Tool Fear Inoculum impressions

Wow. Some good points.

Yes, I also feel they’ve "matured". Anyone expecting to hear their earlier material such as Undertow or Aenima (frankly, I think all want more of that), won’t find it anymore in Tool. Opiate and Undertow were more of the traditional 90’s rock style but in Aenima you can see how they started to get more melodic and mature.
Lateralus went even further in that direction. 10,000 days, I just didn’t care for. It just wasn't my cup of tea and not the sound I wanted to hear from Tool. So because of that, I was not as excited as I wanted to be a few months before Fear Inoculum came out.

That said, a few weeks ago when I heard the single, my initial impression was that it was pretty good. I didn’t love it, but I thought it was pretty good.

Now, this is a very important part of my assessment... After I listened a few times the song grew on me to the point where I couldn’t stop playing it. I played it INCESSANTLY. I just heard it in a different way that upon first listen I couldn’t grasp completely. And this is the main sticking point with me and Tool. In my 44 years on this Earth I’ve never heard a band that made music that grew on me more than Tool. It was after I listened to the single many, many times that I became extremely excited for the album.

The album is 1 hour and 26 minutes of information overload. It’s just too much to grasp on first listen. After I listened to it the first time, there were two songs that I was iffy about and they were Pneuma and Culling Voices. After a few more plays of both, I can’t stop playing them. Again, that’s the thing with tool. For some reason they make music that my brain hears differently every time I hear it. They’re ridiculously talented.

Hey to each his own.

I agree with uberwaltz. Many Tool fans have a hard time accepting anything after Aenima, which I fully understand. It's really interesting to hear the progression that the band has made over the years. With each album you can see how they get more melodic and experiment with polyrhythms, time signature changes, etc. For many, that may not be as exciting as their earlier, straight up rock sound.

Personally, I think the album is beautiful and showcases just how talented and outside of the box thinking the band is as a whole.

Just a quick and funny footnote:

I find it hilarious and sad at the same time that throughout the hundreds of thousands of years of human existence, within 7 days of each other, Tool release the brilliant album that is Fear Inoculum and we also got to witness the train wreck that was the VMA awards.

@helomech ...you say you listened to it three times and you find little worth celebrating. Then you say you love 10,000 days.  Just goes to show you... I listened to 10,000 days when it came out and couldn't stand it. I've listened to it on and off for 13 years and I still can't stand it. Fear Inoculum floored me on first listen and it only gets better each and every time I hear it.

Ahhhh, vanilla and chocolate, I guess. Lol.

@jafant Yes, it's probably the last album.
BUT.........I was thinking, since it took so long, maybe they have more material that they recorded. 
Wouldn't it be great if they dropped a bomb a year from now with unreleased tracks? 
Hmmmm....

Remember, Danny Carey is 58 years old. The rest of the band ain't no spring chickens either. This could very well be the final record.

My buddy and I just bought our tickets for the Atlantic City show. Can't freaking wait.

This will be my second time seeing them live.
Ate plenty of acid listening to Aenima in my twenties. I would've loved to eat shrooms at our concert in A.C. In November but I'm driving home so it's a no go.
That would've been great. I don't do drugs anymore, not in a LONG time, but it would've been nice to let go one more time!

I would LOVE if Taylor Swift wrote a song about being bumped off the number one spot by Tool.
Hahahaha!

@mrdecibel  when we were younger, the raw energy of Undertow drew us all in. Nothing like that sound had really been done before so it was new to all of us.

That said, I think it would be pretty hard to deny how much the band has matured and evolved and progressed through the years and specifically to this new album. It's just on a different level of artistry than Undertow.

Like I said, undertow rocks. No question about it. But what they created on this album is a masterpiece. The same cannot be said of Undertow from an artistic sense.