The Bedlam in Goliath
Part-metal, part-funk, part-prog rock, part dada art project, the Mars Volta slice and dice rhythms, riffs and concepts with little concern for their overall cohesion. In fact, sharp, disparate chaos only excites them further. The string-mangling comes from all directions throughout their fourth studio album, 2008’s *The Bedlam in Goliath*. The excited hot rail lead guitars of the tune “Goliath” jumpstart singer Cedric Bixler-Zayala’s manic inquisitions until he screeches like an excited puppy midway through the seven-minute epic. It stands as a message coded in tongues. (The lyrics were allegedly inspired in part by a Ouija board guitarist-producer Omar Rodriguez-Lopez found in Jerusalem.) Mythmaking is part of this ensemble’s stock in trade, and the mystical titles are met with music every bit as cryptic and deliberately weird. Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante adds his share of twisted riffs, and the band play tug-of-war within the time signatures of each tune, creating a funk that isn’t always danceable but remains consistently guttural and alluringly middle-Eastern. “Metatron” breaks down into near incoherency. “Cavaletta” pummels with nervous tension. Score one for chaos.
After three all-or-nothing albums full of clusterfucks of Cedric Bixler-Zavala's incomprehensible lyrical jabberwocky and Rock Band feats of strength, Mars Volta return with a records that's broken down into a relatively manageable 12 tracks.
It's a well-established fact that bands put out albums far less frequently than they used to. (The Beatles, for instance, made more than a dozen in seven years.) And yet The Mars Volta doesn't get much attention for having released one album per year, like clockwork, since its 2003 debut De-Loused In The Comatorium.…
It can't come as a surprise that the Mars Volta's fourth album opens with a bang -- sonic terrorism is one of the only things listeners can count on from the band -- but it's genuinely novel that The Bedlam in Goliath never lets go of its momentum, not even after a full hour's worth of unrelenting war on silence, the wrapping paper for a concept album about the power of the occult.
Sadly, most of these songs are not really songs, because that’s not what the Mars Volta do.
The Mars Volta should trim off all their petty prog hindrances and become a straight rock band.
The Mars Volta - The Bedlam in Goliath review: That night I remember what you slipped in my glass.