CINEMETAL: THE MARS VOLTA – “GOLIATH”
Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 10:26am by Vince NeilsteinSo I loved, loved, loved The Mars Volta’s first album De-loused in the Comatorium when it came out. I then went to see the band that summer on a sweltering hot, 95 degree day at St. Andrew’s Hall in Detroit and the experience was nothing short of cathartic. The band was on fire, and with a few hundred sweaty, hot people absolutely loving the music it all felt like a big family.
Then came Frances The Mute. Except for a couple of songs… uh, what? The album was too ambitious, full of extended, extended prog jams that went nowhere fast. I gave the band another shot, going to see them live at the much-bigger State Theater, and boy did that show suck. “Snooze factory” would be a colossal understatement.
I tried again with last year’s Amputechture. Yawn.
So apparently they have a new album coming out, The Bedlam in Goliath, due January 29, 2008. I’m not getting my hopes up, but the first single is pretty cool and the video, below, is somewhat clever. Maybe the album will be alright?
-VN
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/09VUT6MrCKc" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
I feel the same way, Deloused kicked ass and it just went downhill from there. They will never be able to match what they had the first time around.
I had the same impression with the band (besides I’ve never seen they live)
De-loused in the Comatorium is incredible, but the albums that came after that were fucking boring.
You nailed it Vince, I feel exactly the same way about this band. Deloused was amazing, and Frances had some fucking EXCELLENT songs, but even listening to it while taking a nap was boring. I mean what is with those 9 minute “songs” with 4 minutes straight of crickets chirping? I mean seriously guys, you’re too talented to do that shit. What is that? I couldn’t even begin to get into their last album for fear of 12 minute extended remixes of the washing machine on “rinse”. Get your shit together guys and write actual songs. 4 mins of good music is better than 4 minutes of good music interpsersed between 8 minutes of ambient noise.
I’m with you guys on this one. LOVE De-Loused. Frances had a good moment or two, and the last one is just borrrr-ing.
Didn’t like Deloused. Too much autotune. Frances the Mute was much better in that respect. On this new song the vocals again sound pretty synthetic.
I don’t think Cedric Bixler is too friendly with autotune, that guy is just a good singer. He’s always sounded the same, even in his old band At The Drive In (who are badass if you aren’t just into metal) all the way back to their first demo Hell Paso.
Anyway, I was going to say: Check out the Tremulant EP. It’s out on Gold Standard Laboratories, and it fucking KILLS. There are only three songs, one of which (Concertina, I believe) ended up on Deloused in the Comatorium. The whole affair is very raw and energetic. I was so hyped up on this band after hearing it that Deloused was a HUGE disappointment to me, to the point where only now can I listen to the band and enjoy them. It’s raw, psychedelic, and just plain fucking great.
[...] New the Mars Volta video for Goliath HERE. Check it out. The video is a lil wack but song’s great in my [...]