At The Drive-In: Acrobatic Tenement/ Relationship Of Command

Post-hardcore pioneers revisit their alpha and omega

You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

It is heartbreaking that this band is no longer producing material and the reissue of their two most topical albums does little to soothe things, especially now Cedric Bixler-Zavala has announced the end of The Mars Volta.

Influenced by the likes of Fugazi and Sunny Day Real Estate, this Texan band housed the anger of Rage Against The Machine and the free spirit of Pink Floyd.

Equal parts complex, cryptic and euphoric, the re-release of their 1996 debut, Acrobatic Tenement [8] and astonishing final album Relationship Of Command [9] will be through their own label. They never fully captured their jarring guitar attacks and confrontational live intensity on record, but not owning these two albums is sacrilege.