I agree with this quote as well and I just post it as a whole because it includes the mars volta. This guy thinks similar to me.
"Yeah, but it´s not about technical brilliance - far too often that gets in the way of what I think music should be about, first and foremost - communicating some kind of emotion. I like a bit of fretboard wankery once in a while, but I guess my measuring stick is just different from yours....which is cool.
Take something like "Rosetta Stoned" off the new album, or the title track off "Ænima"....those things may not be the most musically complex when written down in notation, but they are expertly-crafted....I dunno, "worlds" I guess. Both songs just send a shiver down my spine, they sound so complete, like everything is in it´s place, right where it should be and all the extraneous shit has been pared away.
A good example of a band that has let their artistic pretentions get the better of them is The Mars Volta. Their first album is IMO one of the most finely-crafted pieces of rock music in history, striking a perfect balance between chaotic sound design and roughly 50 years or rock/punk/latin tradition -but their last two albums have been too OTT - too much style, too little substance."
