Track Listing

1. Aberinkula
2. Metatron
3. Ilyena
4. Wax Simulacra
5. Goliath
6. Tourniquet Man
7. Cavalettas
8. Agadez
9. Askepios
10. Ouroboros
11. Soothsayer
12. Conjugal Burns

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8485 in Music
• Released on: 2008-01-29
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Explicit Lyrics
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
No one has ever accused the Mars Volta of subtlety. But even so, the cyclonic caterwaul of Bedlam in Goliath is the band’s fullest starburst to date. Sure, the songs have titles that seem indecipherable, from “Aberinkula” to “Conjugal Burns.” The important thing, though, is the molten, guitar-spiraling, drum-thundering core at the heart of the whole endeavor. “Aberinkula” opens the album with an unfettered explosion of clustered guitars and a dense keyboard haze pierced by Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s coarse, pitched yowl. A scouring soprano sax solo cuts across the songs’s midsection, and that vibe spreads throughout Bedlam, but so does the most pervasive melding of herky-jerk rhythms, post-punk speed, uber-funk bass, and chaotic riffage that you’re likely to find in rock & roll. If it’s Bedlam you want, you can’t miss here. --Andrew Bartlett

Album Description
Limited Australian three disc (two CDs + PAL/Region 0 DVD) pressing of their 2008 album features a bonus audio CD containing an epic dose of previously unreleased covers plus a DVD that includes all five videos for the album. 2008 album from the eccentric Alternative outfit. Fans of this American Progressive Rock band should expect the same thematic approach to storytelling as on their former records. This album chronicles The Mars Volta's time with the Soothsayer AKA the Ouija board owned by vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, and its mutation from a source of amusement during the tour supporting the band's Amputechture album into a malevolent psycho-spiritual force that nearly tore the group apart, collectively and individually. The album's creation process was subject to "bad luck controversy" after the band's bizarre experience. The Bedlam in Goliath is their fourth full-length studio album. Produced by guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez with engineer Robert Carranza, Universal.

Customer Reviews

Another masterpiece attack from Mars!
As all their previous albums, at a glance, this one is not an easy listening. But if you just forget about following the lyrics and trying to find out where each song starts and finishes and instead close your eyes and let yourself been carried away... it is a great experience. This is one of Mars Volta's most coherent and richest albums musically, and at the same time, the more complex. Each time you listen to this album you'll find out an instrument or solo which you've never heard previously. Cedric's voice is hitting higher notes then ever! The more you listen to this album, the more you'll like it. The duo Omar Rodriguez Lopez/Cedric Bixler Zavala is among the most talented and prolific in progressive music history. The Mars Volta has been compared to lots of great bands from the seventies. They sound like all of them and at the same time, like none of them. Their sound is unique and fits their name.
About the album. Just Goliath itself is worth buying the album. And so are the rest of the 75 minutes of total aural assault!

Watch me now
I'll give the Mars Volta this -- they can spin a concept album out of just about anything. In this case, a cursed/haunted ouija board from Jerusalem.

And their fourth full-length album "The Bedlam in Goliath" is a suitably haunted, demented affair with some vibrant moments buried in the crazy lyrics and tsunamis of distorted, chaotic hard-rock. It just grabs you and pushes you to the edge, with the force of its dense music -- and if you like it weird, it's a blast.

It starts off loud -- a blazing twisting bassline, hammering drums and Cedric Bixler-Zavala's howling vocals buried somewhere in the twisting melody. And it's folllowed the equally eruptive "Metatron," a swirling storm of clashing riffs and sharp drums... really, it's like an extension of the first song,

With the distorted buildup and electric riffs of "Ilyena," the Mars Volta try out some different sounds -- blazing droning tsunamis of twirling bass'n'guitars, epic rockers with the power of a sandstorm, landslides of sputtering hoarse riffs, howling psychedelica, wailing laments, and the tight, serpentine power of "Ouroborous."

Admittedly, the Mars Volta can't keep up this energy continually -- "Tourniquet Man" is a messy tangle of distortion, horns, halfhearted drums and a continuous drone of synth in the background. "Askepios" flirts with this sound, but is saved from total boredom by its louder moments.

The Mars Volta has been dabbling in this stuff for years now, though they stumbled with an album that was more about the weirdness than the music. Fortunately, while it has some limp moments, "The Bedlam in Goliath" is more about the eruptions of vaguely psychedelic, extremely uncatchy hard rock -- in other words, what they do best.

They've also gained some polish to their stormy, tangled instrumentation -- lots of blazing riffs, machine-gun drums, and powerful basslines that sputter and twist together. These are tangled with some blaring horns and a mess of schizophrenic synth that can sound like anything from crickets to a landing UFO. At times it sounds like the instruments are being strangled, especially the guitar -- it's hard to imagine how those sounds are being produced by ordinary instruments.

The disappointment? I don't know where "Tourniquet Man" came from, except perhaps the need for a single -- it's just a meandering electric guitar, loosely strung with some synth effects and a moment of sax. They don't even bother with drums -- it sounds like they didn't have their coffee that morning, and were performing in a daze.

Good luck figuring out what Bixler-Zavala is singing, though. As always, his cryptically weird lyrics -- wormholes, sulfur, "an avalanche of Toltec bones," Ouroborous and corpse-swapping -- are sung in his sharp, high-pitched voice, and then buried inside the music like another guitar. I'll tell you this -- it sounds like a musical apocalypse, filled with lust, dread and pain.

"The Bedlam in Goliath" is exactly what it sounds like -- bizarre and crazy. But aside from a few duds, the Mars Volta are in fine form.

another great entry into an already stellar catelogue for tmv
TBIG is a return to the concept album for TMV. however it is different from all their previous efforts. the album is fantastic from beginning to end with really only one track that is skipped over (tourniquet man). each memeber is at the top of thier game on this album. the new drummer thomas pridgen shows his skills throughout the album leaving any worriers that theodore could never be replaced to rest. cedric (vocalist) is great hitting all kinds of notes along with some of the catchiest hooks. juan the bassist keeps the band in time and the your head grooving in all the times of chaos. over all the album is a great anyone who is a fan of thier previous works should check this out.