Considering I could go on all day about how incredible I think this band is as well as this album, I'm going to sort of combine a "For Your Listening Pleasure" post with those same thoughts on how incredible I think they are.
Pretty much if you ask anyone who's well enough versed in the realm of rock music to know who these guys are (and it's not that hard, considering they actually are a pretty fairly well known band in the first place) they'll tell you at the very basic level that they are by and far the weirdest band you'll ever hear of, but that they also make absolutely amazing music as well. And at the very basic level, they'd be right. But in fact it's because they're such a weird band that makes them such the mind-blowing geniuses that they are. Tool has always been a band that has just poured all kinds of innovative, artistic creativity into pretty much everything they do, especially in their ability to create such an amazing prog-metal/art rock sound in a way as if they are actually composing their music out like an actual musical piece rather than just writing yet another typical verse-chorus-verse styled song. And the result (at least from Aenema onward anyways) has always turned out to be nothing less than a pure masterpiece.
Lateralus is certainly no exception. This essentially was the album that first introduced me to Tool, or at least a few of the songs that are on it were anyways. And it was quite literally unlike anything I had ever heard before. It is to my very honest opinion that, as almost equally incredible as both Aenema and they're most recent 10,000 Days are, that this album is without a doubt Tool at their very best. And quite frankly, I also honestly believe it to be one of the best, if not the best album of all time. Not only because of the sheer innovation in musical quality, but also because of it's innovation in all around artistic and intellectual quality as well. Pretty much the main theme by which Tool lives and dies and is always trying to convey to their listeners is the idea of thinking for yourself, analyzing and questioning everything in life with an open mind and using that open mind to reach deep inside yourself and, in the words of lead singer Maynard-James Kennan at the end of each of their live concerts, "create something positive." And never before have they accentuated that ideal the way they do with this album.
Probably the only thing I would criticize this album for would be the only track on here that comes anywhere near resembling anything of a throwaway track, and that would be one of the angrier sounding songs in the post Aenema era in Ticks and Leeches. When Maynard's voice isn't sounding as heavenly and almost downright angelic as it does for being a heavy rock music singers' voice, it does tend to get quite aggressive sounding and at sometimes even degenerates into screamo mode, which he does for basically most of this song. But that is more than made up for by having some of Danny Carry's finest drumming (who is, in my opinion, one of the best drummers of all time), as well as your same old amazing sounding musicianship from guitarist Adam Jones and bassist Justin Chancellor (who is also in my opinion one of the best bass guitarists of all time). There are also a couple of sound effect tracks on this album in which Tool is actually very, very well known for (which reminds me, you have to wait like, 2 minutes before you get to hear the very final track on this album by the way), but is definitely an improvement from how overbearing they can get with it sometimes (which essentially is the only problem I'd say I had with Aenema...... ).
Also, I can't talk about this album without mentioning it's title track somewhere within the discussion. It stands alone as probably my favorite song of all time. Mostly because of what I mentioned before about how this album accentuates those very ideals I mentioned before; it is accentuated by and far moreso in this song than in any others. And in such a very, very inspiring way as well. This essentially was the song that blew me away in so many ways when I first heard it that if I hadn't acknowledged Tool as one of the most amazing bands of all time by then, I had after I heard that song. It invigorates you in such a way that one can't help but go out and take Maynard's advice to use those thoughts and feelings to "create something positive" after having listened to it.
Unfortunately I'm not sure one can get the best experience possible out of this album by listening to my IMEEM playlist of it because of how some of these tracks connect together and how the player seems to cut off between tracks. But if this intrigues anyone to any degree, I don't even have to mention the fact that I would without any doubt suggest going out and purchasing this album, and maybe even a few other Tool albums (post Aenema anyways) as well.
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