The debut full-length by the Mars Volta was produced by Rick Rubin and featured Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on bass, the group’s own bassist having quit prior to the sessions, and it’s an ultra-high-energy fusion of post-Santana Latin rock, explosive hardcore and postpunk, and a surprisingly deep vein of dub. The first full track, “Intertiatic ESP,” is a headlong blast that’s like singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist Omar Rodriguez Lopez’s previous band, At The Drive-In, covering Led Zeppelin’s “Achilles Last Stand.” From there, they journey into a dark tunnel of psychedelia, jazz-rock, throbbing bass and disorienting electronic noise, while Cedric shrieks and jabbers impressionistic nonsense. But what makes this such a ferocious debut, and a high-water mark they’d never reach again, is that the songs throw in one memorable singalong hook after another.

– Phil Freeman