The Bedlam in Goliath story

The band played MTV Live and talked about the new concept for the album: Omar had bought Cedric a gift, a sort of antique Ouija board from Jurusalem.  When he played it, he found that the spirits of two young girls were trying to contact him through the Soothsayer. Apparently they had been murdered in an honor killing, a common practice in Jarusalem where women who were raped are killed by their families in order to preserve the family's honor. A male spirit who identified himself as the murderer of the two girls also came through the soothsayer and scared Cedric so badly, that he told Omar to take the soothsayer away and bury it, making Omar promise to never tell him where he buried it.

In the MTV Live interview Cedric said that many of the lyrics were written for him by the voices coming from the Soothsayer and he would just write the words that were being spoken to him. Apparently many of the lines were in Aramaic and Latin and the band had 2 translators work on figuring out what was being communicated to them. One of the translators refused to work on the project after reading what was being said by the spirits. The performance of 2 songs and the subsequent interview with the band can be found at http://www.mtv.ca/mtvlive/community/index.jhtml

For those Mars Volta fans slightly disappointed by 2006's Amputechture, The Bedlam in Goliath is a huge relief. The album boasts a new drummer, the blindingly talented Thomas Pridgen who seems to have returned the band back to their punk and rock roots. Gone are the lengthy and tedious interludes in the middle of songs. In is a melody and focus not seen in a Mars Volta album since Deloused in the Comatorium. However fans of Amputechture and Frances the Mute will find a rich sounding album with as much substance musically as any previous album. The band seems to have only focused their energy and creativeness, not inhibited it.

The album is officially released on January 29, but leaks have been found on torrent sites.