Note: Red Hot Chili Pepper John Frusciante plays the majority of the guitar parts on the album.
Sound: Dense and epic musical journeys that include in-the-stratosphere vocals, cascading guitar lines, hyper drum fills, throbbing organs and freaky sound manipulations flying all over the place, plus squealing horns pop up sporadically. There’s ample time (probably too much time, if you ask me) to catch your breath, though, with chill-out sections coming in the form of psychedelic atmosphere, free jazz and an acoustic ballad. At a moment’s notice, they’ll launch back into their aggressive and eclectic prog rock.
Heavy Rotation tracks: “Vermicide”
Medium Rotation tracks: “Day of the Baphomets” and sections of “Tetragrammaton”; “Meccamputechture” and “Viscera Eyes”
Recommended: Though Amputechture is not a single-narrative concept album like their first two, it feels more cohesive than their debut, De-Loused in the Comatorium. In fact, it feels as unified as their epic masterpiece, Frances the Mute (My #7 Album of 2005). The big difference, though, is that Frances the Mute featured the Top 2 songs of 2005 (“L’Via L’Viaquez” and “The Widow,”) in my opinion. Plus, it had several other uber-highlights that made up for the lulls and interstitial noise sections that bloated the running time to 77 minutes. Amputechture has several skippable sections, and the highs simply aren’t as high or as stunning as they were last time. Don’t me get me wrong, there are many great, worthwhile moments on here. These 70+ minutes of fiercely challenging music just aren’t as mind-blowing as they were last time.
Grade: B

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