I’ve been imagining this moment for what feels like forever. It was years back when my staff and I were arguing about who’d get to review the Tool album once it finally dropped. Then it didn’t. So we waited. Then came the memes, the passing years, the waning excitement, the news of the legal battles…it started to feel like this day would never come.
Then came the buildup. Tool finally put its entire catalog online, causing an (admittedly) unexpected spike in popularity, becoming the first band to ever occupy all 10 of the Top 10 spots of Billboard’s Rock Digital Song Sales chart. This right after Ænima (the 1996 album) hit the Billboard’s Top 10 and with the newest single, Fear Inoculum, becoming the longest song to enter the “Hot 100.” Needless to say, the hype was real. And now? Now it’s finally here. Thirteen excruciatingly long and languishing years sans Tool’s beguiling, cacophonous melodies and the wait is finally over.
But was Fear Inoculum worth the wait? Were the naysayers correct in predicting a sub-par submission that wouldn’t be able to hold a candle up to the masterpieces of the past? Absolutely not. I have not yet had the time to absorb this album in all of its entirety as Tool makes complex music; each song its own journey—intricate pieces of music that need to be listened to again and again to be fully digested and appreciated. That said, I have loved every second of Fear Inoculum thus far and I am sure that it will fast become one of my favourites. Will it dethrone Lateralus to become Tool’s magnum opus? I never thought I’d be asking myself that question.
Many of the new tracks have that familiar-but-different feel with some riffs and cords reminiscent, reimagined workings of older strums—playful sibling sounds that both define and differentiate Tool as pioneers in prog-rock or post-metal or however you choose to label them. Maynard has toned down his vocals from the earlier screams off albums like Lateralus and Ænima, but I have to say that I thoroughly enjoy the melodic direction he has taken. It’s a sound very similar to what he did with last year’s APC album, Eat the Elephant—beautifully haunting and poignant.
While Pneuma and Invincible were my favourites from my first couple of playthroughs, 7empest—the fifteen-minute epic—was the first to give me chills; sending that electrical charge up the back of the neck and getting those little hairs all erect. Pneuma has more of that raw, OG Tool sound while the title track, Fear Inoculum, is very reminiscent of 10000 Days. This album really has the ability to send one into the reverie—to lose yourself within the complexity of the rhythms, the hypnotic beats, and the transcendental nature of the music itself. It’s beautiful. And I am not going to apologise for gushing as I have waited more than a decade to do so!
Not only have we got new Tool, we have good Tool. I had high expectations (with a few doubting Thomas moments) and they have all been broken. Musically, it’s a masterpiece with Danny Carey sounding better than ever on those drums. Chancellor’s baselines are heavy, dark and reverberating, and Jones may have—in this man’s humble opinion—written some of the best music of his career; some truly mind-bending sounds. It’s like Christmas morning and your parents actually got you exactly what you asked for instead of the Chinese knockoff. Hell, I was worried I’d open that perfectly wrapped parcel and find a pair of socks staring back at me. But no, it’s ours now. It’s here, it’s new, it’s exciting, and we are all calling our friends shouting at each other about how Santa brought us exactly what we’d put on those wishlists. Now I just need that special edition to arrive so I can start gushing once again.
Alex Grey has returned once again to do the album art, this time gracing the cover with a concept entitled “The Great Turn,” with Adam Jones reprising his role as head of art direction. The 86-minute-plus collection was produced by TOOL, with Joe Barresi engineering and mixing the release. Barresi also worked with the band on 10,000 Days.
TOOL formed in 1990, releasing four multi-platinum studio Albums: Undertow (1993), Ænima (1996), Lateralus (2001) and 10,000 Days (2006); two EPs: 72826 (1991) and Opiate (1992) and the limited-edition boxset Salival (2000). The band has won three GRAMMY Awards®: Best Metal Performance (1998, “Ænima”), Best Metal Performance (2002, “Schism”) and Best Recording Package (2007, 10,000 Days). TOOL is Danny Carey (drums), Justin Chancellor (bass), Adam Jones (guitar) and Maynard James Keenan (vocals).
The album is out now on all streaming platforms and is available for purchase. Follow this link for more information. I am going to drop the album artwork, as well as the lyrics below. Thanks for reading and as always, stay sordid.
FEAR INOCULUM
Immunity, long Overdue. Contagion, I exhale you
Naïve, I opened up to you, venom and mania.
Now Contagion, I exhale you.
The Deceiver says, “You belong to me. You don’t wanna breath the light of the others.
Fear the light. Fear the breath. Fear the others for eternity.”
But I hear them now. Inhale the clarity. I hear the venom in what you say.
Inoculated.
Bless this immunity.
Exhale. Expel. Recast my tale. Weave my allegorical elegy.
Enumerate all that I’m to do. Calculating steps away from you.
My own mitosis, growing through division from mania.
Exhale. Expel. Recast my tale. Weave my allegorical elegy.
Forfeit all control, you Poison, you Spectacle.
Exorcise the Spectacle. Exorcise the malady.
Exorcize the disparate poison for eternity.
Purge me and Evacuate the Venom & the Fear that binds me.
Your veil now, lift away.
I see you running.
Deceiver, chased away. A Long time coming.
PNEUMA
We are Spirit bound to this flesh.
(We) go round one foot nailed down.
(But) Bound to reach out and beyond this flesh, become Pneuma.
We are will and wonder, bound to recall – remember
We are Born of One Breath, One Word.
We are all One Spark, Sun becoming.
Child, wake up.
Child, release the light.
Wake up now, child.
Spirit…
Spirit bound to this flesh, this guise, this mask, this dream.
Wake up, remember –
We are born of One Breath, One Word.
We are all One Spark, Sun becoming.
Pneuma.
Reach out and beyond.
Wake up, remember.
We are born of One Breath, One Word.
We are all One Spark, eyes full of wonder.
INVINCIBLE
Long in tooth and soul. Longing for another win.
Lurch into the fray. Weapon out and belly in.
Warrior struggling to remain consequential.
Bellow aloud, bold and proud, of where I’ve been. But here I am.
Beating chest and drums. Beating tired bones again.
Age old battle, mine. Weapon out and belly in.
Tales told of battles won, of things we’ve done, Caligula would grin.
Beating tired bones. Tripping through remember when.
Once invincible. Now the armor’s wearing thin.
Heavy shield down. Warrior struggling to remain relevant.
Warrior struggling to remain consequential.
Bellow aloud, bold and proud, of where I’ve been.
But here I am, where I end.
Tears in my eyes chasing Ponce de Leon’s phantoms.
So filled with hope I can taste mythical fountains.
False hope, perhaps,
But the truth never got in my way before now.
Feel the sting. Feeling time bearing down.
DESCENDING
Free fall through our midnight, this epilogue of our own fable.
Heedless in our slumber.
Floating nescient we free fall through this boundlessness,
This madness of our own making.
Falling isn’t flying. Floating isn’t infinite…
Come, Our end, suddenly. All hail our lethargy. Concede Suddenly.
To the quickened dissolution.
Pray we Mitigate the ruin, calling all to arms and order.
Drifting through this boundlessness, this madness of our own making.
Sound our dire reveille. Rouse all from our apathy, lest we cease to be.
Stir us from our wanton slumber.
Mitigate our ruin.
Call us all to arms and order.
Sound the dread Alarm through our primal body.
Sound the reveille to be or not to be.
Rise. Stay the grand finale.
Stay the reading of our swan song & epilogue.
One Drive; To stay alive.
It’s Elementary. Muster every fiber. Mobilize. Stay Alive
Stir us from our wanton slumber. Mitigate our ruin.
Call us all to arms and order.
CULLING VOICES
Disembodied voices deepen my suspicious tendencies.
(Hearing) Conversations we’ve never had.
Imagined interplay.
Psychopathy. Don’t You dare point that at me.
Heated altercations we’ve never had, (or) so I’m told
Yet guided by them all.
Every single one.
Psychopathy.
Misleading me over and over
Judge, Condemn, and banish any and everyone
Without evidence.
Only the whispers from within.
Psychopathy.
Misleading me over and over.
Imagined interplay
Psychopathy. Don’t You dare point that at me.
7EMPEST
(keep calm. Keepin it calm. Keep calm. FUCK. Here we go again)
Heat lightning flash, but don’t blink. Misleading. Tranquility ruse.
You’re gonna happen again. That’s what I think.
Follow the evidence. Look it dead in the eye. You are darkness.
Trying to Lull us in, before the havoc begins, into a dubious state of serenity.
Acting all surprised when you’re caught in the lie.
We know better. It’s not unlike you.
It’s not unlike you.
We know your nature.
Blame it all on the bastards when you’re blowin out.
Shame on you. Shame on you, now
No amount of wind could begin to cover up your petulant stench and demeanor.
Calm as cookies and cream, so it seems.
We’re not buying your dubious state of serenity.
Acting all surprised when you’re caught in the lie.
We know better. It’s not unlike you
It’s not unlike you. We know your nature.
Calm before the torrent comes.
Calm before the 7empest comes to reign all over.
Disputing intentions invites devastation.
A 7empest must be true to its nature.
A 7empest will be just that.
Control, your delusion. Insane and striking at random.
Victim of your uncertainty, and therefore your doubt’s not an option.
Blameless, the 7empest must/will be just that.
So try as you may, feeble, your attempt to atone.
Your words to erase all the damage cannot.
A 7empest will be just that.
