OCTAHEDRON

The Mars Volta is back with a brand new album! This is the album I would recommend to listeners not familiar with the band. It's much more easier listening than for example The Bedlam In Goliath, wich is last year's album. As for me, I think the album starts way to slow with Since We've Been Wrong and the following track, Teflon, sticks to the trend.

More ballads to come! Halo of Nembutals and Twilight as My Guide almost made me fall asleep... But this is where the ballad trend is broken! Cotopaxi finally gives us the weirdness and randomness that we are used to and Desperate Graves is also a piece of upbeat madness.

With Copernicus, we're back in the slow-mo jive and the closing track, Luciforms, is pending between really slow and more upbeat.

Hardcore TMV fans will probably put the album back in the shelf and letting it stay there, but I don't think it's a crappy album at all. Since it's not what we're used to, it will take while to get into it, but I think it's worth a shot! As I mentioned eralier, it's probably a good album to start with for a new listener, but it's still far from "radio friendly".

Good album, but not great. 3 stars!