New Mars Volta Album Falls Into “Bedlam”
by Ivan Castillo

To my content, progressive rock band The Mars Volta has recently released their fourth album. The new album titled “The Bedlam In Goliath” features twelve tracks of progressive ecstasy.

To anyone who likes rock and has not heard this band, I highly recommend they pick up an album today, or at least read this article if not yet convinced.

The Mars Volta is currently comprised of members Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (guitar), Cedric-Bixler Zavala (lyrics, vocals), Isaiah Ikey Owens (keyboards), Juan Alderete (bass), Thomas Pridgen (drums), Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez (percussions, synthesizers), Adrian Terrazas-Gonzalez (flute, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet), Paul Hinojos (guitar, sound editing), and John Frusciante (guitar). As is evident, the nine member group incorporates a wide assortment of instruments into their music, and the lyrics are constantly jumping from Spanish to English.

Among the most impressive players in the band is Thomas Pridgen who tears up the drum set. Not that it is uncommon in the progressive genre, Pridgen's drum fills and solos are something noteworthy. The band does not quite have a designated lead guitarist, especially since with The Mars Volta it is hard to distinguish the difference between the lead and the rhythm guitar when they are playing at the same time. The three guitarists successfully play the same notes layered on a few tracks, which is something I have only heard being pulled off by the kings of power metal, Iron Maiden.

Guitarist Paul Hinojos delivers guitar notes with an impressive show of distortion manipulation that reminds me of Deftones and Rage Against The Machine, only better.

The first studio recording released by The Mars Volta was the “Tremulant EP” in 2002 which consisted of three tracks. The intro of the first track had practically no music other than percussion and the last two minutes of the last track followed the same pattern. The three tracks were no more than a foreshadowing of a new style which was developed by the time they released their first full-length album.

“De-loused In The Comatorium” tells the story of man called Cerpin Taxt who attempts suicide by overdosing on morphine, which results in a weeklong coma. During the coma, he explores the world around him and himself in his subconscious. Upon waking, he realizes he does not want to live in a world such as this and jumps to successfully take his own life. The story is based on Bixler-Zavala's good friend Julio Venegas.

Ironically, Jeremy Michael Ward died of a drug overdose a week before the album's release.

This album is the best to come from Mars Volta and one of my favorites of all time. The creativity pumped into this eulogy for Venegas seems limitless and I would recommend it to anyone. Among the better tracks are “Inertiatic ESP,” “Roulette Dares,” and my personal favorite, “Cicatriz ESP.” The band made a definite mark on their name with the 10-track embodiment of their musical talent.

Surprisingly, their second album “Frances The Mute” was a bigger hit than “De-loused In The Comatorium.” The album sold 123,000 copies in the first week, which was a definite result of their first single, “The Widow.” The story behind this album was derived from dead member Jeremy Ward. During his days as a repo man, he found a diary in the back of a car he had repossessed. Jeremy found many similarities between him and the diary's author, one of which was that both had been adopted. The diary entails the author's journey to find his biological parents, which led him across a number of people.

Each track in the album was named after each of those people. The album's success over the last album can be blamed on the music video for “The Widow” and “Televators.” This was an impressive follow-up to, although not as good as, “De-loused In The Comatorium.” The Mars Volta displays an obvious connection to jazz elements in this album.

Their third album “Amputechture” shows a different approach to how they want fans to think of them. It includes three songs that should be regarded as alternative over anything else. Most of the lyrics are in Spanish, to show the origins of many band members.

While many of the songs are slower than their usual stuff, they exhibit the highest level of mastery over their instruments in regards to the rest of their albums. After many changes with band members from their original line-up, The Mars Volta have finally released “The Bedlam In Goliath” on January 29, 2008.

This album falls fourth place when stacked against their previous albums, although it still has a remarkable variety of tracks. The creation of this album has a very interesting story behind it. During their tour in 2006, the band would play with a Ouija board as a ritual before each show. The board was a gift to Bixler-Zavala from Rodriguez-Lopez which he purchased at a curio shop in Jerusalem.

Spirits would communicate with the band through the board. During the tour, many strange occurrences were presented upon the band such as random power outages in Rodriguez-Lopez's studio and audio tracks sporadically disappearing off the screens.

In an attempt to end this “curse,” Rodriguez-Lopez buried the Ouija board in a location which he never revealed to anyone. Many of the album's tracks are influenced by the happenings and the stories the spirits shared.

The band named track eleven “The Soothsayer” which is what they called the board and named track five “Goliath” which is what they named the three spirits in the form of one. “Bedlam” shows more of their unique progressive elements with a twist of jazz and Latin riffs and solos. Their exclusive use of instruments like the saxophone and three guitars make this album a must-listen, as well as the rest of their albums.

To the untrained ear, The Mars Volta might sound somewhat disorganized, that is, if you are not familiar with the genre. Mars Volta brings a new spin to the genre that is progressive. The surprising aspect is that this band manages to stay popular in the mainstream scene while demonstrating skill, which is not the case with most mainstream bands. Since Mars Volta combines other genres such as jazz and punk, they are bound to attract all kinds of fans, so pick up an album today.