THE BEDLAM IN GOLIATH

It's the first word that came to my mind after my first entire listening of this incredible, yet complex album. This album can be described as heavy, but I think intense is a much more adequate word. I had to catch my breath a few time. And in the end of this first hearing, I was pretty sure I was about to hate this album.

But so was my first impression of Amputechture. And now, a couple years later, it's one of my favourite TMV albums. So I gave Bedlam in Goliath another try and I played it another time, and then another one, and another one. For three days now, it's all I've been listening to. I had to take a few steps back and map out this apparent mess. This is something I like about TMV. It rewards its listener after a couple times. Their albums are intense and, above all, dense. And so is Bedlam in Goliath. I needed some time to understand what was going on.

This album is filled with heavy and complex guitar playing, reminiscent of De-Loused. I think along the obvious Fripp and punk music influences, I can hear some Zappa in the solos and guitar fills (listen to Goliath). It is also very funky at some point. The long guitar fizzling interludes between songs are gone, but you can find some of that inside a given song. I think it's put to better use there. The new drummer is awesome, but he does not play with dynamics much: it's all loud and fast. Bixler-Zavala never sang so high and there are some very strong melodies in there, much more than in previous TMV effort. My favourite addition to this is the manic, byzantine soprano saxophone à la Coltrane, which, I think, suits perfectly the TMV sound.

I think the best songs are Aberinkula, Ilyena, Wax Simulacra, Ouroboros and Soothsayer, the latter being, for one, the heaviest, and the other, the smoothest of the album. Ouroboros is the closest to heavy metal TMV ever got, but still, it's much more than that. There is an amazing strings section in Soothsayer, filled with middle-eastern influences, reminding me of some Led Zeppelin works.

There is no filler on this album, although I think Tourniquet Man is not their best short song ever and I prefer the rendition of Goliath you can find on Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's So Dice Bisonte, No Buffalo (named Rapid Fire Tollbooth). The new version is faster and heavier and there is less space for the soprano sax. It is still very good, but I guess it is a matter of personal taste.

All in all, Bedlam in Goliath is a very strong TMV album. It is still too soon to say, but I think it can become a classic hard prog album. However, since it won't appeal to everybody, I can't give it a 5-star rating. As a fan, I would, but I know too many people around me that can't stand TMV to do so (even if they are prog-rock fans, and some of those are free jazz, metal and punk enthusiasts). It is a hard one to swallow.

Still, a great record! My favourite so far in 2008.

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