The Mars Volta

The Bedlam in Goliath (GSL/Universal)

By Michael Gallucci on Wed, Feb 13, 2008 at 4:00 am

Mars Volta alt-prog Cedric Bixler-Zavala

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The Mars Volta switches gears on its fourth album, giving beat-propelled dance pop a spin. We kid! The Bedlam in Goliath is stuffed with nine-minute alt-prog epics — the type the band has refined to blood-drawing sharpness over the past seven years. We're not quite sure what singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala is going on about in songs like "Aberinkula" and "Ouroborous." And we have no idea what he means when he proclaims, "I am a deaf con of Angora goats." But we do know that the super-complex time signatures and hectic sonic twists that make up the 75-minute CD leave us totally dizzy. Not to mention indifferent, since we've heard it all before.