Guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala were the creative nucleus of frequently thrilling post-hardcore punks At the Drive-In and prog-rock experimentalists the Mars Volta. Antemasque, their third project together, backed by Flea on bass, is a more straightforward rock album – there are no bafflingly opaque, self-indulgent 32-minute jazz-metal-odyssey concept pieces here. However, for all its greater accessibility, it’s also underwhelming, perhaps because some of the passion that defined their earlier ventures is missing. There are isolated sparks of brilliance – the awkward rhythms of In the Lurch give way to a cathartic chorus – but then it’s followed by 50,000 Kilowatts, which sounds like a poor Bon Jovi pastiche, right down to the “us against the world” lyrics straight from central casting. It’s not a bad album by any stretch, just disappointing compared to past glories.
