Album #90 : Tool - Lateralus

Tool

Lateralus (2001)

I make no secret of the fact that Tool are one of my favourite bands, not just of the last 20 years, but of all time. The reason for this is because they have taken an "archaic" musical form - progressive rock - and somehow made it more relevant to the modern world. Additionally, in Danny Carey, they boast one of music's most sublime drummers, a man who, along with Mike Portnoy, is one of my few modern drumming heroes.

Lateralus has quite an interesting origin story. Released five years after Aenima (they've never really been about pumping out material, given that in 21 years they've released...um...four studio albums), the album was released after the band pulled a shifty, announcing an album and tracklisting (that subsequently found its way onto Napster) that was fake. It took a month before the group announced the real details.

Clocking in at just a few seconds shy of 80 minutes (just long enough to fit onto a single disc), it's arguably the band's finest, most cohesive work.

The Album

Something Tool have always done well, certainly as well as most other bands, is craft songs that shift between light and dark, between grand heaviness and quiet reflection, yet have this shift be akin to travelling on a rather inconsistent rollercoaster. To avoid this analogy being further tortured, let me explain. One of Tool's great strengths is going from loud to quiet (or vice versa) a number of times within a single song. Sometimes this is immediate, sometimes this is through a gradual buildup, and though you know it's coming, when the change arrives it is like a kick in the guts (in a good way).

On Lateralus they take this strength and pump it full of musical steroids. Compared to their previous releases, the quiet, mellow parts are even quieter, and the monstrous grand explosions of all four members are even grander and more spine-tingling. Additionally, compared to Aenima, there's less of those suite-style link pieces that, frankly, could be quite annoying.

Reviewing most of the songs would result in the same comments, so I'm just going to put them here in a single paragraph. The drumming is typical Carey, all headscratching polyrhythms and a far greater reliance on toms, rototoms and other percussion than is shown by 99.9% of modern drummers. Some of his fill work and general 'timekeeping' is simply mindblowing. Maynard James Keenan goes through every conceivable part of his vocal range, from stage whisper to melodic tone to frightfully painful and evil scream. Adam Jones' guitar doesn't emanate flashy solos, instead content to be a lead instrument sometimes, while taking a back seat at other times. Justin Chancellor proves his stature as an underrated bass player, doing a similar job to Jones, in that for the most part, he's there providing the skeleton for the songs, while at others his bass positively rumbles and thunders.

All four have shining moments throughout. For Carey, it's almost every song, though in particular there's the whirlwind insanity of Ticks and Leeches and the constant, steady tom work of Reflection. For Keenan, he also makes Ticks and Leeches his own, spewing forth a savagely vindictive lyric and vocal, reminiscent of Hooker With A Penis (and revisited five years later with Vicarious), while on Parabol he sings with an almost placid, calm air. He manages to combine both approaches superbly on The Grudge, Schism, Parabola and Lateralus. Jones contributes something brilliant to every track, whether through a "solo" or, more commonly, a chunky, powerful riff that forms the basis of the song. Chancellor's biggest moment is, of course, the bass intro and bassline to Schism.

That, however, is breaking up each member's contribution, and that's not what Tool's about. They are at their finest when all four combine to create something magnificent, which on this album, is often. I struggle to single out highlight tracks because, if I'm honest, I think almost all of them are stunning. I only exclude Mantra (aka the slowed-down sound of Keenan's cat) and Faaip de Oiad (which is an utter mindfuck); even Eon Blue Apocalypse, Adam Jones' touching tribute to his dog, is a pleasant 'link track'. Outside of those three, everywhere you look, you are confronted with genius.

The Verdict

I feel as though I haven't done a very good job conveying just why I love Lateralus so much. On a purely visceral level, it evokes so many feelings, and has such magnificently grand musical highs, that it's hard not to like. On the other hand, from a technical perspective, it is composed and recorded brilliantly. It has its wanky moments (the title track, despite its unadulterated brilliance, is based on the Fibonacci sequence right down to the shifting time signatures)...but then again, that's progressive rock to a T.

What makes this the band's best album in my view is that attention to detail, however; a great deal of thought and effort has gone into crafting these songs, and it shows.

It is simply remarkable.

My rating: *****

Standout Tracks

I struggle to pick only three or four, but....

Lateralus

Disposition/Reflection/Triad (heh heh)

Parabol/Parabola (double heh heh)

Tomorrow, the March recap, and the first album of April. I'm going to avoid pulling some sort of April Fools stunt because that would be predictable, and I'm all about unpredictability.