Review - Tool



Tool
Lateralus
by: Chris and Matt

Chris: Are you familiar with the hunting badger? It is an ornery, cranky, ball of muscle and teeth; one of the few creatures (save humans) that are prone to unprovoked attacks. This is the essence of Lateralus. It's like someone just punching you in the back of your head at a bus stop for absolutely no reason. A personal, emotional, at times violent, but always intense and beautiful eighty minutes of brilliant song writing. On this album Danny Carey does his best work ever. Lacking any real musical training, it's difficult for me to put into words why his drumming his better on this album than all previous ones. Lets just say the drum sound is different, and there's just MORE drum than before. Lateralus is also vocally, and lyrically one of Maynard's best performances. We've known that he can scream like a motherfucker, and A Perfect Circle proved that he could sing, and he does both extraordinarily well on this album. Lyrically he focuses a little less on culture, and more on his own introspective nature. I love the fact that in this day and age of Limp Bizkit clones and 3 minute singles, a band like Tool has the balls to produce an album like this. No clear radio singles, a song that waits what seems like an eternity until Maynard starts singing, and a straight up instrumental. One of the most complete albums I've ever heard, especially at this length. Lateralus is far and away Tool's best album to date. I bow to their hunting badger nature.

Matt: if i was a whore, honey you couldn't afford me. go listen to that "serious" black metal where they make up for lack of imagination and originality by killing each other. classy. A Perfect Circle is some trite bullshit, no argument. Danny Carey showing a little prowess, so did the guitarist in Poison. make the connection, technical proficiency does not equal an emotional performance duh. Maynard rushed his ass into the studio, has very little time, lyrics and coke and slapped some lyrics together in a couple days. deal with the sub par effort the album is and start working on your real problems, like that fear of side burns that has tornmented you.

Chris: Matt, stop fucking that high horse you rode in on, you ignorant slut. I'm not even going to qualify your comparisson of Tool to Poison with a response. Any real music fan will recognize the superiority of Lateralus. Period. I keep hearing you flap your gums on the small amount of time Maynard had on an album that was over a year and a half in production. Stop your whining.

Matt(the cute one): Badger schmadger. If the new album by tool is akin to any animal it would be aging lion. Once ferocious and inspiring awe in all it encountered, they now inspire more reverence for their past work than true appreciation for Lateralus. Their roll as heavy metal's most engaging and interesting band now well defined, Lateralus seems like a rushed affair to just get some product out in the market if not for records $ales just to prove that they can. it has been too long between records and the new album seems like a piecemeal between the album they want to make artistically and the rising demands of fans/media/label for something. Very meditative in structure, the album offers a barrage of repeating riffs on each song, building tension on some, boring on others. While they do turn riffs inside out with changing arrangements, the fact reminds that they basically use the same riff for 6 straight minutes(done more effectively on Aenima's 46 &2). the instrumental interludes throughout offer little except background musings of little significance. Maynard's lyrics aren't as insightful and provoking as past efforts but still are worth the purchase alone. Seems like leftover words from a perfect circle sessions. It is also obvious that he was not there for most of the songwriting sessions and he lyrics are pasted on to predetermined music. The drumming is good on this album though it does at time degenerate into the cliché metal "double bass drum" runs ala late 80's metallica. a great album compared to what else is in the billboard top 200, but compared with their past and contemporaries, it slinks down to a good album in the context of the past.

Chris: You filthy whore. You're just mad because it's not "emo" enough for you. No good songs to just cry to. The lyrics for A Perfect Circle were way more pretentious than Lateralus, and how can you begrudge Danny Carey for showing a little techinical prowess that adds an extra oomph to the music? From what I understand, Tool has always written the music first and then left Maynard to finish up, so how you can tell "Maynard was not there for most of the song writing sessions..." is beyond me. Acknowledge the superiority of Lateralus or I will end you!

Matt: Your buffooner continues to amaze almost as much as your blind love for this obviously only decent album. Perhaps digging into your psychological makeup could provide some incite? not hugged enough growing chris? maybe too much? go listen to latest album by *insert shitty "evil" metal band here* and hate your "dark" existence you emo-oid slut of hell(maybe thats a bit much).




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