Album of the Month - Octahedron by Mars Volta

The Mars Volta is a band that pulls from many musical styles; metal, grunge, jazz, funk, latin, psychadelic and is creating new avenues for rock and roll. Their long and epic songs/jams consist of distortion laden instruments, heavy hitting drums, solos screeching and an eagerness to test the limit. Yet, they have an uncanny ability to write a pretty pop song. They are a true progressive rock band that is led by the guitar player and songwriter Omar Rodriguez Lopez as well as vocalist Cedrix Bixler Zavala.

Rodriguez Lopez has an epic ability to write everything from a love song to a prog-metal track. His guitar snarls, bends and screeches in ways that remind one of Hendrix. His solos are trippy and artistic yet raucous and distortion/fuzz laden brilliance.

Baxler Zavala’s lyrics are poetic, strange and mystical. While his vocal pitch might be extremely high and female esque he still translates a pretty yet creepy emotion to the songs. His lyrics invoke strange and vivid imagery. “Vanished to the 5th dimentia, cables of ringworms, have hung themselves, on this I ate…communication shaped, serpent rays in prism tail rainbows escape.”

The rest of the band rotates based on the album or tour. However, recent mainstays consist of Thomas Pridgen on drums, Ikey Owens on keys, Juan Alderete on bass and Marcel Rodriguez Lopez on percussion. Over the course of Mars Volta both John Frusciante and Flea have lent a hand on their albums.

On their most recent album Octahedron they have shed the in your face drums and guitar that were featured on their previous album Bedlam in Goliath. Octahedron is much more pretty then metal and is laced with more sing along choruses, tighter song structures and shorter solo sections. Don’t worry though some tracks extend for minutes, dip in and out of strangeness and the lyrics make one think of wild visions.

Tracks like “Since We’ve Been Wrong” and “Twilight as my Guide” use keyboards, plucked strings and effect pedals to create a new landscape of sweet and eerie experimental rock and roll. “Teflon” is Radiohead and Hendrix in a blender and toughts the catchy line “Let the Wheels Burn.” “Halo of Nembutals” sounds like Bixler is having a conversation with himself and reminds me of an old track “The Widow”. Electronic drums and pianos open new doors for the band on “Copernicus.” “Luciforms” closes the album and builds from a wavering vocal and cymbals to a rockin’ guitar riff. Drums, pianos, electronics and guitar lines splatter around while Bixler Zavalla chants “Feel's like I’ve been running.”

This is a fantastic album by the Mras Volta and I highly recommend it for one and all. It is a great way to truly “get into” this band as the songs are digestable, singable and the guitar and drums rock like Zeppelin.