’s fifth studio album, Octahedron, will be released June 23 by Warner Bros. in the U.S. and on June 22 via Mercury Records to the rest of the world.
"It's more mellow. It's a little more of what we consider our 'acoustic' side," singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala told Australian radio station Triple J of the new record. "We know how people can be so linear in their way of thinking, so when they hear [the new album], they're going to say, 'This is not an acoustic album! There's electricity throughout it!' But it's our version," the singer said. "That's what our band does — celebrate mutations. It's our version of what we consider an acoustic album."
Hailed by The New Yorker as "perhaps the most musically adventurous act currently signed to a major label," The Mars Volta formed in 2001. The band's recorded output includes their 2003 debut full-length, De-Loused In The Comatorium, as well as Frances The Mute (2005), Amputechture (2006) and the Grammy-winning The Bedlam In Goliath (2008).
The band are confirmed performers at this year’s Bonnaroo and San Francisco’s Outside Lands Festival.
Here's the track, "Cotopaxi":
This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2009.