College Times

Issue date: 7/2/09 Section: Music

Media Credit: Michael G Rizzi

If you would have talked to critics after The Mars Volta's last album, The Bedlam in Goliath, the band was going to save prog-rock. They won a Grammy. They got rave reviews in Rolling Stone. Basically, the entire music industry was tingly in the pants for The Mars Volta.

Based on their newest release, Octahedron, that sensation may be a bit over-the-top. The album is perplexing with long silences - presumably to enhance the effect of the soon-to-come in-your-face rock fest.

In the making of Octahedron, the band called this their "unplugged" and "acoustic" album. But the disc is still very much plugged-in and not acoustic at all.

The epic slowed-down ballad "With Twilight as My Guide," might be what the band was referring to as "unplugged." It's a clear winner on the album, despite lacking the bob-your-head nature of the Voltas' average song.

Here's to hoping by "Twilight," they don't mean the mind-numbing tween guide to codependency. Otherwise, we might see The Mars Volta on the upcoming soundtrack to "Twilight's" cinematic sequel, "New Moon." Then the world will officially end.

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