Analogy time:
The Bedlam in Goliath is to your aural senses as something unfathomably good is to your crotch.
I was skeptical after The Mars Volta’s previous release, Amputechture. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Amp now, but it took quite a while and some songs (the last one in particular) I find myself skipping. Going into this album I was anticipating something similar or something too different; either a disparate, schizophrenic mess or an undigestable hunk of homogenous crap. Thankfully, they did neither, and took the best parts of Amp (the ridiculously bad ass guitar riffs, the possessive grooves, the quasi-metal attitude) and combined it with something else entirely new and thus Bedlam was born.
Not to say it doesn’t have its downsides.
Their new drummer, Thomas Pridgen, is a bit overeager at times, particularly on the third track, Ilyena. I suppose I have a different drumming philosophy than he does, in that I believe the drums should support and help shape the overall sound as opposed to being a completely different type of sound, but even getting past that I get the impression he’s trying to hard. But when he’s good, god damn is he good.
The songs tend to come in two chunks, separate by the abysmal sixth track (Tourniquet Man). The first tracks are typically up-tempo, aggressive, and infective, while the second tracks tend to be slower, passive, and as a whole, feel like a build up that really never gets released. However, I cannot stress that this blemish doesn’t really detract from the album. It’s the kind of thing you have to listen for. But if the pacing of an album is important to you, then you might have an issue.
Other than that, though, Bedlam kills. If you weren’t into The Mars Volta before (or have never even heard of them) I strongly suggest you give this album a try. And by “try” I mean two or three good listens, as TMV is something like a fine wine in that you need time to fully appreciate them.
