Released: 2008

Genres: Progressive Rock, Experimental Rock, Jazz Rock, Latin Rock

The Musiquarium’s The Bedlam in Goliath Review Score: 4/5

On The Mars Volta’s fourth album, we see the departure of drumming virtuoso Jon Theodore, but the return of previous key members, including on again/off again Red Hot Chili Peppers’ guitar wizard, John Frusciante.

During the writing and recording of the album, the band would communicate with a ouija board that Omar Rodríguez-López had purchased in Jerusalem, dubbed “The Soothsayer” (also the name of one of the songs), which resulted in strange occurrences happening to the band.

These bizarre instances included the flooding of Omar’s home studio, the need for foot surgery for Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Blake Fleming (Jon Theodore’s original replacement) quitting the band mid-tour, songs randomly disappearing from hard drives and their audio engineer, departing during the recording sessions after having a nervous breakdown. The engineer claimed that Omar Rodríguez-López was doing something very bad with this record, which led the guitarist to breaking the ouija board in half and burying it in an undisclosed location, urging the band to never speak of it again.

Despite the mysterious recording sessions, the band managed to pull through and create their fourth excellent album in a row, with an album that trimmed the song lengths down, (no songs exceed ten minutes), while still maintaining their unique brand of chaotic, hard-hitting prog rock, full of diverse influences — in fact, this album might be their maddest yet.

Aberinkula grabs the listener by the balls within the first second of the album, with every subsequent song packing in so much intensity that you might experience whiplash. The only single, Wax Simulacra, clocks in at under 3 minutes, being one of the band’s shortest songs (excluding interludes), providing something for casual listeners to check out, who may feel daunted by the band’s lengthier tunes.

While De-Loused in the Comatorium and Frances the Mute are the undisputed masterpieces of The Mars Volta’s body of work, The Bedlam in Goliath is still another stellar work of art, on par with Amputechture and not too far behind those first two. Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López continue to be two of rock’s most impressive and adventurous vocalists and guitarists, respectively.

For credit breakdowns and historic release details, view The Mars Volta on Discogs.

Back to the 2008 Album Guide or The Mars Volta Reviews page.

Written by Brett Nippard