May 15, 2001 - Lateralus

It's a double release day! On the same day as my last album and nearly five years since their last album "Ænima" (though just six months since their box set "Salival"), Tool released their third album "Lateralus" on May 15, 2001. It's been a long five years but we finally have a whole album of new Tool! Tool move even more into progressive metal on this album with several longer songs and the usual Tool short interludes inbetween. Let's dive into some new Tool!

The album begins with "The Grudge" and words do not do proper justice. There's really cool bass by Justin Chancellor, catchy drums from Danny Carey, epic guitar by Adam Jones and some great singing by Maynard James Keenan. All four of these guys are just on their A+ game and everything sounds phenomenally epic for the whole eight and half minutes. Maynard holds a long scream towards the end for almost 30 straight seconds and that is damn impressive! What an awesome song and a wonderful way to kick off the album! Up next is "Eon Blue Apocalypse" and it's just trippy guitar by Jones for this one minute song. A typical Tool interlude that sounds pretty epic and nicely sets the stage for track 3, "The Patient". This song is slower and much quieter at first, but things sound super epic still and Jones guitar just sounds so solid. Chancellor's slow bass sounds great in the background and Maynard sounds great as well. Beautiful segue to a heavy new riff that sounds pretty sweet. They continue to go back and forth between quiet and heavy and everything in between and everything sounds pretty sweet. Carey plays some cool drums in the quiet ending as well. The next track is "Mantra" and it's psychedelic and very trippy sounds for another minute-plus interlude. It's actually the sound of Maynard gently squeezing his cat! Pretty hilarious once you know what it is, they just put it through a bunch of trippy effects. Track 5 is "Schism" and it's probably Tool's most famous song and the album's lead single. It's driven by a really cool main riff that is played on both bass and guitar and Carey plays some pretty awesome drums throughout as well. Maynard's verse is smooth and epic as always and this is about as radio-friendly as Tool gets I guess, but things still sound very progressive and very cool indeed. The middle section is a little long but still solid and the closing minutes are pretty awesome as they ramp things up for a fantastic finale. Pretty cool tune! The next interlude is "Parabol" and Jones plays some quiet guitar and Chancellor plays some cool quiet bass while Maybard sings in a high quiet voice. This is long for an interlude at over three minutes, but it sounds cool enough and it perfectly sets the stage for track 7 "Parabola" as they shift smoothly into a heavy riff with some great contributions from everyone. Drums, bass and guitar all sound so epic and awesome and Maynard's vocals are smooth and solid overtop. After several minutes of great stuff they slow things down nicely, and then build them back up even better with some great guitar and bass that sounds really catchy and cool. The final minute is a little repetitive but still nice and heavy until they quietly and epicly finish it off. The next track is "Ticks & Leeches" and Carey takes the spotlight with some pretty awesome drums to start us off. Chancellor comes in next with a cool bass line and Jones follows with some epic guitar to complete a pretty sweet main riff. Maynard holds several long screams on this song, and each one sounds fucking incredible! The rest of his singing is good too and the chorus is heavy yet also catchy and things sound pretty fucking awesome! After a bit of this the mood completely shifts as Jones plays a slow and simple guitar riff and everyone else backs off entirely. The bass and drums both return with some quiet but cool stuff, but this part goes on for several minutes, which is a little too long. Once they hit back into the heaviness things sound phenomenal once again as Carey is playing some wicked drums and Maynard holds some more insanely long screams. The last couple minutes are awesome once again and if not for the middle section this would be absolutely nuts! It's still really freaking good! Track 9 is the title track "Lateralus" and Jones starts us off with a slow, very epic sounding guitar riff. They ramp nicely into a heavy riff with Nomesnow playing some great guitar and then it all stops as they shift to the verse. Carey plays some awesome drums and Maynard sings some awesome vocals, Chancellor then enters with some catchy bass and then Jones adds the epic guitar and everything is sounding pretty sweet once again. Words couldn't possibly do justice to all the smooth and amazing metal these guys play. After five minutes they quiet things down as Maynard leads a new verse that expertly sets the stage for a Jones guitar solo and he fucking delivers with one hell of an awesome solo, all overtop some fantastic drums by Carey and some pretty freaking groovy and awesome bass. So much amazing music is on this song! Phenomenal! Amazing! Up next is "Disposition" and Chancellor plays some pretty cool bass to drive this song. Jones adds some tippy light guitar and Carey eventually comes in with a pretty cool drum beat as well. Maynard sings some soft vocals to complete the riff and things sound pretty quietly epic as Maynard likes to sing the line "watch the weather change". This song is cool for sure, but it's easily the tamest "real song" on the album. Carey's drums at the end lead right into track 11 "Reflection" and he's playing a pretty wicked and awesome drum beat right from the start! Chancellor's bass sounds epic and amazing and Jones adds some trippy guitar to make this a very, very cool main riff. They jam this out nicely for several minutes until Maynard finally joins in after almost four minutes! His echo-y vocals sound trippy and cool overtop the cool music and Jones steps up with some cool guitar. There's a long guitar solo with Jones playing a bunch of cool stuff, but it's Carey's drums in the background that are the real highlight, he's so fucking good! They seemingly bring things to a really nice, heavy finish, only to end the song with an echo-y, quiet guitar riff that leads right into the next track, the instrumental song "Triad". We fade in as the riff gets louder and louder and everyone is going full force from the get-go with some cool drums, loud bass and some pretty cool guitar by Jones leading the way. Words could never properly describe the crazy noises he makes on guitar on this song, it's all very cool! After three minutes the bass and drums somehow pick up and get heavier and this is some pretty cool metal right here. They quiet it down for a minute,and then come roaring back for a strong finish to this pretty cool song. The album's final track is "Faaip De Oiad" and it's definitely a weird one. There's loud radio static and drums in the background and then a voice starts to rant about how he used to work at Area 51 and aliens are real and the government knows all about it. It all sounds pretty trippy but it's a strange way to end an otherwise pretty fucking phenomenal album.

That is the end of "Lateralus" and I thought it was an amazing album! I think I raved enough during the review, but what a phenomenal collection of songs! I think it's even better than their last album, and it was also really fucking good, this one was just better! All hail Tool!