'd say their best song is a toss-up between Goliath, Viscera Eyes or Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt.
Oh, and:
THE KIOSK IN MY TEMPORAL LOBE IS SHAPED LIKE ROSALYN CARTER!
I really quite like The Mars Volta. They're probably one of my favourite bands.
"I can't imagine what Hell will have in store, but I know when I'm there, I won't wander anymore."I find their lyrics remind me of a less Nightmare Fuel version of Skinny Puppy.
Compare:
BLAST AND RAW EYE BLOOD SHOT LID COLOR CONCEALED CRIMSON TRAP THIN LIT MESS CODE STOP THE OCEAN COUNTING BLOOD COUGHING BLOOD AND NEEDLE SYRINGE IN THE ISLAND THIRST OF DROUGHT...
WHEN THE CHANTS HAVE CYCLED HOW CAN I GO WRONG THERE WILL BE NO EVE FOR ADAM IF YOUR APPLES HAVE GONE I NEED A BRAND NEW SKIN...
The 5 geek social fallacies. Know them well.A rather marvelous band. Even more interesting when you consider the fact that Omar is a perfectionist. Every single sound in these songs - despite a lot of it sounding like soundchecking - is there for a reason.
My favorite songs so far is This Apparatus must be Unearthed, Tetragrammaton, Wax Simulacra, Agadez and Televators.
Since this is back again I'll update my opinion on them: I listened to every album and wrote about them for my music blog thing
since then, and I've come around to them much more: Frances The Mute is still kind of my least favorite (though it's got some cool moments and I love the title track that didn't actually end up on the album), but I like the albums they did afterwards a lot better. The albums I kind of ended up liking best were the two ones that seem to be the most divisive among fans though - namely Octahedron and Amputechture.

What does tvtropes think of them? Personally, they're one of those bands I have to be in the mood for to listen to, but when I am...holy balls, they send me to another dimension (even though its not a particularly nice one).