Listen to the new Mars Volta album at your own risk, for there is a curse that is intertwined in its very composition, a hex that is responsible for the strange and terrible coincidences that took place during the album's creation. Drummer Deantoni Parks resigned mid-tour, leaving the band with financial troubles; lead singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala required knee surgery due to an injury caused by the shoes he had been wearing; audio tracks disappeared; guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's home studio flooded; and the album's original engineer suffered a nervous breakdown. According to the band, the curse's culprit is a Ouija board the members purchased in Jerusalem, a toy they played with before every show during their 2006 tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Dubbed "Soothsayer," the board revealed stories, gave names and made demands as the band was contacted by three different entities who appeared in the form of one and whom the band referred to as "Goliath." The band soon began to make a connection between its interaction with the board and the above incidents. The Mars Volta had a difficult time makeing The Bedlam in Goliath. This is not, however, only due to the series of abominable mishaps mentioned above. It is a highly complex, raucous act of forceful rhythm and estranged ambient noise that creeps and seeps into the listener's aural atmosphere. That said, Bedlam is slightly more musically coherent than some of the Volta's previous albums, such as 2006's Amputechture and 2005's Frances the Mute. Although in this album the band is clearly experimenting with deeply intricate layers of unsettling, abnormal ambient sound samples, Bedlam is more similar to 2003's De-loused in the Comatorium in that each song maintains its core musical train of thought, whether it be funk, classic rock or punk, throughout its entirety. These three genres permeate the new album and the Mars Volta's genius lies in the way the band inventively weaves these forms into their characteristic prog-rock framework.

The first track, "Aberinkula," has distinct punk elements that can easily be detected in the rigid, palm-mute guitar riffing. But it doesn't necessarily feel like a punk song. The Volta have built it up with competing Middle-Eastern melodies, Bixler-Zavala's high-pitched double-dubbed vocalizations and nonsensical lyrics and unusually forceful time signatures that direct Rodriguez-Lopez's wayward guitar lines through an ambling independent stream. Similar elements are applied to classic rock-inspired tracks like "Metatron" and "Wax Simulacra." Even on fundamentally funk-driven songs like "Goliath," the Mars Volta's rules of prog-rock mentioned above are implemented with full force and mesmerizing precision. The tracks take the shape of intensely artistic collages of potent guitar riffs and strategically layered, loose and synthesized noise motifs all complemented by an unpredictable, yet passionately rhythmic drum beat.

However, there are elements of this album that resemble Frances the Mute, and unfortunately the tracks that incorporate these elements are the weakest on the album. "Cavalettas," for example, is a 9 1/2 minute synthesizer takeover. Every minute or so, the punk groove that begins the song fades out so that a throbbing, spinning siren noise can fade in and take its place for a few seconds, until the groove resumes. In other words, the music literally zones out at random. Even die-hard Volta fans will most likely not have the patience to listen to a song like this. Similar lapses in coherence are heard in "Askepios" and "Agadez."

The true greatness of Bedlam, however, can be summarized in one track. "Ilyena" is an astounding display of rhythmic genius. An astute listener can actually hear traces of the divine in the way the punchy guitar thrusts lock in with the drum's outlandish time signature. The sheer brilliance of the Mars Volta is in full force on this track as it demonstrates the band's ability to implement the loosest, most volatile musical arrangement while sounding tighter and more in synch than any band playing today. Most of this can be attributed to the slew of talented drummers that have passed through their lineup over the years. Thomas Pridgen-who at age 15 became the youngest person ever to receive a four year scholarship at the Berklee School of Music-is responsible for the drumming on Bedlam and continues the tradition of ungodly drum talent in the Mars Volta. The Bedlam in Goliath is all about imposing, confrontational rhythm. To feel liberated and know that there is still astonishing talent in the music industry today, experience the bedlam of Volta's new disc.