Fear Inoculum

13 years in the making, 5 solid years of blood and sweat in the music studio, threads of musical exploration abandoned and restarted, every note, every complex rhythm meticulously crafted, and finally the wait is over - Tool thrust an epic masterpiece of heavy musical art into our collective consciousness. These guys are now into their 50's, at the very peak of their artistic genius, and this album reflects their growth and perfected precision. Yes every tool album prior to this has been great, with some terrific songs but with a few flaws - some meandering filler pieces or a few songs that didn't quite gel. But this one is different, sure, unmistakably Tool with their strange time signatures and embedding complexity within complexity in an almost fractal way, but now with a maturity and focus and consistent musical brilliance that permeates every one of their multiple 10-12+ minute long songs on this album. It's as though they, like us, suffered through a decade of music industry tripe, bubble gum pop and mindless rap promoted to the lowest common denominator, and then said "step aside kids, this is how to make music that stands the test of time - music that hits you like a sledgehammer but also music as art in the purest truest sense." Mesmerizing, haunting, at times blissfully beautiful and at other times (e.g. 7empest) brutally aggressive and soaring. This folks is their Magnum Opus, their Moby Dick, their Guernica, their Sistine Chapel of musical brilliance. The only adjective that comes close to capturing this masterpiece is Transcendent. This isn't just an album we have waited for for 13 years, this the the Tool masterpiece we have always been waiting for. Epic, brilliant. I will get nothing done for the next two weeks because I will be listening to this over and over and over...

I was originally going to buy the cd version of this but it cost like 40 or 50 bucks and before I could save up for the pre order, it vanished so I downloaded the album; it is too long for one CD so I separated the songs onto 2 different cds and it almost works in their favor that way. I’ve been a fan of Tool since 95 and own all their albums including Salival so after a 13 year absence, I was kind of scared Tool might let me down. They definitely did not! Yes the songs for the most part exceed the 10 minute mark but Tool has evolved like they have with every project since the Opiate Ep to the prog masterpiece 10,000 Days. I’ve listened to this album about 4 times now and my conclusion is that the band are just as good as they were 13 years ago, just different. You can hear echoes of Puscifer and A Perfect Circle in some of these songs in Maynard’s vocal performance but there is also a very strong evolution of the sonic sound of Tool. I won’t break down each track but I will say that samples on here won’t do the songs justice with their length. My favorites are Descending, Pneu, 7tempest, and Culling Time ( a track people seem to not enjoy because they say it’s too soft which I think is ludicrous; it builds up like the song H from “Aenima”). Invincible is an amazing song, Fear Inoculum is really good but not the best song here, Chocolate Chip Trip is an awesome Industrial/drum solo experience for Danny Carey to show off his amazing skills. As for the interludes, the first one was not memorable, I actually really enjoyed the one between “invincible “ and “descending “ very much and the last one, mockingbeat was like a less interesting chocolate chip trip outro but it wasn’t a bad 2 minutes. All in all, this isn’t better than Aenima, Lateralus, or 10,000 Days for me but I think it surpasses Undertow (I wont count Opiate or Salival as albums). Hardcore Tool fans definitely get this and casual ones start with Lateralus, Aenima, or 10,000 Days. I really hope they don’t take such a long time in between albums again but at least we have APC and Puscifer (I honestly enjoyed Moneyshot by Puscifer almost as much as this). Highly recommended and an essential buy.

This is a wonderful example of music and art spread over 3 disks.

I bought the limited edition 5 disc set from Amazon for $61.70. It was worth every penny. Honestly, it was a steal at that price. The set comes as a single bound volume, around the size of a coffee table book or art book. The volume includes artwork on really glossy pages and portraits of each band member. The LP sleeves are made of heavy duty cardstock and are bound into the book alongside the pages. The etchings on the records are beautiful and they match the style of the images in the book very well. Unfortunately they are very faint--You have to catch them in just the right light to see the detail. Etched images are a difficult thing to get right on any vinyl release, so I don't feel too bent out of shape about it. Plenty of reviews rave about the mix on this set and I agree--it's' phenomenal. Even on crappy speakers this is a mix that really lets each performer shine. I also appreciated the way Amazon shipped this. It came in a sturdy cardboard mailer with foam padding from the manufacturer, which was packed inside an outer box from amazon. Everything arrived in great shape. I definitely recommend this for yourself or the Tool fan in your life. It's a solid pickup, especially at the price I paid.

Was it WAYYYY overdue? Absolutely. But after I got over my initial disgust of reminding myself it's been 13 years since I had the opportunity to buy new Tool music, I settled in for a listen while lying to myself that I had no expectations. The verdict? Two thumbs way up! Admittedly, it took a couple listens before I went from, "these rhythms are just weird" to, "ok, now I'm getting it" to where I'm currently at. And that is I am simply blown away at the creativity, innovation and mastered skills of this band. A couple small complaints. First, the instrumental transition songs leave more to be desired - they are too electronic for me and don't have the flow like those from the Lateralus album. Second, I wish Maynard had a bit more raw passion in his voice in some of the songs like albums past. It didn't necessarily need to be rage screaming, but more soul to make us feel the emotions of his words like he's been so good at doing before. That said, I can't stop listening to this album because of the perpetual novelty it brings in discovering the music compositions, myriad of sounds, and cryptic yet thought-provoking lyrics! Get it and give it some time to grow on you; I hope you find it as intriguing and fun to listen to as I do! Bravo, Tool!!

Great band. Great music. Great new album after 13 years. But, clearly they are making a statement about finally having to put all their music out in digital format by only releasing a $150.00 Limited release CD version of the new album 'Fear Inoculum'. I'm a luddite sure-- but it would have been nice to just get a CD version for the standard 15 -16 bucks so I could play it in the CD player in my dumb old Toyota Matrix while I drive to my dumb old job everyday and then be able to look at the CD booklet while I eat my dumb old lunch. Tool you made us all look like fools. DAMN FOOLS!!! Your true fans with disposable income gobbled up the $150.00 version (with 4" tv screen) and your true poor fans only could afford get the MP3 digital option and then had to burn their own dumb CD to play in their dumb old car. But, you guys finally just showed me just how DUMB I really am! If only Justin Bieber will now admit to just how dumb he is for saying he likes your music, you will have finally cured the world of it's sickness. Fear Inoculum is still a great offering of new music from a great band that has just taught us a valuable lesson in why we are all so dumb.

Album songs are great. But the booklet pages came apart on mine after very little use. And it wasn't cheap!

Album sounds great. One of my best sounding vinyl albums. Audiophile grade.