Lateralus was Tool's Last Great Album

  • Thread starter Thread starter LPMojoGL
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Aenima was their peak. Lateralus, while still pretty good, felt like a step back. I remember waiting at a record store parking lot for hours to get that one at midnight (don't you miss that??). But I remember always feeling slightly underwhelmed by it. I don't listen to Tool much these days as I probably burned myself out on them back then, but if I do reach for Tool it'll be Aenima or Undertow.
 
Soundstorm said:
Aenima was their peak. Lateralus, while still pretty good, felt like a step back. I remember waiting at a record store parking lot for hours to get that one at midnight (don't you miss that??). But I remember always feeling slightly underwhelmed by it. I don't listen to Tool much these days as I probably burned myself out on them back then, but if I do reach for Tool it'll be Aenima or Undertow.
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I felt that way for a while about Lateralus. I still prefer the first 2, but I appreciate Lateralus much more these days. Especially knowing what came after. It's like Metallica's stuff before the Black album.

I found Undertow on vinyl. Aenima is A different story. Guess I'll have to wait for that one until it gets pressed again. If it does.
 
RevDrucifer said:
Lateralus is definitely my favorite and the album that got me into them. I couldn’t fucking stand Tool previous to that album. I had my head up my ass with the shred/virtuoso shit and despite my buddy showing me how much of a prog band Tool was, I just heard it all as “every fuckin’ song is the dude whimpering in the verses then getting angry in the chorus when the guitarist just bangs away in drop D” :ROFLMAO:

It was the polyrythm section, the “With my feet upon the ground…” part of “Lateralus” that blew my fucking mind and turned me into a Tool fan immediately.

There’s a lot I love about 10,000 Days, but at that point it was kinda past the aggressive Tool point. While I prefer aggressive Tool, the last two albums did not surprise me when I heard a lack of aggression from Maynard. Dude’s been writing about unfucking himself for years, it’d be a bit of a downer to hear Fear Innoculum and hear this 50-something dude still bitching about shit some 20+ years after he was writing about not wanting to bitch about shit anymore.
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Makes sense. Maynard is a person and we all go through seasons of our lives. It would show a lack of growth as a writer to still be bitching about shit from our childhood or teenage years when we're approaching 60. Lyrically (and musically), all their albums follow the same trend as most people, getting more chill and reverent over the years.
 
Aenima really good. Like undertow a lot also. Lateralus and salival great also. 10000 days had good songs and pretty generic. Fear innoculum had bad reception in similar way, but is pretty good. I like the older more raw tool, but the newer stuff would be great if we werent trying to compare
 
I like the sounds they get, I like Maynard’s voice. I just don’t care for the vast majority of their work as songwriters and arrangers.
it also didn’t help that the bar I hung in a lot in the early 2000’s would seem to have the same Tool songs on repeat on the jukebox every weekend. Shit got really old.
 
skoora said:
I like the sounds they get, I like Maynard’s voice. I just don’t care for the vast majority of their work as songwriters and arrangers.
it also didn’t help that the bar I hung in a lot in the early 2000’s would seem to have the same Tool songs on repeat on the jukebox every weekend. Shit got really old.
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That would've been great. No such luck where I hung out.
 
Each of the albums has some killer songs and some just boring/filler songs. Undertow and Opiate were the most consistent. Aenema probably was my favorite except the best song IMHO had a terrible 2 minute intro ugh. 10,000 days and Lateralus each some some killer songs (The Pot, The Grudge, Parabola, etc) but a lot of garbage imho. I've heard only bits of the new one; seems meh.
 
Aenima was the best tool album for me.
I do agree that Lateralus was the last great album they made.
10,000 days was Ok, not a big fan of that one.
Fear Inoculum was a let down imo, especially with the hype built around it.
However, I feel like they spent time honing in on the mix of that album which sounds amazing.
 
Fear Inoculum mix/mastering is incredible. And I do like most of the songs. 7empest is pretty dope. I could do without a lot of the drawn out soloing on this album though. A little too much instrumental and lacks a lot of the hypnotic grooves the previous albums have.
 
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