Tool is an American rock band from Los Angeles formed in 1990. The band despite complex and long progressive songs has enjoined incredible global commercial and critics' success. They have won three Grammy Awards, performed worldwide tours as stadium and festival headliners, and produced albums topping the charts in several countries. Lateralus, the third studio album, was named one of the best albums of 2001 by several publications. In the years following its release, Lateralus continued to receive several accolades being considered a masterpiece of prog/alt rock. The group's line-up includes drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. The only line-up change has been Justin Chancellor joining as band's bassist in 1995.
After thirteen years of memes and click-baits speculations, the day has finally arrived! To be honest, I'm not (yet) a Tool fan, so I didn't really care that it took thirteen years for the band to release a new album. There's no logical reason to why I am not a fan since Prog Rock is one of my favorite genres. I guess the whole hype around this band has always put me off. But due to their first release since 2006, I'm now giving it a chance.
Despite a long career, Fear Inoculum is Tool's fifth album. The new effort consists of seven tracks and clocks in at 79 minutes (the digital version features three additional segues). The album length is consistent with previous releases but the average song length that usually is around seven minutes is now increased significantly to 11 minutes. The instrumental sections are long and Tool "invite" listeners to pay attention to figure out what is going on.
The 10-min title track and first single opens the album and showcases what's to come in the first 5 songs. Long songs, mid-tempo, with very prominent drums including percussive sounds, cool bass lines, odd time signatures, tempo changes, beautiful melodies and crescendos that culminate with heavier guitar riffs. All the songs are very good, maybe "Invincible" stands out slightly from the others. The only short song on the album is track six "Chocolate Chip Trip" which is basically a drum solo of almost five minutes with some sample sounds around it. It is said that Danny recorded it in one take when the band was taking a break. This instrumental track leads us to the seventh and last song, the almost sixteen-minute behemoth "7empest". It's my favorite and heaviest song on the album. It's the only song with long guitar solos and where Maynard James Keenan puts some aggressive drive in his vocals. Needless to say that the musicianship is absolutely phenomenal. The guitar playing is minimalist and deceivingly appears "easy". But with few notes Adam Jones is able to create memorable and catchy riffs. And most importantly fully fused with the bass lines and drums forming one cohesive musical experience. Danny Carey is a tireless monster behind the kit. The production is dynamic and very clean, we can hear all the instruments. It could be argued that the drums are a bit too loud in the mix though.
Tool delivered a uncompromising record, they are on that career stage in which they can do whatever they feel is right musically without worrying to please audiences. The band’s songwriting pushes and challenges listeners and it will take weeks or months to completely unpack this present. Initially I had a problem with Fear Inoculum because the first five songs run quite long and are very similar to each other. But I realized we can't take this album as a collection of singles because it's basically one long song. That's how Tool invite us to experience it. It will be interesting to see how the mainstream audience will react to this complex album where the only possible singles are over ten minutes long. While Fear Inoculum is a contender for my top 10 album of 2019, it didn't blew my mind (yet?). It's a very good album though. As always, the problem is that high expectation is the key to disappointment.
SCORE: 83/100
DR: 8
Genre: Alt Progressive Rock
Released by Napalm Records (EU) on August 30th, 2019
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