The Mars Volta’s First Album Changed El Paso Forever 20 Years Ago

On June 24th, 2003, The Mars Volta would release their debut album, De-Loused in the Comatorium. Since it's release 20 years ago, not only has it been regarded as one of the best progressive rock albums of all time, without a doubt the album helped put El Paso, Texas on the map in the music world.

How important was Deloused in the Comatorium?

After the break up of At The Drive-In, Cedric Bixler-Zavala & Omar Rodriguez-Lopez would form The Mars Volta in 2001. Along with the help of Jeremy Ward, the two would get some incredible musicians to join the band; Isaiah "Ikey" Owens on keyboards, Jon Theodore on drums & would even enlist the help of John Frusciante & Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to create history.

With songs like "Roulette Dares (The Haunt of)", "Inertiatic ESP", "Televators", it's clear the band had created something truly unique. The awards for De-Loused in the Comatorium were endless as well:

• "Drunkship of Lanterns" was ranked in the top 100 of Rolling Stone's Great Guitar Songs of All Time (it was #91).
• Guitar World ranked De-Loused in the Comatorium at #55 on their October 2006 issue of the 100 Greatest Guitar Albums of all time.
• In 2014 it was ranked by Ranker readers as the 9th greatest drumming album in progressive rock.
• And finally Rolling Stone placed it De-Loused at #25 in their list of the 50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time.

While the later albums would have higher chart success (Deloused would peak at #39 on the Billboard 200), the fact remained that they struck gold right out of the gate.

The critics weren't the only ones to love The Mars Volta either; today the fans still hold Deloused as one of the greatest albums to date. Channels like Rocked & GabeothyInReal have posted videos on the importance of the record. And that goes for their fellow musicians too; you can see a list of musicians who have shown love for The Mars Volta here.

The Mars Volta are still regarded as an important El Paso name

Back in the 2000s, The Mars Volta WERE the name people associate from El Paso. While The Pissing Razors & At The Drive-In did (and still do) represent El Paso, Texas back then; it's no doubt that The Mars Volta were the biggest name from the 915. We would see names like The Royalty & Cigarettes After Sex start to represent El Paso in the mid to late 2000s but...I would argue that if it wasn't for The Mars Volta, the El Paso music scene would take much longer for people to stand up & take notice.

It's definitely possible that the local music scene would've been caught the attention; but if it wasn't for albums like De-Loused, who knows how long it would've taken the world to really take note of the talent in & around El Paso.

Thank you Mars Volta for releasing music in the last 20 years & by representing El Paso to the world.

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