Tool: Fear Inoculum

[cdm]

These two posts in response to the Tool song puzzle theory above made me lol so good. I died.

I kinda feel bad because there's probably some degree of mental illness involved here...and (if true) losing a job over it. Fuck man.

Bright side: better to be obsessed with Tool than with Q or some shit.

[tony.parente]

I kinda feel bad because there's probably some degree of mental illness involved here...and (if true) losing a job over it. Fuck man.

Bright side: better to be obsessed with Tool than with Q or some shit.

The tool sub borders on the_donald levels of circle jerk and mental illness.

[sinspots]

counterpoint: a non signed copy goes for $125 on eBay. $111 ain’t bad.

Speaking about overpriced CD copies, I can't believe this guy in this link thought people were going to be impressed with his money making skills. http://milesperday.com/2019/09/how-i...-inoculum-cds/. Check out the responses, lol.

[cdm]

...I can't believe this guy in this link thought people were going to be impressed with his money making skills.

Seems like that's his thing....racking up frequent flier miles & cc rewards with questionable / ridiculous / speculative purchases.

[Maximilian]

Just looked up The Tool Hotline lol. Wtf Levi

http://www.thetoolhotline.com/toolnews/

Edit, just kidding to Leviathant, he knows he's the best.

[BrokenSpiral]

Fear Inoculum seems to borrow from a lot of songs..


Pneuma sounds like Schism 2.0..


Invincible and Descending suffer from lack of structure. Drone on too long without a point and Adams palm mute chugging parts just sound like he’s stalling until he thinks of something to play




those are my gripes about the album a week or so in. Otherwise, I’ve come to actually really enjoy it. Pneuma and Tempest being my favorites. There’s some awesome stuff going on in these songs though. The bass solo in invincible is cool. Maynard’s vocals when they step up in intensity on Descending. Danny mf Carey.

[Jon]

you've got to be shitting me. I'll bet the bad edit levi found is part of the "secret message," then

Then again, I suppose, if the album does have a linear theme, then, it would have an opposite theme, in reverse, right?

I know you're messing around, but no.

I already stated earlier on I don't think there's some sort of Holy Gift, or Great Turn, or Great Delusion, whatever. If there was, signs point to it having to do with "splitting" or halving the album somehow. The reddit thread mentions "Decscending" being able to be perfectly split in half, the phrase "My own mitosis..." is exactly halfway through "Fear Inoculum", etc. I think it's honestly just extra little attention to details.

[Lew]

well, finally got a chance to take the whole album in.
wasn't sure if i was going to, but that video of the two dudes listening to pneuma...a quarter of the way through them, i suddenly got dry mouth and stopped listening to the song, chopped up, because i didn't *know* i wanted to hear this album that bad. (f.i is all over the radio, and i love it, and fist pump and shout "tool. fuck yeah" out my car window, like a tool...but i still wasn't sure if i wanted to hear the whole thing.)
uh, music and experiences are personal and subjective and all. i know.
but i FUCKING love this FUCKING album. holy shit. holy fuck. and holy fucking YES.
i really do. that first experience was rad. alternating between mesmerized, then fucking cackling and all "yeah, bitches. yeah.", and just YEAH.
i love that mofo c.c.t.
i love it all.
ok, tomorrow is a head phones session.
WOW, TOOL. wow.
you bitches suit your elderly status. and how. ;p
fuck yeah.

[elevenism]

I know you're messing around, but no.

I already stated earlier on I don't think there's some sort of Holy Gift, or Great Turn, or Great Delusion, whatever. If there was, signs point to it having to do with "splitting" or halving the album somehow. The reddit thread mentions "Decscending" being able to be perfectly split in half, the phrase "My own mitosis..." is exactly halfway through "Fear Inoculum", etc. I think it's honestly just extra little attention to details.

Yeah, I feel you. ALSO, I just listened to the album again, and I DON'T think it has a linear theme.

I'm glad you know I was messing around. I didn't know if people did.

[BrokenSpiral]

I hope they get creative juices flowing while touring and work some songs out together as a band, and being free from that record contract, they pump another one out sooner.

[theimage13]

Okay, so I *just* got around to giving this my first listen. I have not read a single post in this thread. But I have a feeling that my initial take is going to be a pretty unpopular one.

First: it's good. I like it. Do not mistake anything I say below as me saying "ew, this album sucks".

Second: it sounds like....Tool. I mean, it just sounds like more Tool. You know how fans are always complaining that a band's new album sounds nothing like their last one? That's what I actually like about a lot of bands. Progression. Variety. Something different and new. You know those memes where people say "we made a computer watch a thousand hours of TV and then write a commercial"? This feels like that album. It just feels like more of the same. Like, you could just call it Tool Album Number Five and it would feel like an appropriate title. Which, again, I'm okay with, because...it's Tool. They are very much in a league of their own. And I bet a lot, if not most, of their fans are fucking over the moon that this sounds so quintessentially Tool instead of having some sort of drastic new sound.

Let me put it another way: with a lot of bands, if you scratched the vocals and put an album out, you'd often have a hard time guessing who the artist was. This? Within seconds, you're already going "oh, that's Tool". Which, for the millionth time, I'm okay with. Because it is a good album. I just hoped that something about the LP would surprise me. Make me go "wow, I did not see that coming". Not the end of the world that that's not the case though.

[BrokenSpiral]

I’m with you. I definitely hoped for a new take. It sounds great but also like it could have been on the last two albums. After so long away, I hoped they tried something a little different.

[Lew]

that's so odd, because (in a way i cannot articulate, so sorry...maybe upon second listen?) i very much find it different.
very tool, oh yeah.
but...even with that oh so tool-ness, i find something very different on this album.
hopefully i can explain that better soon. or, hells, maybe not? i wish i could explain it, though. geez.

[TheRealNs1]

but...even with that oh so tool-ness, i find something very different on this album.

face melting guitar solos everywhere - to me, Fear Inocolum sounds like a Dream Theater album in the style of Tool.

[Krazy]

For me it’s not so much that it sounds so much like Tool- I actually love that part of it, and was what I was actually hoping for. In that way it delivers.

The problem is they seemed to over think this. There are certain songs that seem to hit the 10:00 mark... just to hit the 10:00 mark. There’s Adams “chug-ah chugga” riffs that at times seem to go nowhere and are interchangeable between songs. In younger days this might’ve been masked by Maynard’s vocals/screams however that disappears for too long stretches.

I think the best song is the title track. It sounds like Tool, progresses, but without sounding like any other song (to me) and repeating itself too much.

Overall good but not great Tool album. Slightly worried that if they play too much if this live, in consecutive songs, they may lose the crowd. Heard Invincible with Descending at COA and overall everyone was kind of “meh” about it.

That said im pretty happy with it overall. A bit of nitpicking, but most songs are too damn long.

[NotoriousTIMP]

Man, I feel sorry for those of you who can't seem to enjoy this album. I just spent the whole day driving from SF to San Diego and had this on the whole time. I finally had a chance to digest this album and I just can't seem to find any real faults here other than its not groundbreaking. This is a very solid performance from a band that needs to grow on some, and not others. Hopefully over time some of you will learn to like what this album is and thats new music from TOOL.

[bobbie solo]

well, finally got a chance to take the whole album in.
wasn't sure if i was going to, but that video of the two dudes listening to pneuma...a quarter of the way through them, i suddenly got dry mouth and stopped listening to the song, chopped up, because i didn't *know* i wanted to hear this album that bad. (f.i is all over the radio, and i love it, and fist pump and shout "tool. fuck yeah" out my car window, like a tool...but i still wasn't sure if i wanted to hear the whole thing.)
uh, music and experiences are personal and subjective and all. i know.
but i FUCKING love this FUCKING album. holy shit. holy fuck. and holy fucking YES.
i really do. that first experience was rad. alternating between mesmerized, then fucking cackling and all "yeah, bitches. yeah.", and just YEAH.
i love that mofo c.c.t.
i love it all.
ok, tomorrow is a head phones session.
WOW, TOOL. wow.
you bitches suit your elderly status. and how. ;p
fuck yeah.

Yikes

[ManBurning]

Man, I feel sorry for those of you who can't seem to enjoy this album. I just spent the whole day driving from SF to San Diego and had this on the whole time. I finally had a chance to digest this album and I just can't seem to find any real faults here other than its not groundbreaking. This is a very solid performance from a band that needs to grow on some, and not others. Hopefully over time some of you will learn to like what this album is and thats new music from TOOL.

At least your location is finally updated from Seattle to San Diego... but, but, but shitty!? It's like summer all year round there! SD has great weather. Never gets too hot nor too cold. How could it be considered "shitty" I wish I could live in SD.

[PhoenixML]

As anybody figure out how the album is never on the same pattern more than 4 times before one of the members changes things a little bit, so that it's always ever moving and changing?

[cahernandez]

Okay, so I *just* got around to giving this my first listen. I have not read a single post in this thread. But I have a feeling that my initial take is going to be a pretty unpopular one.

First: it's good. I like it. Do not mistake anything I say below as me saying "ew, this album sucks".

Second: it sounds like....Tool. I mean, it just sounds like more Tool. You know how fans are always complaining that a band's new album sounds nothing like their last one? That's what I actually like about a lot of bands. Progression. Variety. Something different and new. You know those memes where people say "we made a computer watch a thousand hours of TV and then write a commercial"? This feels like that album. It just feels like more of the same. Like, you could just call it Tool Album Number Five and it would feel like an appropriate title. Which, again, I'm okay with, because...it's Tool. They are very much in a league of their own. And I bet a lot, if not most, of their fans are fucking over the moon that this sounds so quintessentially Tool instead of having some sort of drastic new sound.

Let me put it another way: with a lot of bands, if you scratched the vocals and put an album out, you'd often have a hard time guessing who the artist was. This? Within seconds, you're already going "oh, that's Tool". Which, for the millionth time, I'm okay with. Because it is a good album. I just hoped that something about the LP would surprise me. Make me go "wow, I did not see that coming". Not the end of the world that that's not the case though.

I get your point, but I think that at this stage, Tool is not going to pull a Radiohead OK Computer into Kid A (and not even Radiohead is changing their sound anymore!). And I'm OK with that. Reznor is also at the same stage, his latest albums and soundtrack work are starting to sound very similar (since The Slip?) and I'm A-OK with that.

[Erneuert]

For me it’s not so much that it sounds so much like Tool- I actually love that part of it, and was what I was actually hoping for. In that way it delivers.

The problem is they seemed to over think this. There are certain songs that seem to hit the 10:00 mark... just to hit the 10:00 mark. There’s Adams “chug-ah chugga” riffs that at times seem to go nowhere and are interchangeable between songs. In younger days this might’ve been masked by Maynard’s vocals/screams however that disappears for too long stretches.

I think the best song is the title track. It sounds like Tool, progresses, but without sounding like any other song (to me) and repeating itself too much.

Overall good but not great Tool album. Slightly worried that if they play too much if this live, in consecutive songs, they may lose the crowd. Heard Invincible with Descending at COA and overall everyone was kind of “meh” about it.

That said im pretty happy with it overall. A bit of nitpicking, but most songs are too damn long.

The only part of the title track I really dig is the “EXHALE, EXPEL” bit.

[theimage13]

Day 2:

Having not listened to the album again since the first run through, I can honestly say that not one single note is stuck in my head. No lyric, no riff, no hook of any kind. It's like I haven't even heard the album yet.

This usually doesn't bode well for how much I end up enjoying an album long-term. There's almost always *something* that gets inside my brain and refuses to leave, or can at least be recalled if I want to. But I honest to god don't remember a lick of that album. I'm pretty surprised by that. Was it similar for any of you?

[rampface]

The only weird audio "problems" I've noticed is the notable loud hiss through the entire record (I'm assuming it's from recording to tape?). Listen with headphones to the intro of Culling Voices or any quiet part. There's a loud buzz/hum that I'm amazed they let slip by without correcting.

[richardp]

Day 2:

Having not listened to the album again since the first run through, I can honestly say that not one single note is stuck in my head. No lyric, no riff, no hook of any kind. It's like I haven't even heard the album yet.

This usually doesn't bode well for how much I end up enjoying an album long-term. There's almost always *something* that gets inside my brain and refuses to leave, or can at least be recalled if I want to. But I honest to god don't remember a lick of that album. I'm pretty surprised by that. Was it similar for any of you?

Dude that's a bummer. I've had a rotation of various melodies and guitar licks stuck in my head on infinite loops on repeat. Honestly, more so than any other Tool album if I'm being honest.

[Amaro]

Day 2:

Having not listened to the album again since the first run through, I can honestly say that not one single note is stuck in my head. No lyric, no riff, no hook of any kind. It's like I haven't even heard the album yet.

This usually doesn't bode well for how much I end up enjoying an album long-term. There's almost always *something* that gets inside my brain and refuses to leave, or can at least be recalled if I want to. But I honest to god don't remember a lick of that album. I'm pretty surprised by that. Was it similar for any of you?

If you're saying you've heard it only one time, I'm inclined to say your reaction was/is normal for an album this long-winded.

After I first heard it, I felt basically exhausted. I didn't go right back in for another listen. It took me a few hours after the first listen to where I felt 'cleared up' and had full attention to properly listen again. I didn't feel that way about 10,000 Days at all, not even with my less matured musical understanding of 13 years ago. Although maybe merely taking in new Tool for the first time in over a decade was an additional factor as to why I was so floored with Fear Inoculum.

I know very well what you mean about certain things sticking to you from a single album listen (it happened to me recently on two different songs from one listen-through of the new Lana Del Rey record). You just know when it happens, happening mysteriously and fast, and it is always nice to walk away from feeling. Fear Inoculum might gain your appreciation (at least) from a different angle... It may take some "trying", but perhaps the seamless album experience itself is the takeaway. For me, it certainly is the most "album listen" of all Tool records.

I had said before on here that Fear Inoculum had turned into being my favorite Tool record. The more I think about it - I don't like the favorites game much in general, but the new record is indeed way up there in my preferred Tool vibes for how I feel today, after all these years.

I will say though: Fear Inoculum is definitely not a 10/10. I've been keeping quiet on my love-hate with "Invincible"...ever since hearing the album version (I was more into it in live form). I'm really surprised so many people are in love with it as they are.

"Pneuma" and "7empest" are still my choice tracks. I mean, come on!

[BrokenSpiral]

Pneuma and Tempest are my favorites as well. I like the majority of Descending a lot too. It could have been tightened up in some places though. The area around the “Instagram solo” section has some clunky transitions.

[Jon]

I like the majority of Descending a lot too. It could have been tightened up in some places though.

Descending:


"Descending" keeps on growing and growing. Currently, I'd say I like it just as much as "7empest".

[Lew]

well, i am still loving this album.
more each time, actually.
reading about the low vocal to music ratio had me a bit nervous. tool can go on. (i like it, frankly. 99% of the time)
nope. love the music. love the interludes.
spotifying to clean today, getting to the end of the album i am on and think "hmmm, what next?" and immediately "TOOL TIME!!!".
i am on my fifth listen.
fwiw: i feel kinda bummed that some of you didn't enjoy it the same, in that "damn, i wish i could siphon some of this feeling off and pass it on" but that is the nature of subjective experiences...so. yeah.
anyway, the whole point of this is that, for the first time since hearing them in 1994, i actually fucking said "TOOL TIME" as a reference to listening to them. don't know whether to lol or time travel spontaneously or...just go listen. ;p
tool time.

[Lew]

Dude that's a bummer. I've had a rotation of various melodies and guitar licks stuck in my head on infinite loops on repeat. Honestly, more so than any other Tool album if I'm being honest.

yep. exactly this. sweet.

[elevenism]

Hey, so: IS there a progressive , like, story, or journey, on this album, d'you guys think?

I honestly can't seem to find one