THE BEDLAM IN GOLIATH

I have listened to plenty of The Mars Volta. Before I got this album, I figured I should get one of their CDs. It just so happened, their latest one was just about to come out. Well, why shouldn't I get it?

However, as soon as I listened to it for the first time, it was annoying. The first track seemed to have energy, but the track went nowhere. The placements of riffs are repetitive, and there are tons of pointless instrumental solos. The outro could have been cut entirely.

I hoped the next track would be better, but it picked up right where the first one left off. And instead of a five minute song, it was an eight minute song. Blegh!

The next is brought in by some pointless static (not an atmosphere, may I tell you). Then, almost all the way through the track, everything stops, and a completely different rhythm starts up. The final part goes nowhere. I understand that bands should try to push boundaries, but this is where pushing boundaries fails.

Wax Simulacra is another pointless energetic track, except we are spared of the endlessness because it's only 2 and a half minutes long. Thank you for your mercy, Mars Volta.

The only track making this album not completely pointless is Goliath. Very interesting. If I had to compare it to another track, I would say it's a bit of a latin influenced 21st Century Schizoid Man. Very cool. I really enjoy listening to this one. Maybe because it's the first one I listened to off the album before I actually got it, and since the rest of the album seems to be the same, nothing new was brought to the table.

The rest of the album is just more of the same. There's the pointless wannabe-ambient Tourniquet Man, Cavallettas which is nine minutes of the band not being able to decide between two different riffs so they go back and forth between static fadeouts, the endless Soothsayer and the horrible album ender Conjugal Burns, that gets more of that static without ever being ambient at all. Why this is an album closer is beyond me. Why a band would want to release a song like this is beyond me.

Why a band would actually release this is beyond me. There is no directions, the songs all sound the same, and the experimentation fails to impress. I have heard great stuff from the Mars Volta, but this isn't it. I respect the band for being intelligent musicians and trying new stuff, but this is where it fails.

I wouldn't reccomend this to anybody.