The Mars Volta, 'Octahedron'

Release date: June 23, 2009
Record label: Warner Bros.
Official Web site: http://themarsvolta.com/
 
The buzz: Possibly the oddest band currently recording on a major label, psychedelic-prog rockers the Mars Volta reinvent themselves for their fifth album, shedding a few members, de-emphasizing the concept album approach and (they claim) stripping down the production and wild musical flights of fancy. Or do they?
 
The verdict: While “Octahedron” is a bit quieter than the previous MV releases, this is still a chaotic album full of distortion, seven-minute-plus songs and little in the way of accessibility (the first single, the acoustic-tinged psych-rocker “Since We’ve Been Wrong,” needs a whole five minutes before drums even kick in). Overall, the record sounds like Zeppelin on a really weird acid trip, and it takes more than half the album before a real scorchin’, focused rock song (“Cotopaxi”) comes to pass. Longtime fans may eat it up, but the whole thing feels even less coherent than the band’s previous work.
 
Did you know? Recently, and rather surprisingly, Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodriguez-López and singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala suggested that a reunion with their former bandmates in punk/noise pioneers At the Drive-In wasn’t out of the question, despite that band’s incredibly acrimonious breakup in 2001. However, estranged ATDI member/Sparta frontman Jim Ward responded to that with the following; “I don’t think I’ll be answering any questions or doing interviews anymore, thank you very much.”

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