Blog: New Music Nation

Sound: A significantly mellower and simplified version of The Mars Volta. Last year's The Bedlam in Goliath found the aggressive prog rock experimentalists evolve by creating compositions that resembled long songs, instead of free-form multi-sectioned jams and sound manipulations. But Octahedron is even more streamlined—only 50 minutes of music, considerably fewer errant musical interludes, and fewer layers of instrumentation...