Track Listing

1. The Grudge
2. Eon Blue Apocalypse
3. The Patient
4. Mantra
5. Schism
6. Parabol
7. Parabola
8. Ticks & Leeches
9. Lateralus
10. Disposition
11. Reflection
12. Triad
13. Faaip De Oiad

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44699 in Music
• Released on: 2001-05-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics

Amazon.co.uk Review
The epic scope of Tool's excellent third album, Lateralus, could well spell a whole new era for metal. To many casual rock fans, frontman Maynard James Keenan is probably better known as the vocalist in the more MTV-friendly A Perfect Circle but it's indisputably Keenan's main group--art-metal pioneers Tool--that have reshaped the rock landscape most radically. Operating somewhere beyond the parameters of their closest peers Metallica and Jane's Addiction, Tool is the sound of metal at its most sprawling, complex, ambitious and progressive. But while the group's third album--the long-awaited Lateralus--deals with subjects as obtuse at the return of Saturn's orbit and Keenan's fascination with the occult works of Aleister Crowley, this is not simply the sound of pompous prog-rock given a Millennial makeover. Why? Mainly because Tool never let the concept swallow the sheer, gigantic scope of this music--from the brooding, dark instrumental passages and explosive rhythmic tension of the eight-minute opener "The Grudge" to the precise, angular mathematic construction of "Schism". It's true, Lateralus might be a bit much for the pogo-friendly Blink 182 fan in your life but if there's any justice in the world, this fantastic work will do for metal what Radiohead's OK Computer did for indie-rock. The boundaries have fallen and Tool have new horizons in sight. --Louis Pattison

CD Description
Third album of complex, progressive metal from one of the most respected bands in rock. Released five years after theirbreakthrough album 'Aenima'. Singer Maynard James Keenan isalso frontman of A Perfect Circle.

Customer Reviews

Weird And Wonderful
Some were made to write music and gather an audience. They sat in their bedrooms one day listening to Sonic Youth, Nirvana, perhaps even Pink Floyd, grabbed hold of a guitar given to them by a distant uncle or family friend, and started strumming and write lyrics from the heart and maybe even score a hit or two. Some however, were made to change how people like that see music altogether.

Tool are different. They're like the boy who stands in the corner of the playground, that has no friends, and is seen as weird, but you just know that he's got something up his sleeve. He's thinking something. From the first song of Tool's 'Aenima' album, 'Stinkfist', you'll find that if you bully this little boy he'll bite, hiss and scream at you. And then some. 'Aenima' is the album that changed a lot of people's opinions on music while sitting in their rooms with a guitar, so Tool really had nothing to lose, and since Aenima for the most part was a damn vicious affair, it was about time Tool tampered with the quiet, the quiet-loud, and dare I say it, an even more experimental formula. When 'Aenima' was released, nothing else sounded like it, and still nothing does, so if there's one thing that you know about buying a Tool record, it's that you're getting something unlike anything else. And that extends much further than 'Aenima'.

'Lateralus' was much anticipated upon it's release, and rightly so, there aren't many bands who can leave their fan base for 5 years with no new material and get away with it. Something else that there isn't many of is a band actually going and pulling it off and releasing a belter...

'Lateralus' will please those who have much admiration for 'Aenima' and then impress the next generation too, because let's face it, since 'Aenima' was released a new generation has come around. A generation of people listening to Linkin Park and Evanescence to be precise...so if only we could get 'Lateralus' into every single one of those young persons houses. They wouldn't be disappointed that's for sure, Tool possess more time changes than any Linkin Park, contain more rage into nearly 80 minutes than any Papa Roach, and still come out of it with the now fragile listener actually pushing the play button once more. Having said that, amazingly I don't think that Tool are the greatest band in the world, but they're pretty damn close.

Once 'The Grudge' opens electronically, those familiar Tool styled guitars kick in, maybe sounding slightly different. The fact is that 'Lateralus' has been produced far more cleaner than 'Aenima' was. A lot of people complain that 'Aenima''s production was far too turgid and dirty, but it made the record what it was. They were dirty songs, they were huge pieces of mud put into beautiful arrays of music, whereas 'Lateralus' is a much cleaner and shinier effort, almost mechanical. In it's full length (and it is long) 'The Grudge' has more up and downs than a trip to the red light district of Amsterdam, with a stunning Maynard James Keenan howl lasting near on 20 seconds, adding yet more anger to a mix that makes you think that if you weren't already het up, then you will be now, and while 'Eon Blue Apocalypse' is only a starter for 'The Patient' it shows Kennan's vulnerable voice for all it is, before being hit by the loudest riff on the album so far, when 'The Patient' rears its ugly head. And again, while 'Mantra' is only a, I must say, weird way to introduce, 'Schism', it seems amazingly eerie and doesn't prepare you for the albums highlight, making Tool sound like a modern day Pink Floyd re-writing 'Wish You Were Here' for a new generation of angst loving paranoids. 'I know the pieces fit/but I watch them tumble over', sings Keenan more vulnerably than ever it seems, and you start to wonder at just track 5, what's going on inside Tool's head. You wonder if you can figure 'Lateralus' out. I wouldn't try. 'Parabol' is the sober ying to 'Parabola''s vicious yang, it basically being the same song only the previous being a much lighter and more atmospheric side, and the latter being a bile spitting attack.

The rest of the album follows suit in a similar vein that may tire you, and occasionally exhausts you, particularily in the latter stages of the album, though 'Ticks And Leeches' has a fine ending, and the last track on the album maybe being pointless, but showing a sense of paranoia and fear from a different spectrum, just as Tool have done since they're career began.

It's a thoroughly entertaining affair if you can take the OTT as ever prog, and the dark, dark atmosphere and the quiet-loud formula that Tool do so well. 'Thoroughly' is the correct word in this instance, because just listening to 'Lateralus', you can't help but feel that you've certainly got 5 years worth of work. In this instance, 'Lateralus' will last the listener a lot longer than however long it takes Tool to release their next opus, and that shows a band that has produced their work effectively. Since 'Aenima', Tool have grown up from the little boy standing in the corner, and have become a fully working unit that now commands a lot more respect but keeps his vulnerable edge inside more. But when it does come out it's as vicious and perhaps as harrowing as ever, if not more so. You may also play this to your kids in time to come when they're a little older. Perhaps Tool will still be around when they start rooting through your record collection and perhaps they'll take Lateralus upstrairs with them and pluck a few strings on the guitar that sat in your cupboard for so long, but no matter what should happen, 'Lateralus' is a modern day masterpiece of prog-metal that should go down on the classics list. Not many little boys can say they've grown up to such prestigious things now, can they?

4.5 Stars.

Art never sounded this good.
Aenima was a true masterpiece. Tool had treated music like the art-form it really is. Lateralus has taken that attitude a step further, and then some. Opening with 'The Grudge' we can see that Tool are out to prove their superlative musicianship. The album keeps getting better with the likes of 'The Patient' and 'Schism' which caused my jaw to drop at least 5-6 inches. 'Parabol' has Tool going soft on us but it leads into 'Parabola', of which the opening "riff" sounds like a nail-gun being propelled into your face. Which is a high recommendation in my eyes. 'Ticks & Leeches' follows and is probably one of the heaviest songs drawing pure rage and, more importantly, menace. Maynard James Keenan's perfect voice repeats the menacing lines of "Is this what you wanted? Is this what you had in mind? Cuz this is what you're getting!". A scathing attack on todays one minute attention span music industry. The second half of Lateralus is more interesting and a lot moodier than the first half. 'Lateralis' (not a typo) is pure genius and the trio; 'Disposition', 'Reflection' and 'Triad' are the most "out-there" collection of songs Tool have ever done, and also among the best. The closer, 'Faaip de Oiad' is Tool oddness we've come to expect. As I had mentioned before Tool are a bunch of musicians with superlative abilities. Whereas Maynard James Keenan is, well, extraordinary. I doubt there is a more versatile singer in modern music today (Chino isn't a patch on him, sorry Deftones fans, its true). Aenima and Undertow (and to a lesser extent Opiate) showed us his skills but his lyrical virtuosity and his sense of melody have somehow managed to improve. I know, unbelievable. But don't take my word for it, buy the damn record.............NOW! Overall it is difficult to fault Lateralus as an album. Yet my favourite Tool song has got to be 'Third Eye' on Aenima, although a lot of the songs on Lateralus come very close to matching its sheer divine brilliance. Can I give it 6 stars? No. Oh well. It deserves it.

The Greatest Album Ever Made?
I'll answer my own question. Yes, this is the greatest album I've ever heard. I was a huge Tool fan before Lateralus came out and I got my copy the day of release whilst on holiday in Canada.

It took me 4 attempts to get to the 2nd song, because 'The Grudge' is THAT GOOD! I kept replaying that song. It is my favourite song of all time. The rest of the album comes as close to perfection as possible. If you like melodic, thoughtful, powerful hard rock, then quite simply, you need this album in your collection.

Stunningly played, brilliantly produced. This will still sound fresh in 2099.