The Mars Volta
"The Bedlam in Goliath"
Genre: Progressive Rock/Experimental
Sounds Like: TV On The Radio
Radiohead
At The Drive-In
Even with some bad luck, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez has done it again. The release of the fourth The Mars Volta album "The Bedlam in Goliath" brings a clean, loud rock sound that hasn't been heard since early Rage Against the Machine.
Opening track "Aberinkula" starts the album with hard-hitting drums and screaming harmonies to Cedric Bixler-Zavala's recognizable wails. Breaking down to funk guitar riffs for the bridge and chorus, the song gets louder and groovier, reminiscent of Mars Volta tracks on previous albums. The groove never lets up throughout the entire album, each song is crafted in a way that has a driving, hypnotic force.
The concept for the album was dreamt up by Rodriguez-Lopez, after purchasing a Ouija-type board that, supposedly, brought the band extremely bad luck. Then-drummer Deantoni Parks quit mid-tour, lead singer and lyricist Bixler-Zavala needed foot surgery and Rodriguez-Lopez's home studio flooded. Rodriguez-Lopez buried the trinket, which had been named "The Soothsayer" and asked those on the album to never speak of it for the rest of the album's production.
The track "The Soothsayer" delivers poems and messages that were attached to the band's Ouija, and the results traps listeners into a hypnotic, psychedelic spell. Chanting and Middle Eastern string instruments complete the closing track "Conjugal Burns." The track proves the more mature sound of the band uses less electric manipulation to its benefit. Most of the tracks are more than five minutes - a typical Mars Volta tactic that fits its style of lengthy phrases and developments.
Rodriguez-Lopez doesn't play as much lead guitar as he used to. Rather, he played the role of conductor/producer to craft an album that was recorded in about a three-week span. Guitarist John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers fame takes a more prominent role, adding to the deliciously deep grooves. He adds to the tension the band hints at in their other albums, but really masters on "Bedlam."
The addition of drummer Thomas Pridgen polishes each song with complicated funk-metal beats and complex fills. On "Ouroboros," Pridgen proves his virtuoso chops are made for the complex rhythms that make up the minutes upon minutes of Mars Volta's epic tunes.
Previous Mars Volta albums may have had the dynamic of quiet, tense builds leading to an explosion of electric riffs and hard-hitting cymbals, but the parts on "Bedlam" are constant and steady. Pridgen, 24, is a fresh addition, and brings a hard-hitting, constant complication that fits the swirls of Frusciante's riffs.
The downfall to the album lies in its strengths - it doesn't really quiet down. The two-and-half minute "Tourniquet Man" is a calm breath amidst the storm, but the album's dynamics are pretty much the same throughout - loud and louder, dark and darker, deep and deeper.
While "Bedlam" never stops being the trippy metal that we've come to expect from The Mars Volta, this time they've hit dead on what it seems like their aim's been all along - talented and vetted musicianship matched with deep and dark themes that take listeners on an other-worldy journey.
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