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Fear Hope Love

I’ve been waiting for this album since Aenima.

There, I said it.  Yes, Lateralus disappointed me.  It
lacked something that I feel is very important to
Tool: a sense of humor.  It was an obtuse album and
essentially unique but it lacked the broad
characteristic appeal I find on the other Tool albums,
EVEN Salival.

So enough, about that.

This album is great.  It’s full of monster dominant
guitar as well as sparse passages full of ambience.
It’s angry, somber, and hilarious.  It also, expands
greatly on our perception of what Tool is aurally.
Things we’re accustomed with, if not pseudo-throw
backs to old[er] school Tool, all the way to things
we’d never expect of Tool.

I love this album in it’s entirety.  I can’t pick a
fave at the moment.

‘Vicarious’ is aggressive and straightforward.
‘Jambi’ tricks you with Adam’s super aggro guitar work
at the beginning then Maynard calming things down.
‘Wings’ (pt. 1 and 2) is a huge epic.  It’s hypnotic
and beautiful.  Then comes ‘The Pot’ to snap you out
of it – I can imagine Maynard sneering as he rips in
falsetto.  The two segues ‘Lipan  Conjuring’ and ‘Lost
Keys’ recall the days when it was actually fun to
listen to Tool’s filler (before Salival in my case).
The comes the monstrous ‘Rosetta Stoned’.  This is
such a paradoxical passage (well…alot of Tool is) as
it’s so utterly Tool and so far from them.  Maynard
vocals puncuate and bounce off the fiery instrumental
attack in a style that is so reminiscent of Mike
Patton – you’ll have to hear it to get what I’m
saying.  ‘Intension’ starts off as what can be
percieved as NEW Tool where it turns into NO WAY THIS
IS Tool – oh, but it surely is and it gently leads
into ‘Right in Two’.  ‘Right In Two’ didn’t catch me
on first listen as it may later on because it was so
familiar sounding where everything else tries things
often unheard of in Tool’s catalog of sounds.  It’s
familiarity, however, does not weaken the song  as a
couple more listens have proven it is powerful.
‘Viginti Tres’ is like mixing ‘Mantra’ with ‘(-)
ions’.  Essentially pointless, but would definately be
cool to listen to when shroomin.  On a first listen,
it’s a must to hear it as it kind of tosses you back
into your daily life without feeling the withdrawl.

I love Tool and this album further defines what I love
about them.

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