The Mars Volta- Amputechture

I never really took too much interest when The Mars Volta first came out. I liked their two singles off their old album "Frances the Mute". "The Widow", and "L'Via L'Viaquez" are paired up on that album. I downloaded them and was in love with them, this faded away eventually as i divulged into heavier less alternative music (then to emotive, screamo, than metal). I recently got this copied from my friends computer and i was somewhat interested. It wasn't until one day when i watched The Henry Rollins Show that i finally got into The Mars Volta. I heard them play the 16:41 long epic "Tetragrammaton". It was grasping, progressive, and extremely artistic. The vocal range on Cedric Bixler-Zavala is out of this world. He has a nice ambience but can also have the power to blast in singing up to a high C-note, maybe even higher. Throughout the album you hear alot of culture in the album, predominantly mexican (the band is Long Beach, California; but the families of the founding members are from mexico and/or spain). You can also hear a fusion here and their of american and egyptian. The saxophones, keyboards, percussion, guitar effects, effects on vocals, all this accoutrement really spices up the whole album. They have used many musicians at their disposal, even John Frusciante of The Red Hot Chilli Peppers (who has been recording all their rhythm guitars since 2002, and some lead). I just found out a new album of theirs came out on the 29th of last month and the tracklisting surprises me, they cut down their song times by alot which is dissapointing, but ill take a listen and expect something great.
Overall Rating 10/10