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Mars Volta Conjures Up An Eclectic Masterpiece

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By CURTIS ROSS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 14, 2008

If the stories are to be believed, The Mars Volta's fourth album was inspired by - and nearly wrecked by - a Ouija board. The duo (Omar Rodriguez Lopez and Cedric Bixler Zavala) bought the board in Jerusalem, consulted it throughout a tour and later buried it when unexplained mishaps (computer glitches, an engineer's nervous breakdown) threatened to derail this album's recording process.

Apocryphal? Perhaps. True or not, few albums could live up to such a powerful back story. "The Bedlam in Goliath" does, and then some.

The album starts with a detonation and then really gets going. It's a good 30 minutes before there's any pause, and then only for a minute or so, during the first part of "Tourniquet Man."

Not that the Volta's previous discs have been laid-back, but "Bedlam" sustains an intensity over the course of its almost 80-minutes that would be admirable even if it weren't such a great listen.

There were troubling signs that the band had run its course with 2005's live "Scab Dates" and 2006's "Amputechture," on which the group seemed to be running in place musically and conceptually.

"Bedlam" finds them revitalized. Red Hot Chili Pepper guitarist John Frusciante's Hendrix-inspired guitar blasts sound right at home, and drummer Thomas Pridgen is the Volta's rhythmic soul mate - listen to the way he kicks off "Wax Simulacra" with a barrage of lightning fast rolls.

The Mars Volta concocts a quicksand of punk, metal, R&B, Latin and prog-rock. Dip a toe in and you're a goner.

Download this: "Wax Simulacra"

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