The Mars Volta - Octahedron

"I'm the Matchstick that you'll never loose"

This is TMV stripped down. The "acoustic" Volta album that they've been threatening fans with for years. Obviously it turned out it wasn't actually acoustic, but it might of well have been. For the Mars Volta, this IS acoustic. Basically all Volta songs are pop songs, structurally speaking. After they have created the basic foundation of the song, they add ass the crazy complex shit to 'disguise' it. this is an insight to the song crafting process of the band as these songs are the songs before the "crazy shit"

You hear it right away on the first track Since We've Been Wrong which is a an epic ballad that compared in sound and epic-ness to Televators from Deloused In The Comatorium. It's soft and beautiful, yet powerfully emotional.

Teflon takes things in the opposite direction. This dark track features a pounding drum groove thats in an exceptionally strange time signature, even for The Mars Volta. Halo Of Nembutals is where things get really enjoyable. It starts off really erie and you wonder where it's going to go, waiting for it to explode with raw energy, and then it does, into one of the best Volta chorus ever. Now that they are making straight up pop tracks, they get to write all the catchy chorus they want. Cotopaxi is simply the new Goliath. Its loud and it throbs with energy.

Desperate Graves has Cedric singing a little weird. It's kind of lame the first time you hear it because he's never sung like that in anything else before. But it fits the track perfectly especially against Omars waving guitar effect. Again, the chorus is perfect.

Within the last two tracks, the band experiments with new sounds and techniques. They have sound electronic drumming with borders IDM and song almost completely structureless songs. You pretty much go through the whole album without hearing one insane guitar solo by Omar but you don't even notice it until you hear the only one on the album at the end of the last track. It's awesome obviously. Your face will melt.

Over all it's the Mars Volta's most pop and 'pretty' sounding album. It's the most easy listen of any of their works and it's a great follow up to Bedlam in Goliath which I hated (If I could hate a Volta album) If you're a fan of the band and can't get into the new direction, give it time, it will grow on you.