User Score
8.4

Universal acclaim- based on 153 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Negative: 8 out of 153

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  1. SethC
    Feb 2, 2008
    6
    This is apparantly their pop record. almost every song follows verse/chorus/verse/bridge/chorus. for the first time that i've listened to a mars volta record, i was skipping songs on first listen. they sound like a radio metal band now, and not the geniuses who made frances the mute. very, very dissapointing. also, i'd like to tell the drummer: "we get it. you're a This is apparantly their pop record. almost every song follows verse/chorus/verse/bridge/chorus. for the first time that i've listened to a mars volta record, i was skipping songs on first listen. they sound like a radio metal band now, and not the geniuses who made frances the mute. very, very dissapointing. also, i'd like to tell the drummer: "we get it. you're a superhuman drummer. but i'm human, and i don't like constant drumfills. so how about takin a cue from their old drummer, and play with some regard for what the rest of the band is doing." Expand
  2. GlenH.
    Mar 8, 2008
    6
    Some very strong musicality on this record, most evident perhaps from TMV's new drummer. Still, I'm unable to see what all the hubub is about. The vocal 'melodies' are contrived, repititious, and boring. Sure the band rocks, but the frontman lets me down. If TMV could take one step back from being so 'experimental' and write something not quite to "far Some very strong musicality on this record, most evident perhaps from TMV's new drummer. Still, I'm unable to see what all the hubub is about. The vocal 'melodies' are contrived, repititious, and boring. Sure the band rocks, but the frontman lets me down. If TMV could take one step back from being so 'experimental' and write something not quite to "far removed" from whatever they're trying so hard to be removed from, I think they would really break into the hearts of so many more music lovers (not necessarily the masses). Expand
  3. EinarJ.
    Apr 10, 2008
    6
    The album isn't bad, and is great music, but, to be frank, it is just not appealing. They seem to be starved of their previous creativity and it's by no means immense. 'Ilyena' is quite amazing though.
  4. AidanK
    Feb 16, 2008
    4
    I found this record really disapointing, the tracks seem to sound very similar to one another, which is reall yquite surprising for this band. I think their first two albums are much better,
  5. HC
    Feb 20, 2008
    4
    Like Muse, you can only take it in bursts. But since the songs are like 7 minutes long, it's almost no good at all.
  6. JA
    Feb 27, 2008
    4
    Someone call Rick Ruben to save TMV from Fusion of confusion.
  7. OllieH
    Feb 13, 2008
    5
    I used to be a huge Mars Volta fan. They were building an amazing sound album after album, and I think Amputecture was their best album yet, but this sounds like a pile of sonic mush. None of the songs are memorable at all and they have lost the element of progression and suspense that their previous albums had.
  8. Sep 6, 2010
    6
    this album had incredible potential. it could have been the best Mars Volta album since Deloused. the combination of Omar's incredible, busy, almost schizophrenic (in a good way) songwriting, and Pridgen's considerable drum talent, this album could have been phenomenal. however, the constant effects on Cedric's voice ruin the entire experience for me. don't get me wrong, i like some of thethis album had incredible potential. it could have been the best Mars Volta album since Deloused. the combination of Omar's incredible, busy, almost schizophrenic (in a good way) songwriting, and Pridgen's considerable drum talent, this album could have been phenomenal. however, the constant effects on Cedric's voice ruin the entire experience for me. don't get me wrong, i like some of the songs. i love Wax Simulacra, Goliath, Things Behind the Sun, and half of Tourniquet Man. However, i will take the beautiful, unadulterated vocals of Octahedron a thousand times over before this. Collapse
Metascore
66

Generally favorable reviews - based on 31 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 31
  2. Negative: 4 out of 31
  1. This should have been the album where the Mars Volta either wore the formula down to nothing or abruptly turned in a different direction, but instead the band created an album that nearly perfects what they've been working toward.
  2. Most of the time, however, the band makes a righteous racket that straddles the worlds of prog rock, funk, fusion jazz and world music, with Eastern motifs spicing 'Aberinkula' and a bit of cosmic blues making its way into 'Conjugal Burns.'
  3. For the most part, this is the heaviest record that they’ve recorded and the most far-out as well.