The Mars Volta - Amputechture

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NME.COM feature on The Mars Volta - Amputechture album including album review, artwork, tracks, listen now, tour dates, discography and more.

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Album Review

Release date: 11 September 2006

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The Mars Volta - Amputechture: Wikipedia Album Entry

Amputechture is the third full length studio album by The Mars Volta released on September 12, 2006. The album debuted at #9 on the Billboard Top 200 selling over 59,000 copies in its opening week.

The album was recorded in Los Angeles, CA, El Paso, TX and Melbourne, Australia in late 2005 and early 2006. It was produced by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and mixed by Rich Costey. Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante plays on all tracks apart from "Asilos Magdalena".

Although most of Amputechture was newly recorded, the band also incorporated older material into some of the album's tracks. "Viscera Eyes" evolved from a song originally written by Omar while in At the Drive-In. "Day of the Baphomets" uses lyrics and melody from "A Plague Upon Your Hissing", an un-released song that was recorded for De-Loused in the Comatorium.

This album is the band's first studio recording with former At the Drive-In bandmate Paul Hinojos and is also the last with drummer Jon Theodore.

Amputechture marks the first time The Mars Volta have created an album without a single unifying narrative. Also, in an MTV interview posted on July 25th, Cedric Bixler-Zavala said inspirations for the album were very diverse, ranging from the recent U.S. immigration marches to the news stories of possessed nuns. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez has stated that the word "Amputechture" (a portmanteau of amputate) was coined by the late Jeremy Michael Ward.

Unlike The Mars Volta's first two albums, Amputechture contains no original artwork; the background of each page in the album booklet is a section of Jeff Jordan's "Big Mutant".
The artwork was originally to be done by Storm Thorgerson, who designed the covers for their first two LPs, De-Loused in the Comatorium and Frances the Mute. Storm's cover featured a picture of a nun standing in a field warding off the presence of a giant floating skull decorated in a mirrorball fashion. For reasons unknown, the band was unhappy with the outcome and used Jeff Jordan's art instead.





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