Lateralus was probably the most highly anticipated album of 2001.
At least it was for me - after five agonising years since their last album, 1996's Ænima. I still remember getting the album in the mail on a rainy day in May, locking myself in my room and popped the cd into the computer and cranked that bastard right up. And then I listened to it again. And again.
I'd been waiting and aching for it for what felt like a fucking lifetime, I had read article after article on how good it was, what it sounded like, etc etc. The tension was unbearable. I somehow resisted downloading it as I wanted the first listen to be absolutely fresh. And I wasn't disappointed.
I adored it straight away. Everything I had read about turned out to be true - this was more progressive and fucked up and uncommercial and heavier and weirder than anything they had ever done.
As if the music wasn't monumental and fucked up enough, the cover art was the coolest I had ever seen, with a translucent booklet with layer after layer of a human body. Lateralus (which on my copy is mislabelled "Lateralis" - a superior title in my opinion) quickly became a favorite of mine and I still consider it Tool's best song.
After this Tool took another five years to produce a follow-up, 10,000 Days, which I have yet to warm up to. Perhaps one day it will click with me, but the prospects aren't good.
(mp3) Tool - The grudge
(mp3) Tool - Ticks & leeches
Buy Lateralus @ Amazon.com.
6 comments:
This is weird. I listened to this record on the train to work this morning, and thought that this record just had to be on this list. I can't believe that you would post the same day. Would you please get the fuck out of my head?
Now, where did I put my tinfoil hat?
Tinfoil hats won't help you. I'll be in your head no matter what.
Bwahaha.
Wow! Didn't know you love the title song as much as I do.
I think I just fell in love with you more right now!
<3
Hold me, you Finnish cocktease.
I wore out my copy with "Lateralis."
This was the first album I listened to that I simply couldn't play tracks. It was the whole goddamn thing or it was selling myself short. This was prog/post metal or whatever you want to call it in its purest state. It was revolutionary, and perhaps the surest sign of the new order was the lack of true backlash against its success.
Aenima was a quantum leap ahead of Undertow. Lateralus simply transcended Aenima. That 10000 days disappointed was almost to be expected. It was tighter, perhaps suffering from a lack of psychadelics. It's like asking a jazz listener about Larry Carlton. Dude can play, but what did he lose along the way?
You can't post on the demigods of progmetal without a few responses, right?
Lateralus by far still is Tool's finest effort to date. Despite clocking in at almost 1 hour 20 minutes, and despite being one of the most challenging album to listen, it was highly rewarding. My mind got blown to pieces when I first listened to the album. It was so intricate and confounding that it smothers you and chokes you - not that it wants to kill you but just because it is such a diabolical, untamed beast. Then as the smothering stopped, it starts to kick you, and punch you, and spit onto you.
Every subsequent listen only thrills and amaze you more as it reveals more secret that you didn't realize before this. I have been listening to this album for a thousand times but I still find it fresh and brand new. For each and every time I listen to the album, I will stumble upon something new.
Pardon my English but this album is fucking brilliant. You listen to other metal records and your head bobs along. You listen to this album and you'll come out of it sweating and gasping for air like you've just won a wrestling match - it makes you feel alive.
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