THE MARS VOLTA
Octahedron
(Warner Bros.)
Rating: 
Since their days fronting art-punkers At the Drive- In, the men of the Mars Volta—singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitar hero Omar Rodriguez-Lopez—have relished the art of surprise: jazz rhythms colliding with metal riffage or proggy excess. So of course the first song on Octahedron is a delicate, dare-we-say lovable ballad. In fact, the most surprising thing about Octahedron is how unsurprising it is—relatively speaking. Plus, the entire record clocks in at 49 minutes—by Mars Volta standards, that’s an eyeblink.
