Tool - Fear Inoculum

        Here it is! The long awaited Tool album, finally released after 13 years of waiting. The question on everyone's mind: was it worth the wait? The answer: meh... not really... But is it at least good? Yah, I think so.

        I'm getting ahead of myself. There are probably some people reading this who don't even know about the band Tool. Tool is a legendary progressive metal band well known within the metal community for their unique progressive/psychedelic sound, math based rhythms, and pretentious fans. Their best songs have lots of amazing singing from the frontman, Maynard Keenan, are intensely psychedelic, and have weird music videos to go with them. Tool is honestly a really hard band to describe. If you aren't familiar with Tool already, I suggest you just stop reading this review right now, sit down somewhere comfortable, and listen to Ænima and Lateralus, their two best albums in my opinion.

        I have a confession to make, I am a big Tool fan. I love everything they have made, and have listened to all of it multiple times, including their live album and demo tape, so I will probably be a bit biased in this review, so take that as you will. On the day this album came out, I went strait to the record store and bought the limited collectors edition of the album, which includes an extra long booklet, a little screen that plays a video, and some really cool artwork (I will post photos of it below).

        Personally, I liked this album, however, it has some problems that may prevent non Tool fans from enjoying it. Mostly that it is kind of slow and boring. The album is a massive 87 minutes long, with most tracks around 13 minutes long, and mostly full of slow psychedelic melodies. Even I had a bit of trouble getting into it at first. It wasn't until my 5th or 6th listen that I really started enjoying it. The album also has a few weird transition tracks such as "Litanie Contre La Peur" and "Legion Inoculant" that are kind of interesting, but just seem unnecessary. In addition, this album has no super catchy or memorable tracks such as "The Pot", "Parabol/Parabola", "Hooker With a Penis", or "Sober" from their previous releases. Instead, the album is almost entirely psychedelic sludge and soundscapes. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but might be a turn off for casual listeners.
        This is not to say that Fear Inoculum doesn't have its good moments. The title track comes like a refreshing drink of Tooly psychedelic goodness, almost like something off of Lateralus. It's a track that just screams Tool in a good way, from the whiny guitars, to the funky theorems, to Maynard' awesome vocals. Earlier, I mentioned the weird transition tracks on this album, but one of these tracks that stands out is "Chocolate Chip Trip". On this track we get to hear the Danny Carey's true skill on the drums, delivering to us an amazing proggy drum solo. The fan favorite song on this album is 7empest. It is full of groovy guitar riffs and angry lyrics somewhat reminiscent of Tool's early days. The rest of the songs on this album aren't bad, and if you ignore the fact that this album took 13 years to come out, it's pretty decent.

Rating: 6.5/10


Here's a picture of the deluxe collectors edition , which I got: