Late last week, we heard murmurings of prog rock unit the Mars Volta dropping a new full-length sometime this spring, and it turns out the rumours and conspiracies surrounding Noctourniquet are true. The band have just confirmed that the album will arrive on its previously suspected March 27 release date through Warner Bros. That's its cover up above, which we previously saw in miniscule screen-shot format.
A press release explains that the 13-song LP, written by band mainstays Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala and produced by Rodriguez-Lopez, "explores musical territories previously uncharted in the duo's 20 or so years of creating music together." Key cuts are said to include the "hypnotic melodies and borderline electro-ambient washes" of "In Absentia" and the bombastic opening number "The Whip Hand." You can check out the tracklisting below.
Lyrically, Bixler-Zavala will be unveiling a no-doubt trippy yarn about an as-yet-unspecified protagonist, with the story pulling influence from "'80s UK alt-rockers the Godfathers, Superman comic nemesis Solomon Grundy and the Greek myth of Hyacinthus."
Noctourniquet:
1. "The Whip Hand"
2. "Aegis"
3. "Dyslexicon"
4. "Empty Vessels Make The Loudest Sound"
5. "The Malkin Jewel"
6. "Lapochka"
7. "In Absentia"
8. "Imago"
9. "Molochwalker"
10. "Trinkets Pale Of Moon"
11. "Vedamalady"
12. "Noctourniquet"
13. "Zed And Two Naughts"
A press release explains that the 13-song LP, written by band mainstays Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala and produced by Rodriguez-Lopez, "explores musical territories previously uncharted in the duo's 20 or so years of creating music together." Key cuts are said to include the "hypnotic melodies and borderline electro-ambient washes" of "In Absentia" and the bombastic opening number "The Whip Hand." You can check out the tracklisting below.
Lyrically, Bixler-Zavala will be unveiling a no-doubt trippy yarn about an as-yet-unspecified protagonist, with the story pulling influence from "'80s UK alt-rockers the Godfathers, Superman comic nemesis Solomon Grundy and the Greek myth of Hyacinthus."
Noctourniquet:
1. "The Whip Hand"
2. "Aegis"
3. "Dyslexicon"
4. "Empty Vessels Make The Loudest Sound"
5. "The Malkin Jewel"
6. "Lapochka"
7. "In Absentia"
8. "Imago"
9. "Molochwalker"
10. "Trinkets Pale Of Moon"
11. "Vedamalady"
12. "Noctourniquet"
13. "Zed And Two Naughts"