THE BEDLAM IN GOLIATH

The Mars Volta

Heavy Prog

3.54 | 575 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

The Pessimist
Prog Reviewer

Man this was a surprise. Undoubtedly the second best TMV album (under Frances the Mute), this album flows very nicely indeed. I fell in love with it at first listen, and this is why:

Originality! Its prog, but with bite! Not for the faint hearted, this album does for prog what horror does for the movie industry: it attracts the people out for a thrill. Unlike Amputechture, this album goes back to the roots of the band (Tremulant, De-loused and Frances) and as nicely put by one of our forum members, it leaves you with a what the F*** was that? kind of feel to it. You play the album, and before you know it it's over.

Secondly, the level of musicianship is outstanding. They use more irregular time signatures than even Rush and Gentle Giant, have a world class drummer, Omar is excellent, Cedric is Cedric, Ikey does his thing to fill out the sound and overall the band is superb. Each member has mastered his own art to perfection over the years, and it's paid off in this amazing collection of songs.

Thirdly, i don't know about you, but i get sick of too many ballads on one album. Well, as always, The Volta have only stuck one in on Bedlam, and it's stunningly progressive, lasting only 2:41. The rest are all upbeat, danceable, strangely arranged and heavy songs that keep you on your feet.

The highlights of the album would be all of it. There is not one bad song. But if I were to pick 4 songs they would be Wax Simulacra, Goliath, Cavalettas and Conjugal Burns, strictly because they are the with the biggest drive. However I would not put down any song in this album, as it is stunning, consistant and perfect. The fact that none of the songs exceed 10 minutes is also a good thing, but may well be frowned upon in the prog world.

In a nutshell, it's extremely hard to get bored of and will appeal to proggers that enjoy the more aggressive side of music.

The Pessimist | 5/5 | 2008-1-23

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