Ultimately, I enjoy Curse of the Forlorn much more than I had Unending Futility. The lead guitar tone has that indescribably Finnish feeling to it, slightly otherworldly and ethereal. The lead guitars conversely remind me the most of finnish acts, not only in composition but in tone. The album sidelines being an outright pastiche with their approach to lead playing, however. The lurking riffs never stop marching forward with a similar rotten tempo as we would be used to from big parts of the early Dutch scene. The promo sheet mentions Asphyx in the FFO Section, and I honestly think Asphyx are a much better comparison than the usual death metal points of reference. If the slow sections are the goal, it makes sense to play fast also to make those slow sections seem like their most dirge-like. Like many good death doom records, Curse of the Forlorn knows what contrast is. Yet, I can't feel that the band has told similarly personal stories much better in the past - and this is partly thanks to the more extravagant and sprawling elements of their sound that the band has broken with. Fundamentally, The Mars Volta never transcends the trappings of pop and neither does it seem like doing that is the bands intent. It is probably my distaste of the inherent structures of a pop record that makes me so frustrated with this album. I am also aware that this is, in many ways, a personal record and dealing with Bixler-Zavala's families struggle with the abusive practices of the Church of Scientology. I am aware that the band has cited the former breakup and hiatus of the band as a reason for wanting a clean slate and to break with all their progressive rock influences for it. The Mars Volta join the ranks of bands who have made their self-titled effort their most marketable one, which I've always found a frustrating and cynical trend. The Mars Volta is, when it comes down to it, a latin pop record and no amount of superficial extravagance can really hide this fact.
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