TOOL
Fear Inoculum
MUSIC FOR NATIONS/SONY MUSIC
LA’s multi-dimensional metallers journey beyond all expectations
“THE ALBUM IS AN ENIGMA INSIDE A PANDORA’S BOX”
THIRTEEN YEARS. THIRTEEN years of speculation, rumour and conjecture. Finally, the most mysterious album since Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy is here. It boils down to nine tracks – six songs and three interludes – and you have to wonder; having made so many people wait for so long, can Tool create something that matches the expectation?
Tool certainly know how to build the drama; pressing play and hearing Adam Jones’ guitar gently teasing the follows in a similar fashion, with a beautifully clean-sounding Jones riff opening before Maynard James Keenan comes in with a stabbing, rhythmic vocal pattern. Again, it weaves in all manner of directions, less like preordained musical passages and more like random breathing patterns or flowing water – a living organism rather than a song. Then Justin Chancellor’s bass smashes you in the chest, a chugging riff comes in and Tool spend a few bars just being a great metal band.
