When Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala silenced At the Drive-In in the midst of its popular emergence, there was no question that the two artists would return with new music as exciting as their previous band. However, there was plenty of discussion in corners and over drinks about what, exactly, that music would sound like. It was clear that much more was happening under those Afros than biting, post-hardcore anthemics laced with psychedelia. In 2002, Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala returned with the single "Tremulant," attributed to their new project, the Mars Volta. Its shifting soundscapes were certainly a hint, but with the Mars Volta's ambitious De-Loused in the Comatorium, it's clear the ATDI expats' mushroom-headed hairstyles hide bulging brains that pulsate with ideas, influences, and a fever-pitch desire to take music forward, even if they're occasionally led too far afield for the audience to follow. A concept album of sorts, Comatorium is a swirling ten-song cycle inspired by Julio Venegas, a childhood friend of the band who followed his fearlessness to a self-inflicted end. While the storyline is bewilderingly obtuse, it nevertheless unifies the album's wildly shifting sounds. Thrumming, Led Zeppelin-inspired pounding gives way to the thump of a free jazz bass punctuated with blasts of guitar squelch in "Drunkship of Lanterns." Meanwhile, the windswept landscape of "Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)" unfolds over seven minutes, revealing remnants of ATDI, fissures of glittering, confessional pop, and layer upon sedimentary layer of a shrieking Bixler-Zavala, harmonizing with himself over vintage 1970s organ. All of this gives way to a gentle landslide of an outro, where an expressive guitar solo that would make Carlos Santana scratch his head threads its way between brooding bass. Later, Red Hot Chili Peppers secret weapon John Frusciante stops by for "Cicatriz ESP," which undergoes a full stop after its relatively straightforward (for these guys, anyway) beginning, reentering the atmosphere to the fiery strains of at least three concurrently soloing guitarists. Though the brief-by-comparison ATDI-ish "Inertiatic ESP" acts as an opposite to the epic "Cicatriz ESP," the band's ardent desire for re-creation is defined in the latter song's shifting folds and faults. But while De-Loused in the Comatorium may well remove the stigma from the prog and art rock forms it suggests, and is certainly a monument to unbridled creativity, it can also be seen as bombastic and indulgent -- much like prog has been in the past. Comatorium is exciting, to be sure. But in a way, it avoids answering that old question about the Mars Volta: What will the music sound like?© Johnny Loftus /TiVo

Of all the multitudinous highways and byways down which the enterprising Deep Purple collector can travel, none, perhaps, is so surprising as The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast, Purple bassist Roger Glover's first "solo" album, and -- almost incidentally -- one of the most delightful children's records ever made. Yes, a children's record. In 1973, Glover was approached about creating a musical adaptation of artist Alan Aldridge and poet William Plomer's book of the same name -- a commission that surprised him, but which he nevertheless accepted. The book itself is delightful and, while Glover's work is unquestionably more heavily flavored by the near-psychedelia of the illustrations, the spirit of the text is retained as well, to create an album that stands among the few truly successful musical adaptations of an existing story yet committed to vinyl. Although Glover, as the album's premier composer, takes the bulk of the credit for this success, his co-conspirators, too, merit praise. Convening what resembles one of the greatest all-star lineups in heavy metal history -- and then banning them from even glancing toward their usual territory -- Glover is joined by Purple stalwarts David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes, future Rainbow frontman Ronnie James Dio, session stars Eddie Hardin and Tony Ashton, soul singer Jimmy Helms, Roxy Music's Eddie Jobson and John Gustafson, and three quarters of funk-rock aspirants Fancy. Each was given his own role to play and the resultant album is a tremendous mishmash of musical styles, from folky balladeering to psychedelic whimsy, but leaning most heavily toward an early-'70s pop/rock vibe -- for some reason, one could imagine the early Queen spending an awful lot of time listening to The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast. Given the heavily narrative nature of the project, it is best listened to in one session -- a handful of tracks certainly exist more to carry the tale than make a musical impact. Highlights, however, leap out from across the platter, with the macabre "Old Blind Mole" and the positively buoyant "Love Is All" the twin extremes around which the action revolves. Gustafson's hard rock "Watch out for the Bat," meanwhile, must surely have induced nightmares within the album's younger fans, while Dio's closing "Homeward" all but predicts the course of arena rock during the '80s. [The original vinyl packs 19 tracks; the 25th-Anniversary CD adds one, the European B-side "Little Chalk Blue," together with a fabulous enhanced multimedia clip ("Love Is All" again) taken from a projected animated TV series. It's a great package, as well as a chance to reacquaint yourself with one of childhood's most treasured tales.] © Dave Thompson /TiVo

Cannibal Corpse emerged fully formed out of Florida's famous death metal swamp with this one. All the trademarks are in place, from the B-horror movie album cover art to the ludicrously over the top lyrics -- "Brains devoured in a frenzied slaughter, thirst for gore nothing more/Bile is dripping, puss from wounds, as the coroner drinks it down." Chris Barnes growls his vocals like Satan on a diet of razor blades and paint thinner. The playing is uniformly savage and, alas, uniformly one-dimensional. On paper Cannibal Corpse are the perfect death metal act, but in reality, their pursuit of lyrical and musical extremes was something of a joke from this first release on. Too many tempo changes; too much monochromatic double-bass slugging; not nearly enough variety, texture, or interesting guitar work. Cannibal Corpse's single-minded devotion to their cause is admirable; too bad the results of that dedication are not very interesting. Eaten Back to Life isn't much more than death metal for dummies. Try Deicide (whose vocalist Glen Benton guests on background vocals here) instead.© Leslie Mathew /TiVo

Modern travelers who make their pilgrimages to the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain, think of the origins of the practice as medieval. But in fact the pilgrimage has been an unbroken tradition ever since the legend grew (even the Catholic Encyclopedia admits that there are factual problems with it) that the remains of St. James were buried there. This release from soprano and harpist Arianna Savall with the Belgian historical-instrument group La Fenice is illustrated handsomely with a map of the roads leading from various parts of France to Compostela. It's quite detailed, almost a Rand McNally road map of its time, and this in the year 1648, the year the Thirty Years' War ended. Director Jean Tubéry, who also plays the flutes in the wind-heavy arrangements, points out that he's not trying to create a historical reconstruction of music that French pilgrims of 1648 would have heard; some of it is chronologically or geographically wrong. The association is looser, with a program of music somehow connected with St. James or with stops along the way (the Rhône region, Languedoc and Gascony, Aragon and Castile, and finally the gates of Santiago). Many of the sections are introduced by church bells, but both sacred and secular pieces are included, with a few instrumental dances and plenty of the percussion that's still missing from a great many albums of music of this period. The program's place on the continuum running from historical to speculative is a bit slippery, and there's no real indication of why some of the music was included. But Savall is in fine voice; much of the music, especially the pieces in the French and Spanish regional languages, is both unfamiliar and attractive; and the sense of a musical journey comes through. Recommended, especially for listeners making any version of the France-to-Spain pilgrimage.© TiVo