The Bedlam in Goliath - Reception

Reception

The album so far has a score of 66 out of 100 from Metacritic based on "generally favorable reviews". Jason Pettigrew of Alternative Press gave the album all five stars and called it "the first great record of 2008." John Hanson of Sputnikmusic gave the album a score of 4.5 out of five and called it "simply an immense album." Uncut gave it a score of four stars out of five and called it the band's "most digestible record yet." Blender also gave it a score of four stars out of five and said, "Never before have these kings of experimental metal sustained such pulse-quickening energy, honing their tricks--cryptic lyrics, cliffhanging cries, spine-twisting rhythms--into a screaming arrow of sound." Gary Graff of Billboard gave it a favorable review and said, "Most of the time, however, the band makes a righteous racket that straddles the worlds of prog rock, funk, fusion jazz and world music, with Eastern motifs spicing 'Aberinkula' and a bit of cosmic blues making its way into 'Conjugal Burns.'" Vibe likewise gave it four stars out of five and said, "Rarely does rock music feel so simultaneously orchestrated and raw." Shilpa Ganatra of Hot Press gave it a positive review and said, "The manner in which the group weave complex musical tapestries is certainly impressive from a purely technical perspective, but you suspect that they were a lot more fun to assemble than they are to listen to."

Other reviews are average, mixed or negative: Q gave it a score of three stars out of five and said "There's greater scope here than ever before, with the gentle Ilyena providing space before Cavaletta's riot of detuned radios, car alarms and struggling internet connections." The Observer also gave it a score of three stars out of five and said, "The converted will no doubt welcome their current interest in Middle Eastern superstition, plus intricate tunes such as 'The Second Coming'. Outsiders, however, may remain sceptical." Under the Radar gave it a score of five stars out of ten and said it "ultimately sounds like The Mars Volta, nothing more and nothing less." Andy Beta of Paste gave the album two-and-a-half stars out of five and said that "even the highest highs soon crash and dissipate, wallowing once more in a proggy bog." Austin Powell of The Austin Chronicle also gave the album two-and-a-half stars out of five and called it "a black hole of esoteric expressionism, as baffling as it is brilliant." Travis Woods of Prefix Magazine also gave it a mixed review and called it "rut music and The Mars Volta are still stuck in it; even if they’ve managed to avoiding digging themselves any deeper with Goliath’s frenetic lateral slides into pseudo bedlam, momentum is only momentum if you’re going somewhere." Hipster of Tiny Mix Tapes gave it a score of two stars out of five and called it "an exhausting and overwhelming effort that fails to leave any tangible impression." Jason Keller of Now also gave it two stars out of five and said the Mars Volta "sound like a band becoming a bit too comfortable in their niche."

Dave Simpson of The Guardian gave the album only one star out of five and said, "The 'songs' (a relative concept on planet Mars Volta) sound as though they are competing to unleash as many prog-rock cliches as possible: portentous guitar riffs and twiddly bits are interspersed with all manner of atonal wind instruments and sonic pomposities." Dave Hughes of Slant Magazine also gave the album a score of one star out of five and said that it sadly "takes sound and fury, signifying nothing, to new depths."