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In my very humble, utterly fanboy opinion. Tool are fairly unique. I've listened to a lot of Prog Metal and they still stand out as being "Tool" And after a few albums of being "Tool" you do kinda end up writing yourself into a corner where you'll be a bit restricted by your identity. You kinda end up being "obligated' to do that thing you're known for. Sometimes that doesn't allow for extremely varied songwriting. But speaking as an utterly tragic fanboy, more 10,000 Days and Lateralus is an excellent thing and this poo poo makes me happy. I would argue it's a bit more proggy and less "metal' as it doesn't seem to have the impact it used to. It still has the weird-rear end songwriting where a bunch of disconnected elements eventually weave themselves together to forming a point. I dig it (but I kinda always was going to) H13 fucked around with this message at 15:19 on Aug 7, 2019 |
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Aug 7, 2019 15:10
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 00:36 |
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I listened to the song last night. Liked it a fair bit but wasn't blown away. Woke up and the swells from that intro were stuck in my head. So since then, I've basically been playing the song on repeat and NOW I loving love it. Pardon the fanboy-ish rant, but this poo poo's cool and I'm excited (and it's hard to dissect Tool's music without sounding like an absolute tosser in the first place, but that's what we love about it). Those swells at the start kinda dictate the whole song, but there's some good foreshadowing going on there. At first I thought it was Adam on guitar, with a delay pedal going to the right. Nope. It's Adam in the left speaker, Justin on the right speaker doing those swells. THAT'S gonna be a dick to play live. Good luck getting the timing right for THAT poo poo. However once I noticed that the rest of the song made a lot more sense. Basically the whole song is just building on those swells at the beginning. Check out Justin's bass line when he finally gets to do things that aren't volume swells. The accented notes are the same notes for those swells. So the song basically starts off with 4 notes each and then as it goes on, they add more and more complexity to it. Eventually Adam and Justin meet up in the middle for that chorus-ish (Exhale, Expel etc.) bit which is kinda as "heavy" as the song gets. The way they sorta evolve those riffs and weave them around each other seems super calculated, especially how they "logically" kinda meet in the middle for that chorus. So I don't agree with calling Tool a jam band. Also, usually for those chorus sections when Adam\Justin come together, they'd put on a big slamming riff (Parabol? Lateralus etc.) but with how Adam\Justin were playing off each other, I kinda feel like it would've been super jarring and not organic if they suddenly burst into The Grudge. It seems more restrained than Tool normally and while I hope we get moments like The Grudge or Vicarious on the album SOMEWHERE, I dig how organic it feels in this song to hold back a bit. On top of that, Maynard's singing is way more pretty and a bit less edgelord. It's a different delivery to what we've heard him do in Tool (EG: Whispering for 90% of 10,000 Days). Now that I know the song a lot more, I LIKE it a lot more. Maybe all this poo poo I "noticed" might've been stunningly obvious to everybody else, but they weren't to me and when I noticed them, I thought it was cool. The differences are subtle for what we normally get\had from Tool and if you're a casual Tool fan (Yes, both of you) these difference will probably be completely meaningless to you. But there are definite differences that do feel like a bit of an evolution for me. ...Not as in OH MY GOD THIS IS THE NEXT EVOLUTION OF MUSIC HEY GUYS JESUS HAS COME BACK AND IT'S TOOL MAYNARD IS GOD IS THAT THE FIBONACCI SEQUENCE BRO? LOL LEARN TO SWIM SHEEP "evolution" But a bit of a different step for Tool. I dig it. I'm excited. The mix is loving amazing.
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Aug 8, 2019 08:43
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What's with all the Adam Jones hate? I think he's a monster player. To come up with some of those ridiculous riffs is drat impressive and while he's not flashy like Vai, a lot of it is pretty fuckin' hard to play because of the stupid timings and variations and...well...being Tool. I think he suits the band perfectly.
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Aug 9, 2019 07:22
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Overbite posted:I don’t turn to tool when looking for squealing guitars and power metal solos Well that's kinda it. Adam's stuff is simple, but I think it's appropriate. With all the rhythmic complexity and ridiculously cool bass stuff, I reckon Tool would sound like a hot mess if you suddenly added augmented 13ths and sweep picking. Petrucci playing for Tool would probably be the worst idea possible.
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Aug 9, 2019 15:09
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ICHIBAHN posted:Was thinking about how creative and interesting 10, 000 Days is - The Pot, Jambi, Vicarious, Wings, Rosetta, Right in Two... And how normal and ordinary this new song is. Yuck. It's alright but it's just alright. You really need to pay closer attention to it. Especially when comparing it to The Pot (which is a bitching song, but hell most of it is 4\4).
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Aug 11, 2019 15:27
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Does the album get heavier than Fear Inoculum? I'm waiting until the release date and I'm not expecting it to, but I'd like it to...
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Aug 26, 2019 08:31
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echinopsis posted:It's hard to accept they spent so long making a song that sounds like a jam session tho. Like the solo is very long and OK, he's no David Gilmour, and feels structureless. Even songs like Third Eye feel much more structured despite being all over the place.. To me anyway. Maybe I need to get stoned If this is still in reference to Fear Inoculum, it absolutely isn't a jam session and has a really interesting structure to it. It's subtle and it doesn't beat you over the head like Vicarious but there's some drat cool poo poo going on in Fear Inoculum.
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Aug 26, 2019 09:08
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So I've got through the album once. drat what an album. I disagree with the criticism that it sounds too similar to their other albums. It definitely sounds like Tool, but it's way more subtle. It doesn't have the big cheesy riffs like Aenima or Vicarious. This is a strength and a bit of a weakness because those big riffs are so much fun when Tool go for it. However, I do think those riffs would feel pretty drat out of place on the album. I also feel it's less layered than their other albums. There's better seperation between Adam and Justin. So when Adam comes in with an arpeggio or some chugga-chugga on top of Justin, it adds a lot. Invincible is a good example of it. This is also why I disagree with the criticism that they sound like a jam band now. All the layers seem super carefully considered and deliberately placed. Some sections may waffle on, but I don't feel like it's for sake of wankery. I need a map to work out whatever the gently caress is going on in Pneuma though. loving hell what a song that is. So far my least favourite track is 7empest surprisingly enough. But since it's the last "proper" song on the album, I suspect I may have been burned out by the time I got to it. Pneuma is insane though.
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Aug 30, 2019 07:22
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I know I'm a tragic nerd (I mean, obviously, I like Tool), but I want to know how they've updated their music gear. Justin sounds the same (but what a goddamn mix on this!), but Adam's sound has less grind in the upper mids and he sounds loving fantastic. I wonder if he's still using that grimy old Marshall? Edit: gently caress me rotten, the ending of Invincible is so awesome. H13 fucked around with this message at 07:47 on Aug 30, 2019 |
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Aug 30, 2019 07:40
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Huntman posted:My only real gripe with the album is that I wish it was a bit more aggressive in certain areas, but I've pretty much come to terms that the Opiate/Undertow days are over for the most part, which is fine. I think a few of the songs lack a bit of an ending. Culling Voices and Descending kinda just...have a half-assed crescendo and fade out. This is where a cheesy riff could've been cool. But those songs kick rear end regardless.
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Aug 30, 2019 08:17
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Giga Gaia posted:hes using diezel amps. they're a very good amp company He used a combination of Diezel, Marshall and Rectos previously. There's a bit of Diezel involved in this sound for sure, but the guitar sound has more lower mid than what I'd expect from Diezel. Working with Barresi I'd guess that there was a blend, but I'd love to know what it was.
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Aug 30, 2019 23:34
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So after a few days of listening to this... I've gone from adoring it, to...respecting the absolute gently caress out of it, but I can look at it a bit more objectively. There are some outstanding musical ideas here. Pnuema in particular is stunning. I love the dynamics in Fear Inoculum and I love how goddamn pretty this album is sometimes. In almost every song there's a series of riffs\moments that make me sit up and go: "Goddamn that's a piece of work" However, now that the hype\excitement has worn off a little, I feel like a fair bit of the album was over-written. A fair few moments where somebody in the band has gone: "No, you NEED that bit, that's like the best bit! That bit there justifies the next bit!" and sometimes that thread of ideas, doesn't feel like it goes anywhere. Then eventually it'll wind its way back to the main idea of the song and it'll be awesome again. These songs are long and that's cool, but they probably could've been 8 minutes, not 10. Also, as I said before, Descending and Culling Voices seem to lack an ending. I still can't get into 7empest because for me it feels like a riff salad. Basically, in each song, there's 6-8 minutes I absolutely love. Then there's about 2-4 minutes where I want them to get back to the point. It's not fair to call it "mindless jamming" because the arrangement of what's going on for a LOT of those sections is ridiculously complicated and I don't think you could improvise that poo poo. Also, the transitions into, throughout and out of those sections are fantastically well written. They're very deliberate, but I'm just not sure why. Hence I feel it was over-written. I feel like they had these great ideas, and they kept trying to justify them, and the 13 year wait by adding to them with other complicated sections which kinda watered the album down a bit. Still an amazing mix though. Overall, I still love the album. I can't wait for people better at music than me to tab this poo poo out so that I can learn some of these ridiculous sections but it definitely feels like purging a lodestone a bit too.
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Sep 1, 2019 12:43
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Colonel Whitey posted:Wasn’t there talk of music videos for this album? I thought Adam teased that they’d be coming but I can’t remember where I heard that. Wait 13 years.
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Sep 26, 2019 01:05
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I think the reason why tempest got any love is because it's the only properly "heavy" song on the album. But it's also by far the worst. There aren't too many Tool songs I dislike, but drat Tempest. You just keep going don't you? Let's throw MORE riffs into this bloated mess! That'll make it better! I love the album (aside from Tempest), but I do think ALL of the songs could benefit from some trimming. They've all got really loving great ideas, and really awesome moments and some really cool progressions, but I think all of them are 5-ish minute songs buried in 10 minute songs.
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Jun 30, 2020 01:22
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I think all the songs have a killer 5-7 minute long sequence in them somewhere which is top tier Tool quality. But then there's like a 3 minute long intro or ending which...isn't BAD but just makes it feel like a lot of effort to listen to those songs to find those really good bits. I like all the songs, LOVE a lot of the sequences, but 7empest sucks.
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Oct 1, 2021 03:16
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 00:36 |
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Colonel Whitey posted:God dammit Danny, I thought you were cool 60 year old man uses formerly commonplace generic insult when mad enough to throw hands. What a shock.
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Dec 18, 2021 08:41
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