There was once a band called At The Drive-In that found a large amount of success with their one hit “One Armed Scissor.” It was the first time the genre of post-hardcore made it into the mainstream.
However, less than a year after the band got their big break, the band members made the big break themselves. Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez decided to end At The Drive-In because it was limiting their artistic ideas. The two men formed The Mars Volta, incorporating all the strangeness that At The Drive-In was known for but without the emo that came along with it.
The Mars Volta started off simply making noise that they disguised as music by putting it on a plastic disc and selling it at retailers.
However, in their latest effort, “The Bedlam in Goliath,” The Mars Volta seem to have figured out what music is. The album draws many influences from around the world, taking unconventional rock instruments and putting them into conventional rock songs. These include different percussion instruments, like the Aberinkula, which is also the title of the first song on the album.
While the band was in Jerusalem, they had a bizarre run in with an Ouija board that cost them a drummer, an engineer, a home studio and the singer’s foot.
A lot of the songs on “The Bedlam in Goliath” are influenced by the powerful Ouija board that they named “The Soothsayer” (which is also track number 11) and what the Ouija told the band.
It sounds like a bunch of craziness, but the album came out as by far their best and we apparently have some sort of mysterious spirit to thank for that.

For Fans of: Coheed & Cambria, Tool or Radiohead

–Radio X staff