OCTAHEDRON

My first experience with the Mars Volta was their debut album, Deloused in the Comatorium. While I enjoyed the album, I found that the music was not too varied, and I wasn't sure I wanted to buy any future Mars Volta albums. They seemed to me like they would likely be more of the same.

When I heard that Mars Volta's new album was "acoustic" (by their standards), I grew interested in it. It promised that it would not sound exactly like Deloused.

My first listen through this album, I was very happy with what I had heard. Cedric's vocals now had a lot more variety to them than the screaming of Deloused; it was as if he had started where Geddy Lee started, but advanced further than Geddy ever did. His voice on this album just has so much more texture and variance than it did at the start that I can't help but love it.

The music itself has a lot more feel to it than before as well. The guitars range from actual acoustic tracks to hard rockers like Cotopaxi. There are more obvious effects than in Deloused as well, which give the music more variety than just quiet and loud.

High points for me include With Twilight As My Guide, a quiet, eerie song where Cedric's vocals really excel and the guitars and effects support the song quite nicely. Cotopaxi is another nice song, although this one (along with Desperate Graves) rocks a bit harder. Teflon is a nice track that also demonstrates Cedrics singing to great effect, with a somewhat eclectic chorus.

The rest of the album is also full of good music, but overall, no amazing heights are reached with this album. A pleasant, mostly-acoustic album that gets a solid three star rating.