By Scott Jeffrey
When I think of The Mars Volta, I think of them as a band which seems to stick with some but be completely lost and hated by others. A good interpretation of their sound is to watch the segment of Get Him to The Greek where Jonah Hill dances along with one of their tracks briefly. The EL Peso Texas, band draws on many different influences across multiple genres to create psychedelic, experimental, progressive rock operas. Now it’s been three years since Octahedron, and I for one am anxious to see just how weird the band’s new release Noctourniquet, can be.
The Whip Hand, the opening track, starts off on sort of a down note. Where you would expect blasting guitars and really punchy number to start the album, there are barely any to be found. Track uses some really unusual drum patterns and some industrial electronic sounds. Where squealing guitars would normally lie, a synthesizer drones.
Dyslexicon carries more of the older Mars Volta sound. It doesn’t really seem to rock too hard until near the end of the song but it does sound closer to the older stuff and some of the opening tracks throwing away a lot of the electronic sounds for actual guitars.
Empty Vessels Make The Loudest Sound is a ballad of sorts. Starting with a very traditional style and then trading back and forth with the maniacal electronic mess during the choruses.
Molochwalker is probably the closest thing to the old Mars Volta sound that is on this album. With the wicked fast drum line, heavily distorted guitars, and squealing vocals. I would expect this to be guaranteed radio single. It’s catchy and the breakdown is pure and classic, bad ass psychedelic rock.
Vedamalady uses a classical guitar and a synth that sounds like it belongs in a haunted house And it’s not particularly where did all. It’s got a fairly regular chord progression, and the drum line doesn’t go all crazy. It’s basically just a slow rock tune and a catchy one at that. All in all a song like this is quite unexpected on a Mars Volta album.
5.5/10
Take away thought: Although a few songs impressed me, I really like the sound of the crazy drums and crazy guitars and crazy vocals that the Mars Volta usually has. Bringing in a bunch of electronics leaves an interesting new sound but I found it kind of hard to get into. It’s good that they are trying to branch out, but I think it might leave a lot of fans disappointed.
No comments:
Post a Comment