OCTAHEDRON

The Mars Volta

Heavy Prog

3.68 | 466 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Octahedron is the definition of a grower, each listen brings the album closer to your heart and rewards you with a deeper and fuller appreciation of the superb music and lyrics on offer.

The unusual thing however; is that with any other Mars Volta cd the repeated listenings unveil hidden saxophone parts, guitar licks you hadn't heard before or hidden layers of vocals that you missed while concentrating on the drums.

With Octahedron its what you don't hear which becomes so impressive with each new listen. The focus, clarity and purity of this album is what's breath taking; The band likened it to an acoustic album not because of the instrumentation but because of the stripped down feel and intimacy that this record has.

Opener 'Since We've Been Wrong,' may feel like a ponderous Televators-alike when you first skeptically listen to the album, but the haunting vocal performance and unusually decipherable lyrics will at first challange your skepticism, impress you and finally make you fall in love. That is the perfect example of why this album is so magnificent, songs like 'With Twilight As My Guide,' and 'Halo of Nembutals,' insinuate themselves into your brain and slowly wrap themselves around the pleasure centres.

The album is however no all-ballad oddity with no power, single 'Cotapaxi,'is a frantic punky song that would fit right in on The Bedlam in Goliath and album closer 'Luciforms,' features an impressive Omar solo along with some fine complicated material that stops the album from feeling like a complete departure from tradition.

Some fans may be dismissive of this record because they wanted something brash, noisy, busy and confusing but were instead treated to the most deliberate and thoughtful Mars Volta album to date and that's the great thing about the band, you never know what to expect.

Gentlegiantprog | 5/5 | 2010-4-21

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