The Mars Volta-Bedlam in Goliath-Album Overview

I was bored... had a lot of time on my hands... so I decided to edit together a some videos of each of The Mars Volta's albums. They are my favorite band at the moment, and if you haven't heard of them, this video is for you. My goal is to capture the essence of each album in 10 minutes. Each album is a concept album, meaning they deal with a common theme or story, and have a common style of music. They are also very experimental, so I thought it would be cool to include random art I could find to help illustrate the feel of the albums. Basically, for the music, I included as many "cool parts" as I could (guitar solo's, amazing vocal sections, important lyrics...) so that even if you listen to the band all the time, you can still enjoy this video.

This album is about the story of the curse of "The Soothsayer," an ouija board that Omar (the guitarist) bought for Cedric (the singer) while in Jerusalem. Cedric, being fascinated with oddities such as that, started messing around with it, and the entire band started playing with it as a ritual on their tours. Suddenly, they began to notice effects. Cedric had to get foot surgery from his shoes, Omar's basement was flooded, and all their digitally recored music was mysteriously deleted. They knew what they had to do. They buried the board in a undisclosed location and in penance wrote an album about it, warning of its curse and reflecting on its power and identity. Supposedly, the spirit inhabiting the board, when asked its name, replied with "Goliath." Could this be the actual spirit of the Philistine warrior who David slaid? Or could it a be a demon trying to steal Goliath's name to make itself look more powerful? Or could it be a coincidence... The album is based on the concept of "The Soothsayer" ouija board and its curse. But more importantly, the idea behind it. Is it possible that a spirit is stuck inside the "concrete box" (derived from the lyrics). What does the spirit want? Does it want to be free, to make life miserable for humans, or something else? This concept album is very "mystical" in nature touching on the spiritual world, the afterlife, and human interaction with "black magic." It also, as RavenousESP pointed out, has to do with the concept of "cycles," with mistakes being repeated and curses being passed down.

[This is my opinion of their music through the lens of a music critic. However, I am NOT a music critic and my opinions are simply opinions. Still though, I enjoy music theory so I came up with my own theories on their music]
This album fits in the genre of hard rock, arabic (Middle Eastern), and pop. This is a strange combination, highly experimental (their most experimental album to date). It is hard to listen to, as it is very intense, containing an unreal amount of notes (in Middle Eastern music, the "Arabian scales" contain a different note system, more notes than what we are used to). Omar (the guitarist) packs in the notes. Cedric makes things more chaotic with his Mount Everest high register vocals, extremely high pitched and loud. However, the soft vocals (many of which I included), sound gorgeous, and very mystical. The rest of the instruments add to the mass of sound, creating a cacophony that, once you've gotten used to, sounds very pleasant. They won an award for "Best Hard Rock Song" with their song "Wax Sumulacra." I only included a short portion of that song because its basically 3 minutes of heavy drums and guitar and screeching vocals, hard to use for a "preview" album. The album relies on the distorted effect of contrasted vocals and music (mainly, Omar creates these mystically outrageous guitar accompaniment to Cedric's seemingly separate singing), compared to "Deloused in the Comatorium" which relies heavily on vocals, to "Frances the Mute" which relies heavily on guitar, and "Amputechture" which relies heavily on synchronization of vocals and music in their melody.

What to listen for (in the lyrics):
1. References to the ouija board ("Place your ring finger on this--")
2. References to the spirit inhabiting the ouija board (some songs are dedicated to the state of "Goliath," as they feel he is trapped in the prison of the ouija board)
3. References to the afterlife ("In this place where a soul has no purpose...")
4. References to doubt of the possibility of black magic
5. Lyrics based on things the ouija board said (Supposedly, Cedric, the singer, wrote down a lot of the "demands" the board made, along with its various comments, and fit them into the lyrics of the songs, such as "Help me come alive!" along with "What have you brought for my appetite"- done in that filter I referred to earlier.)
6. Breakdowns (All the meaning in the songs come in their breakdowns.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• mars
• volta
• bedlam
• in
• goliath
• hard
• rock
• arabic
• middle
• eastern
• pop
• art
• summary
• overview
• all
• songs
• mystical
• ouija
• board
• guitar
• solo

[ravenousESP]

you should also mention that there are references to unending cycles i.e. ouroboros, "cycle recycled" "when the chants have cycled"

[mattsjpl]

Good point. I never thought of that. I like that reference too. It goes with the story that they buried the board so nobody else can find it and continue the cycle. And, of course, this reference goes much deeper, like all their themes. I'll add that into the description.

[Frances3654]

what is the name of the song starting at 1:30

[mattsjpl]

Its called "Metatron." The part I played was a breakdown they did in the middle of the song.

[marsyvolty1]

that's eveyone's fav... makes me sad... my fav is always the next album to come out... i progress :)

[AphoticAgony]

Everyone says that Deloused is their best but I don't like it as much as the others

Frances

Amputech(everyone says it's their worst)

Octahedron

Bedlam

Deloused

[MultiTigerish]

all the ablums are great...it would suck if they all sounded the same..i love this video..all the best parts i wanna hear..

[1norwood1]

@AphoticAgony Who says Amputechture is their worst? As with anything it's a matter of taste, personally I think Frances is their worst. A friend of mine is obsessed with Bedlam, which I think it's one of their weaker albums so it's entirely subjective. albums: 1.Amputechture 2.Deloused 3.Scabdates (40+ minute version of Cicatriz ftw!!!) 4.Octahedron 5.Bedlam 6.Frances songs: 1.Cicatriz ESP 2.Tetragrammaton 3.Televators 4.Meccamputechture 5. Luciforms

[marsyvolty1]

i mighty good one at that :)

[lerbdude]

Really? I like de-loused the best. I think...

[TheNickSalvatore]

amazing album, my favourite volta album

[ModulationCracks]

haha i was about to do the same thing until i discovered your album overviews! Pretty good job, man! love em