As it turns out, the Mars Volta's florid, labyrinthine journey — sidelong jams, Ouija-fueled nightmares, an 18-LP boxed set — was in the shape of a circle.

After 11 years together and a decade on hiatus, the progressive-rock duo just released a streamlined, self-titled record on Sept. 16 — no lysergic graphics on the cover, no five-movement suites with titles like "Plant a Nail in the Navel Stream." Eva Gardner, their original bassist from their debut EP Tremulant, is back.

Mellow, pared-down and Caribbean-influenced, The Mars Volta  is by far the group's most accessible to date. But this doesn't contradict their MO one iota: the cardinal rule of the band has always been that it's whatever their co-leaders, guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, want it to be.

So, the GRAMMY-winning band has opted to hit the reset button, and grow up before our eyes and ears — with Gardner, synthesist Marcel Rodríguez-López and drummer Willy Rodriguez Quiñones behind them.

"We've been warning you guys; we were saying 10 years ago that the most revolutionary thing we could do was make a pop record," Rodriguez-Lopez told The Quietus in 2022. "We're in our mid-to-late 40s, and you can't just still be doing the same s—, expecting to wear an old T-shirt that doesn't fit any more."

This belies the fact that the Mars Volta have been totally game to revisit the past — not only with that leviathan of a career-spanning boxed set, La Realidad de los Sueños, but in the brief 2010s reunion of At the Drive-In, their incindiary post-hardcore band that put them on the map in the first place.

But the reignition and subsequent flame-out of AtDI was just one development between Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala during our sadly Volta-less decade. Their recent story ranges from the tragic (an allegedly traumatizing run-in with the Church of Scientology, resulting in an ongoing legal firefight), to the boundlessly creative (Rodriguez-Lopez's waterfall of solo releases), to the bizarre and hilarious (Bixler-Zavala's, erm, interesting TMV reunion announcement.)

Now, The Mars Volta is out in the world, following well-received advance singles "Blacklight Shine," "Graveyard Love" and "Vigil." Here's a quick rundown on what the experimentalists have been up to during their wildest, wooliest band's downtime — focusing on the music rather than the personal drama.

At The Drive-In Rode Again

Although it seemed the Mars Volta had evolved several epochs past the slash-and-burn theatrics of At the Drive-In, they decided to revive the band in 2011, during the waning days of the Mars Volta's initial run.

While this resulted in a handful of festival gigs, AtDI fell apart upon the pair's falling-out in 2013. Out of their reconciliation via the band Antemasque — which featured bassist Flea and drummer Travis Barker at various stages — came another shot at a reunion, albeit with Sparta guitarist Keeley Davis replacing founding AtDI member Jim Ward.

This reunion produced 2017's in•ter a•li•a, their first album since 2000's unforgettable swing for the fences, Relationship of Command — but the album earned mixed reviews, At the Drive-In followed it up with an EP that year, Diamanté, before calling it quits once again.

Offshoot Bands Came And Went

When the Mars Volta first broke up, one sticking point for Bixler-Zavala was Rodriguez-Lopez's new band, Bosnian Rainbows — which featured vocalist Teri Gender Bender of Le Butcherettes. (Fun fact: she's direct support for the reconstituted Mars Volta's 2022 fall tour.)

"Thank u 2 all VOLTA fans u deserved more especially after the way u rooted for us on [2012's Noctouriniquet]," Bixler-Zavala seethed on Twitter. "But Bosnian Rainbows was what we all got instead. I can't sit here and pretend any more. I no longer am a member of Mars Volta."

Bixler-Zavala simultaneously launched his own band, Zavalaz, featuring Mars Volta bassist Juan Alderete among its ranks. And in 2014, the pair buried the hatchet to form Antemasque.

While none of these three bands publicly announced a breakup, none are currently active, and it remains to be seen whether they'll pop up again in the foreseeable future with the Mars Volta back in action.

Solo Records… So Many Solo Records

During the gulf of time when the Mars Volta were no longer active, Rodriguez-Lopez seemingly decided to duke it out with Jandek, Merzbow and Guided by Voices in prolificity: his Discogs page is truly staggering.

Are you a true fan if you haven't checked out Gorilla Preacher Cartel, or Killing Tingled Lifting Retreats, or Cell Phone Bikini? How about Chocolate Tumor Hormone Parade? (At least some of this epic streak were part of a 12-album series, released every fortnight in the latter half of 2016.)

Does this leave out some music the pair put out while the Mars Volta was on ice? Probably; these two have always been insatiable fountainheads of creativity, and it's almost guaranteed that will continue in the 2020s.

But after (or before) you seek all of it out, dive deep into The Mars Volta, where extraneous elements are stripped away — leaving a glowing core that may well be enticing to diehards and newcomers alike.

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