Having first teased new music via a mysterious cube in Los Angeles over the weekend, progressive rock icons The Mars Volta have officially made their comeback, sharing ‘Blacklight Shine’ as their first new song in a decade.
Released alongside an 11-minute short film, the single sees The Mars Volta venturing back into classic territory, featuring the iconic work of Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala mixed in with a more tropical lean, indicating that the group have taken time to further expand their musical horizons.
In a statement, Bixler-Zavala noted that the lyrics are designed to inspire “a wave of rolling blackouts washing memories onto shore, a heartbeat that still remembers everything”.
After giving fans a preview of the music as part of their ‘L’Ytome Hodorxí Telesterion’ cube (which will debut online as an online version on 1st July), some fans noted that the music featured did indeed showcase something of a stylistic shift for the group.
“Just experienced the Volta Cube. As others have said, it’s a listening experience with lights. Pretty neat!” wrote one Redditor. “Song is indeed Khruangbin and Santana esque. Spanish lyrics, emphasis on conga/bongos over traditional drums. Kinda poppy too. More psychedelic than prog.”
Having initially broken up the year after 2012’s Noctourniquet, the group first discussed a reunion back in 2018, before things were fully confirmed in 2019. Since then, a career-spanning box set (including previously unreleased material) was unleashed in 2021.
Alongside release of the new single, The Mars Volta have also unveiled a run of US tour dates, their first live dates since July of 2012.
