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''De-Loused in the Comatorium'' is the debut studio album of the progressive rock band The Mars Volta, released on June 24, 2003 on Gold Standard Laboratories and Universal Records. Based on a written by lead singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala and sound manipulation artist Jeremy Michael Ward, the album is an hour-long tale of Cerpin Taxt, a man who tries to kill himself by overdosing on a mixture of morphine and rat poison. The attempt lands him in a week-long coma during which he experiences visions of humanity and his own psyche. Upon waking, he is dissatisfied with the real world and jumps to his death. The story of Cerpin Taxt is based on the death of El Paso, Texas artist - and Bixler-Zavala's friend - Julio Venegas. (Prophetically enough, founding member Jeremy Michael Ward was found dead of an apparent heroin overdose one month before the album was released.)

''De-Loused'' became, both critically and commercially, the band's biggest hit, eventually selling in excess of 500,000 copies despite limited promotion, and was featured on several critics' "Best of the Year" lists. The album was ranked number 55 on the October 2006 issue of Guitar World magazine's list of the 100 greatest guitar albums of all time. "Drunkship of Lanterns" was named the 91st best guitar song of all-time by Rolling Stone.

The music contained in ''De-Loused'' is distinguished by its enigmatic lyrics, latin and jazz rhythms, and Omar Rodríguez-López's frenetic guitar riffs, which are often harshly dissonant. The title of this album is taken from the lyrics of the song "Eunuch Provocateur" on the band's previous release, ''Tremulant''. The cover artwork is by Storm Thorgerson. The title takes its name from The Kids in the Hall's 1996 film, Brain Candy, where people addicted to the titular drug are sent to a place called "the comatorium" . - Wikipedia

After beloved emo posterboysAt the Drive-In unceremoniously imploded on the cusp of stardom in early 2001,it wasn't going to be easy to refrain from comparing the splinter bands that immediatelyformed in the wake. So let's not even fight it. Most of you have already heardAt the Drive-In's nicely kempt half, Sparta in the form of last year's safe, sterileand ultimately disappointing Wiretap Scars album. So if you missed the dangerand pure explosiveness that made ATD-I's 2000 swansong Relationship of Commandone of the greatest rock albums in recent memory, then De-Loused in the Comatorium,the long-delayed debut album from ATD-I's other half The Mars Volta, will sendyou to the floor writhing in exquisite rock n' roll ecstasy.

This isn't done byany traditional means, of course. While Sparta focused on At the Drive-In's emo-friendlytendencies, The Mars Volta dives headlong into ATD-I's perhaps less obvious progressiverock and psychedelic leanings. But what initially sounds like a portentous recipefor prog disaster actually proves to be a perfect angular rock vehicle for guitaristOmar A. Rodriguez and vocalist Cedric Bixler. Sure Bixler's voice is still anacquired taste, although it's now his falsetto, not his spastic growl, drivingnumbers like "Inertiatic esp" and the catchier-than-SARS "Roulette Dares (ThisIs the Haunt)," where producer Rick Rubin adds his sonic clarity—in addition toeven more hair! And thankfully for hardcore ATD-I obsessives, Rodriguez's pointedguitar acrobatics remain a strong presence. But rather than rocking tired metallicrhythms, he seems more comfortable jamming on the pulsating groove of "Tira Mea Las Arañas" where the Mars Volta seamlessly transform into the world's gnarliestsalsa band. Give round one to the afros.