New Best Friend: Ilyena

I'm not sure what to think of the title - who is Ilyena? I don't know.

This song was one of their first singles, and is personally one of my favourite on the album. Since the older albums, they've shy'd away from beautiful progression and intricately orchestrated peaks and valleys. This song showcases what the band should continue to do - think their music through, take their time, and have another bong hit.

Ilyena is the most radio friendly song of the album - and I saw the results immediately.

Many of the people around me are aware that TMV is amazing and I love the band. A few days after this song dropped on the radio and MuchMusic, I had co workers, family and friends asking about the new album and if it sounded anything like the new single. I was shocked, this song is an actual hit - who woulda thunk it? It's amazing, a lot of the people who loved the song, were... get this... girls... nice.

Even at the show I noticed there were plenty of hunnies all over the place, mostly on drugs - but that's beside the point. Outside of the concert all types of girls have been humming:

If you could see, where I've been,
You'd touch the hand that's touching sin.

I mean come on - I know you love this part too, everyone does! Sexual lyrics, epic drum roll, huge climax - it's what every woman craves. That's a fact. Shit, it's what my ears crave. This song is so catchy, so well organized and so up and down that it's hard to get sick of it.

The Mars Volta is changing the way people listen to music - and the influence is spreading. More people are turning to progressive styles of music - leaving traditional song structure weeping for mercy. On Omar's most recent solo project "Calibration", we're seeing Thomas Pridgeon and Marcel the bassist dip deep into dark drum and bass. The chops, the breaks, the fills, the tricks, the drops, the bass, the sheer complexity and not to mention creativity - will create new music. Be worried.

Enough rant - the song is sweet. The meanings are obvious - Goliath speaking to the band - everything you hear is about his terrible sinful life, his regrets, his curse, and lastly the bands obsession with talking about it.

Keep on rocking - you people. Quick mention, if you haven’t listened to "Calibration", Omar's newest solo release, do yourself a favour and HIT THAT UP!

You'd better ask Metatron

What can I say about the second track? It's unreal? It's loud? It's incredibly punky and long!

Well, this song runs for 8:11 and it's a roller coaster just about the whole way through. In classic Mars Volta style, the song goes up and down, left and right, then comes full circle with a chorus... wait, a chorus?

As I listen to this album and think back to Amputechture, I'm beginning to notice that a lot of their songs are becoming less progressive, and more structured. This upsets me. Don't get me wrong, the band still builds their songs up with many awesome sections, but adding the chorus sometimes kills the buzz for me, I already know what it's going to sound like, and I don't need to hear it three times in a row - i get it. Next bar.

Enough on that rant - I really love cranking this song - it's so loud and it reminds me a lot of ATDI (but on speedballs). The lyrics in this song confuse the shit out of me but after listening a lot, you begin to find that the words are being spoken by one character - to another. Goliath speaks through the haunted Ouija Board to the band, telling them of his haunted past while demanding forgiveness to rest his soul.

It seems the spirit of Goliath had a wife and daughter, both of which he did terrible abusive and sexual acts with against their will. The beginning of the song mentions her nervous hands and how he demands to touch them. Goliath "blames the shrouding of a lesser man" that he has deceived his family into becoming a pedophile incest rapist. Ew.

The tone of the song then changes, the Ouija Board (Goliath's spirit) begin's warning the band that they should not tell more people about his terrible past.

"Suffocate the inkwell, while I am legion said the pen"

The Mars Volta's pen (lyrics) will become a haunted instrument for Goliath.
Quick note from the bible, when Jesus casts the devil from man, the devil calls himself legion.

Anyways, there is a whole shit tonne of hidden messages in all their music, so I'm going to jump ahead.

Goliath continues to warn the band that if they decide to spread his terrible story, there will be problems for your future. He states:

"Folding wormholes, my time is riding in the alphabet"

His warning that he is moving through the time space continuum, but only via letters on a Ouija board. Whilst being whimiscle and scary, Goliath knows that while the band has posention of the Ouija board, he is their slave and must answer any question asked. Later in the song, he begs them not to tell his filthiest secrets, he's actually a pedophile incest rapist murderer! Double Ew.

After finding out he murdered his own daughter, we learn the it's the reason he's trapped in the Ouija board in the first place, his sins. Unfortunatly he does not remember how he came to this eternal fate, and tells the band:

"You'd better ask Metatron"

Metatron is the name of a God's angel. In other words, only God knows Goliaths full story and his fate. Neat!