Tool: Lateralus : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

You need time to deal with Lateralus - a lot more than the seventy-seven minutes it takes just to play the whole disc. And for much of that time, you will wonder: What the fuck is going on here? Drums, bass and guitars move in jarring cycles of hyperhowl and near-silent death march. The mix is inside out - roiling percussion and grunting bass to the fore; the singer bellowing from the far back of the band's black roar. And where is the melodic and narrative resolution in this crushing darkness? Do these asymmetrical chunks of distemper - one-minute sound games, jumbo two- and three-part suites - even qualify as songs?

So much of Tool's third full-length studio album - five years in the waiting, due in part to extended legal turbulence - makes so little sense at first. But that is one of Lateralus' most endearing qualities: It rolls out its pleasures and coherence slowly, even stubbornly. Most of the so-called new metal has the dramatic heft of thin air. But the L.A.-based Tool - guitarist Adam Jones, vocalist Maynard James Keenan (back from his other band, A Perfect Circle), drummer Danny Carey and bassist Justin Chancellor - are obsessed with weight, the cumulative force of muscle, imagination and immaculately wrought suspense. Tool have everything it takes to beat you senseless; they proved it on 1993's Undertow and their 1996 Grammy-winning beast, Aenima. Here, Tool go to extravagant lengths to drown you in sensation.

The prolonged running times of most of Lateralus' thirteen tracks are misleading; the entire album rolls and stomps with suitelike purpose. In "The Grudge" (8:34), "Schism" (6:43) and "Lateralus" (9:22), the episodic swerves are compressed under single titles. Other numbers run together like connective tissue. "Parabol" and "Parabola" are basically distorted reflections of each other, twinned images of the same nightmare. In "Parabol," Keenan's voice is bathed in wet, gray echo and crawls like a wounded man through the implied devastation of Carey's hissing cymbals and Chancellor's gaunt bass lines. "Parabola" is the emotional remix, an explosive rescoring of that agony with the additional payoff of hard-won deliverance. Carey goes into jungle-telegraph overdrive, and Jones' guitar is a colossus of distortion; his break just past the midway point is so broad and dense with fuzz that it doesn't seem to have any notes - or air. You could die of suffocation in there.

"Ticks and Leeches" needs every one of its eight minutes to reach its bloody apogee. The song is an opera of nervous tics: the vicious chop of the central hook; a sudden drop into virtual nothing; the cleaving effect of Keenan's charred screaming; a final triple-time freakout. Some sections stop on a dime, in mid-rage; the quiet bit is a serious test of patience, a long veil of faint strum and smothering peril. But each of those changes is a potent, necessary link in a snowballing indictment of parasitic evil. When Keenan goes into his climactic seizure ("Suuuck! Meee! Dryyy!"), he sounds like he's truly up to his neck in harpies and lawyers.

In another era, Lateralus - co-produced by Tool and engineer David Bottrill - would have been considered progressive rock, ten tons of impressive pretension. Jones' hairpin riffing in "The Grudge," the cool, dreamy intro of "The Patient" and Carey's frenetic Afro-Zeppelin drumming all over the record suggest a grand mutant blend of vintage Jane's Addiction and King Crimson circa Larks' Tongues in Aspic. The only things separating Pink Floyd's spacewalk "Echoes" - which ate up Side Two of 1971's Meddle - and the twenty-two-minute sequence of "Disposition," "Reflection" and "Triad" on Lateralus are thirty years and Tool's impulse to cram every inch of infinity with hard guitar meat and absolute dread.

But in this heavy-music century, awash in masks, turntables and Ming the Merciless goatees, Lateralus stands for a vanishing common sense in hard rock: that the only extremes that matter are those in the music. Indeed, the most amazing thing about Lateralus is Tool's extraordinary restraint. One reason why these songs seem to go on forever is that the band never rushes a good idea: the soft, protracted tension of "Disposition"; the Arabic-metal jamming in "Triad."

But the reason you don't keep checking your watch is because Tool never play like they're just killing time. "I know/The pieces fit," Keenan swears repeatedly against the rolling thunder of "Schism." Lateralus is a monster of many parts, made to be swallowed whole.

DAVID FRICKE

(Posted: May 14, 2001)

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Review 1 of 9

5of 5 Stars

"Gargantuan". It's a word that gets thrown around very prolifically in the music genre. Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitar playing could be considered "Gargantuan", as would Dylan's songwriting, and so would Tool's ability to master all the mediums in which they dabble. Lateralus may be the definitive albums of all time. Yes, I'm a devoted Tool fan. Yes, I do think Maynard James Keenan is that rare, unrelenting genious front - man that only emerges every so often. But I'm also influenced by a lot of other music and can honestly say that Tool comes from an emotional epicenter that few other bands can hardly locate.

This album is a long, rolling monster. "The Grudge" offers no warm welcome as it crashes and collides in and around itself only to lead into the trickling, dreamy "Eon blue apocalypse". The title track, as is only appropriate, is a 9:24 embodiment of an album that is waste deep in religion, immortality, interconnection and communication. Keenan's canticle of "swinging on the spiral of our divinity and still being a human" may be lost to the novice or passive listener who still writes Tool off as being an average, adolescent angst driven machine. The truth, however, is hidden within every second of this album's labyrintine core is true musical beauty and the truths, though not easily reached, are well worth the struggle. This album is evidence of Tool's stature as the world's best kept secret, whose collective talent is rivaled only by Radiohead. Lateralus may not be given its due right away, but perhaps a few years down the road, when people are looking back they'll unearth this gem and realize what was overlooked the first go around: This is the gargantuous opus of an era.

Jun 18, 2008 13:59:51

Review 2 of 9

Not Rated

slashgnfnr206, most of rollingstone editors are still from the journalism major background. They cannot comprehend anything from any other perspective. Thats why you can see them still pining for the days of Bob Dylan where political lyricism pertinent to their youths long since past reigned supreme. They cannot understand heavy music, and write it off as showing off and little else. It is unfortunate, because they were so good at seeing what was great with the old songwriter/musicians of the 60s, but so bad at seeing the good in other styles of music. The soul and passion of groups like tool, led zeppelin and other great heavy artists goes unnoticed or at least misunderstood.

Thats why you see 4 star ratings for masterpieces like this. You have essentially prose criticism for raw and exposed music like this and it just doesn't work.

Feb 22, 2008 14:22:21

Review 3 of 9

5of 5 Stars

How could this guy could not give Lateralus 5 stars? Simple put, it's basically the most amazing, hauntingly beautiful album ever made. It's pretty much indescribable so I'm not even going to try. All I will say is that this is as good as it gets in rock music.

Feb 16, 2008 10:53:26

Review 4 of 9

5of 5 Stars

I've been a fan of Tools music since a bit before they released Lateralus. I've always enjoyed a wide range of musicians from all different genres. Topping that list were great heavy bands like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Yet, no other band, after hearing their work, has made me become so bored of so much other music afterward. I cannot tolerate the vast majority of music now. It all seems so obvious, lyrically and musically. That isn't to say no other band holds any value for me, because some do. It is just that that list decreased significantly. It is like being deafened by a wondrous sound and no longer being able to hear anything too quiet. I do not regret it for a moment, because that blinding experience was well worth the muting effect it has had on most other music. Easily one of my favorite albums I've listened to.

Jun 4, 2007 17:39:02

Review 5 of 9

5of 5 Stars

I've written a lot of reviews for Lateralus. By now, I should know exactly what I want to say about it, but I don't, I'm not even close. This album, to put it bluntly, changed my life. I've never listened to music the same way since Lateralus soaked in. My view on the world, in fact, is different because of its musical message. I'd say that it's the best album ever made, that it contains the brightest, most optimistic message ever conceived, but I'm still trying to unfold it, layer by layer. the title track, for instance, is one of maybe...four songs that to this day, will give me goosebumps when I listen to it, needless to say, it's my favorite song of all time. After listening to that song and the album in length countless times, I've found that Lateralus' greatest quality is also its most obvious and concurrently, the most overlooked. Every album has a theme- girlfriends, drugs, alcohol, etc., but Lateralus, isn't really about one thing, or anything material at all. It's significance is something that crosses over into the intangible. In a sense, its about the human experience, the unnamed force in nature. A theme so broad, so cosmic, can never get tiring, and never fear that it will. This album not only marks Tool's greatest step in progression, but should by all means solidify their place among the giants that have come before them. This album is an Opus, and a milestone in contemporary music and thought.

May 16, 2007 14:22:22

Review 6 of 9

Not Rated

The metamorphosis of tools rage into dispair into retaliation and at last into peace and uplifting revelation is inspiring to hear. The genuine ascendance to hope and reason over hatred and wallowing in bitter loathing is something more profound than much of the music I've heard. Lateralus is the culmination of that incredible journey, insisting on the value of the human mind and potential, the glory to just be alive and breathing and the rejection of embracing negativity. To those who say this album is pretentious, I say you are cynical. Bitter and unable to appreciate the positive message maynard screams.

Mar 28, 2007 11:51:09

Review 7 of 9

Not Rated

This album takes music beyond the realms of existence, meandering, flowing and crashing around you like some great aural river.

Sonically, it's like being immersed in somebody elses essence, claustrophobic at times, soothing at others, and transcendant at yet more.

From the circular riffing of 'Schism' and 'Lateralis' to the joyous sentiment of 'Parabol/Parabola' (one of the finest and purest love songs I have ever heard), to the vocal dexterity of 'The Patient', this album is a marvel.

Add to this Alex Grey's stunning package design, and you have a body of work worth every single second of its 77-minute run time. I loved it the day I first heard it, I adore it now.

Dec 18, 2006 18:27:44

Review 8 of 9

Not Rated

I took a philosophy class once. We were told that Plato believed in Forms. Forms were perfect versions of the crap that we see in our everyday lives. We see lots of different kinds of chairs here on earth, but in heaven or Mt Olympus or wherever, there is 1 chair. The Form of chair. The chair that all other chairs should be.
Well, I firmly believe, and I think ol' Socrates would agree with me on this one, that if you woke up one morning and decided to leave your cave and take a look at the true reality, you'd see that Lateralus is the Form for metal. Everything else in this genre is some degree crappier than this CD. Maynard and the boys have given us puny mortals as much of the audio ambrosia as we can handle. Any more would be wasted on our tiny human ears.

Nov 5, 2006 21:33:44

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