Sure, the Mars Volta might be one of the best examples of prog-rock's comeback, but it's not necessarily fair to categorize the band that way. In spirit and method, the Mars Volta is more like a modern-day sonic descendant of notorious surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky. Like Jodorowsky, principal members Cedric Bixler Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-López craft elaborate works of art that are specifically designed to shatter the audience's notions of sanity and reality. Unsurprisingly, the Mars Volta's material is rife with self-indulgence. But the band pulls off a coup in the way that it has been able to make its otherwise remote, abstract art translate to a wide audience. And, like the long line of deranged artists preceding them, there is something irresistibly thrilling about following Bixler Zavala and Rodriguez-López over the edge.
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