Forget Slipknot, Marilyn Manson or Eminem; The Mars Volta have always been the band that parents should be wary of their kids listening to. Not because they'll incite your darlings to commit an act of barbarism, or because their lyrics contain hidden Satanic messages (well.. not really), but simply because they're so bloody weird. Put it this way: their 2003 debut De-Loused in the Comatorium was a concept album based around the story of a man who tries to commit suicide, lands himself in a coma, experiences otherworldy hallucinations and throws himself off a bridge upon his reawakening. The mind-bending Californian prog-peddlers' oddness doesn't end with that bedtime story, either; The Bedlam in Goliath is thematically based on a real-life, nightmarish Ouija board experience (and a malevolent spirit they dubbed 'Soothsayer') that threatened to tear the band apart. Luckily for main Martians Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, they overcame the 'Dark Forces' and completed their fourth album with an assured poise. Bedlam cultivates the trademark Mars Volta infusion of metal, funk and punk, but contemporary prog (an oxymoron?) is the order of the day on an album that spans an hour and a quarter, and is as draining as it is powerful. Sci-fi horror soundtrack Ilyena, the growling, rolling bassline of Agadez and the eerie Arabic vibe of Soothsayer are particular highlights, while the ever-twisting Goliath showcases both Zavala's demonic falsetto and new drummer Thomas Pridgen's impressively furious skin-beating to full effect. It seems like every song here is an epic aural journey; the only problem is that most tracks end in the same destination. The Bedlam in Goliath's long running time, along with its sheer lack of order, means that a lot of patience is required to ingest it in one sitting - but if apocalyptic, sound-shifting cacophony is your bag, you can't go wrong here.
