THE MARS VOLTA have chosen instead to follow their instincts, simultaneously raising the bar for anyone seriously endeavoring to make ‘cutting edge’ rock music, while making it clear that whatever success lays ahead for them will most assuredly be achieved on their terms and no one else’s. They have made credibility, honesty and creativity in rock music fashionable again. They will introduce a generation to the concepts of musicianship and boundary-pushing. They are succeeding where countless others have failed. In a vast landscape of manufactured bullshit, they are real.