Never buy Ouija boards in Jerusalem. That advice applies to most of the world.

As for The Mars Volta front man, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, he can keep buying all of the Ouija boards he wants if he, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and near-permanent guest John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers) keep turning out piercing and relentless albums like “The Bedlam in Goliath.”

According to a drawn out back story not uncommon to The Mars Volta, Rodriguez-Lopez bought a Ouija board in Jerusalem, which the band, in turn, played with on tour.

The board brought the band tons of bad luck and the spirit that haunted them came to be called Goliath.

The entire lengthy back story can be unearthed on their web site.

For those unfamiliar with The Mars Volta, allmusic.com puts them in the following genres: post-hardcore, progressive, metal, post-rock/experimental, punk metal and neo-psychedelia.
Yeah, all that, and don’t forget their Latin and jazz influences.

“The Bedlam in Goliath” is like a journey with no beginning and no end. If you just put the album on repeat, you’d get lost in the nuances of the distorted time signatures and careful orchestration.

An important lesson for The Mars Volta rookies – nothing The Mars Volta does is on accident and this album is a testament to that. It may sound like chaos at first, but keep listening.

Even in the first go around, you’ll hear a few pieces that will make you want to play it all again.
And it wouldn’t be right just to pick a track and start listening — that’d be like going to a movie theater when the movie is half over.

Fortunately, the album cover has the lyrics printed in it, but I hazard to guess that reading the lyrics won’t leave you any less mystified — or disturbed.

“The Bedlam in Goliath” is up-tempo the entire way and is not lacking an abstract catchiness to get your head bobbing, although, given the rhythms in this album, you’ll probably be off.

“Goliath” and “Soothsayer” were tracks that made an impression on me, but everyone will find their own — this album has a lot of depth.

I’ll make the case for “Soothsayer,” though, which is haunting and eerie, especially in the last minute and a half.

Not unlike The Mars Volta’s first three albums, “The Bedlam in Goliath” is over 70 minutes.

However, no track exceeds 10 minutes, which could comfortably be called a Mars Volta standard.
This has been called the best Mars Volta album, and allmusic.com gives it appropriate homage, describing it as an “unrelenting war on silence.”

Truly, “The Bedlam in Goliath” is the most organized chaos since the big bang.