Octahedron - The Mars Volta

[probablyoliver]

I figure we've got enough Volta fans around to have a seperate thread for this.

Just into the second track now, 'Teflon' and I'm already in love with it. 'Since We've Been Wrong' is so different to anything I've ever heard from them before, and actually has quite a hefty Zeppelin vibe to it. Absolutely stunning opener. Teflon seems pretty good too, again it's a lot slower to anything previous, but that's not a bad thing by any means. It seems they've finally got round to releasing a proper album, and not just some mentalists day dream.

So far it could go either way as far as how good it is, because I've got a really bad feeling it's going to go the way of Amputecture and I'm going to end up hating it.

[TheRyno]

Is it out today?

I listened to a few tracks on their website and dug it but didn't blow my mind. But I liked Amputecture and what I heard just sounded like a continuation. The more I listened to Frances The Mute, the more I hated it because it was just "Hey, lets do four good songs and then a bunch of random noodling for 10-15 minutes inbetween them!" With Amputecture, I felt that the random wankery was cut to a minimum and the focus was back on the song structure.

[YI]

I really don't get Ryno's comments to be fair...I mean, everyone to their own opinion, but the general feeling always seems to be that it's "Amputecture" that has ridiculous amounts of 'wankery' and 'jamming' for no apparent reason. In fact that's what annoyed me the most about the album, and I just haven't been able to get into it. "Frances The Mute" on the otherhand (which I adore), the most common complaint seems to be there's too many sections where 'not enough' happens, and there's the bits with the ridiculous static etc...but "Frances..." to me is easily their best album, if I want to listen to some Mars Volta I tend to go to "De-Loused..." but if I have time to listen to/appreciate an album, it's always straight to "Frances...". I adore the way it builds, how everything's so intricately put together, gorgeous.

"Amputecture" had far too much wankery, "Bedlam..." was a return to the shorter song structure that I really appreciated, but the songs were fucking shit. This album is a lot more chilled out, and absolutely gorgeous, a definite return to form.

Was really disappointed when I saw them live...although, as time goes on...I don't think they were as shit as maybe I 'remember' them to be (I may have overindulged to attempt to get myself in the right frame of mind)...I do remember being very underwhelmed though, but I doubt they're "The worst live band I have ever seen" that I keep churning.

Edited June 17, 2009 by YI

[Crybaby Bunting]

Cotopaxi is a free download single on the Amazon MP3 store atm, It's pretty much tempted me to check out the whole album... despite not knowing much about the Mars Volta at all >_<

[Herr Matzat]

I´ll finaly see them live again this weekend... sadly only a festivall show so it will be like 2 songs

[Crybaby Bunting]

On the plus side, you'll be listening to them for 14 hours

[TheRyno]

I really don't get Ryno's comments to be fair...I mean, everyone to their own opinion, but the general feeling always seems to be that it's "Amputecture" that has ridiculous amounts of 'wankery' and 'jamming' for no apparent reason. In fact that's what annoyed me the most about the album, and I just haven't been able to get into it. "Frances The Mute" on the otherhand (which I adore), the most common complaint seems to be there's too many sections where 'not enough' happens, and there's the bits with the ridiculous static etc...but "Frances..." to me is easily their best album, if I want to listen to some Mars Volta I tend to go to "De-Loused..." but if I have time to listen to/appreciate an album, it's always straight to "Frances...". I adore the way it builds, how everything's so intricately put together, gorgeous.

"Amputecture" had far too much wankery, "Bedlam..." was a return to the shorter song structure that I really appreciated, but the songs were fucking shit. This album is a lot more chilled out, and absolutely gorgeous, a definite return to form.

Oh don't get me wrong, Amputecture had plenty of wankery. But I don't know if it was how it was planned but it seemed like they would do a solid song on one track then leave the wankery for the next one, making it easy to skip over if I don't want to hear it. Frances, on the other hand, if I wanted to listen to a song (of which there were only 4), I had to either wait through 15 minutes of static and random crap, or hold on the Fast Forward button for a good couple minutes. I do like Frances, but listening to it all the way through became quite the chore.

[livid]

I think it's awesome and have been listening to it a fair amount lately. I've just gotten into them in the past year or so but they've quickly become one of my favorite bands.