THE BEDLAM IN GOLIATH

I was walking to class the first time I put this album on, and boy was I startled by the opening fury of Aberinkula. The Mars Volta sort of eased you into their previous albums, but this one starts with a swift slap in the face. My favorite tracks on the album are Ilyena, Cavalettas, Ouroborous, Agadez, and the ball-busting Goliath. Also included on the album, which I purchased on iTunes, was a cover of Nick Drake's Things Behind the Sun, which is totally different from his version, yet still magnificently beautiful. Anyway, I would say the album is worth buying simply for Cavalettas and Goliath alone. Goliath is their most concisely constructed song to date, and one of their most powerful. The main riff is punk infused funk played at warp speed; the song is simply one of my favorite Mars Volta songs of all time. I thought this album was a little over the top when I first listened to it, but it really shows a newly invigorated group after the somewhat lackluster release of Amputechture. Thomas Pridgen is a great fit with the rest of the group, and, in some cases, sounds even more polished than Jon Theodore did. This album shows The Mars Volta at their most aggressive. Even though it may seem sometimes to sound like a group of buffalo stampeding off a cliff, there are too many interesting moments on this album to pass it up.