The Mars Volta strikes me as a band that is nearly bursting with creative energy. In the last six years, they’ve put out four hour-plus albums. And there’s so much going on in their songs that it has to take at least ten times as many ideas to put a Mars Volta song together than it does for a song by Nickelback or 3 Doors Down. But almost as a rule, The Mars Volta has too many ideas for their own good.
Their latest CD, “The Bedlam in Goliath,” is as close to an exception to that rule as I’ve seen them get. The album-opener, “Aberinkula,” is powerful and energetic, driven by a great riff and a surprisingly catchy melody. And sadly, “Aberinkula” is also the album’s peak. “Metatron” attempts to continue in the same energetic, infectious vein, but it suffers from an overlong arrangement and an aimless, meandering vocal melody. “Ilyena” introduces a good groove, but fails to capitalize on it. Halfway through, the song is hijacked by annoying and overused vocal effects that ruin any replay value the song may have already achieved. It’s absolutely tragic.
The middle of the album continues in the similitude of the first three tracks: Each song has some fantastic melody or riff or instrumental section that is promptly ruined by some unnecessary thing the band threw in. “Goliath” sports some well-arranged music dragged down by a flat-lining melody near the end. “Tourniquet Man” starts off looking like a nice little ballad and ends up as a disturbing, futuristic cacophony. “Askepios” contains a jaw-droppingly epic section in the middle that is followed almost immediately by more distorted vocals that implore the listener to wonder exactly what mixture of drugs was used during the recording and production processes.
“Ouroborous” marked a refreshing return to the untainted energy and musicianship of the front end of the album. This is followed by the nine-minute “Soothsayer,” which again uses bizarre production on the vocals. But this time the weirdness achieves a priceless haunting tone and only aids in the construction of a beautiful, if somewhat drawn-out arrangement. “Conjugal Burns” seems to be a decent closer, but it is plagued by two serious problems: First, a minute or two from its conclusion, the song bursts into a section of unprecedented hideousness, a kind of unimaginably freakier incarnation of “Faaip de Oiad” from Tool’s “Lateralus.” Second, the album seems to end mid-riff, leaving the listener hanging, waiting for that final note that will never come. While it might be a clever trick for the band to play on their fans, it’s frustrating and painfully unsatisfying.
And, of course, it goes without saying that the entire seventy-six minutes of “The Bedlam in Goliath” is marred by impenetrable, indecipherable, incoherent lyrics that are often laughable in their imagery and metaphor-mixing. But despite containing some of the same frustrating aspects of The Mars Volta’s last few albums, “The Bedlam in Goliath” succeeded in getting me hooked on a few of their songs, something their previous work had never accomplished. “Aberinkula,” “Ouroborous,” and “Soothsayer” are new favorites of mine. I have to give the band some well-earned respect for making their own kind of music on their own terms, but their unabashed idiosyncrasies continue to bother me.
But this latest release was significantly more digestible, at least for me. I’m optimistic about the direction The Mars Volta may be headed in. And if that direction results in a realization that weirdness for weirdness’ sake and nonconformist idiosyncrasy in the name of personal expression are not inherently advantageous, then I will be the first in line to buy their next album.
