THE BEDLAM IN GOLIATH

Well, I can certainly understand why this is the least liked The Mars Volta album on here. It's an almost endless assault of noise from the very first second the album starts up until it ends, with little breathing room in between. Even the album's ballads are bombastic and noisy. Yet, I find myself enjoying this album more than some of the other material put out by this talented band.

De-loused is easily their best album, and they don't deviate a whole lot from that formula in their other albums outside of some stylistic differences and the incorporation of jazz and latin in some of their later albums. The Bedlam in Goliath distances itself from their previous two efforts, and essentially takes the high tempo, bombastic sections of De-loused and takes it to an entirely new level.

Cedric's vocals are certainly an acquired taste, and their lyrics have always been incredibly cryptic and border on nonsensical at times. I have no problem with the lyrics, and I have always found his voice to be interesting and it works fantastically in conjunction with the music.

Another thing I like about this album is the shorter, more concise songs. One thing that turns me away from Frances the Mute is the rather lengthy psychedelic/ambient sections throughout a lot of the songs. It made it more difficult for me to listen to, as they didn't really do much to hold my attention. I love a good ambient section, but I feel like they could have been a little bit more developed. That problem has been alleviated in Bedlam, and as such the album has much better flow.

I'm sure most people will likely be turned off by the pure noise assault of Bedlam in Goliath, but I think that those who enjoy that kind of thing will find that this is an amazingly complex album, and probably their best since De-loused in the Comatorium. My only real problem with the album is the lack of any overly new ideas.