The Mars Volta were formed in 2001 as a creative outlet for two members of the Texas group At the Drive-In, however listening to the Mars Volta it is quite clear that the Mars Volta does not by any means produce 'side-project 'material. At the Drive-in is no more, but the Mars Volta is alive and well, and their newest album, The Bedlam in Goliath, is a perfect example of why they should be revered as a truly innovative group in rock. The Mars Volta creates spastic prog-rock with Latin influences and electronic effects, and it is quite clear that the group does not exist to please. Indeed, their music is quite pleasing, but the band members seem to just seem to play what sounds good to them, and it ' s apparent they don ' t care about success or fame. The tracks contained on The Bedlam in Goliath are shorter then one might expect, and although the longest track, Cavalettas, weighs in at 9:32, the single Wax Simulacra flies by at an atypically short 2:38. However, Goliath is just as distancing from the commercial world: while previous albums in the Mars Volta canon such as Deloused in the Comatorium and Frances the Mute contained quieter songs, few moments of clarity are often here. This offering is an unrelenting attack of Omar Rodr guez-L pez ' s frenzied guitar and Cedric Bixler-Zavala ' s falsetto vocals, which are characteristically surreal on this album. The first track, 'Aberinkula ' , greets the listener with the lyrics ' Have you seen the living/Tired of their own shells/All the non-believers/Torso in the well '. After a complex guitar coda, the track segues into 'Metatron ' , a splendid tune in which constant tempo shifting keeps the track interesting. The highlights of The Bedlam in Goliath are 'Aberinkula ' , 'Wax Simulacra ' , and 'Goliath ' , but it ' s a fantastic album all the way through. The album may seem a bit bloated and overlong on the first listen, and to be sure, the album, nearly 80 minutes long, consumes nearly all the space available on this CD, but after a while, it begins clear that the band uses this to their advantage, as Goliath is a cohesive, complete whole. It seems wrong to call the Mars Volta experimental, because they clearly know what they ' re doing: this stuff rocks pretty hard.