LATERALUS

STAGNANT! For most of you on here writing reviews for TOOL albums I can only assume you've all heard Aenima. I once back in the late 90s's was a huge Tool fan and could'nt praise them enough for this new sound that they brought into my life starting with undertow and evolving into Aenima. So you would think that after some 5 years that the band would have had plenty of time to evolve even further for their next release. They did not. Tool took to recreating Aenima pretty much for the rest of their career so far. In my opinion not only is that a slap in the face to fans but also down right lazy songwriting. For a band to break so much ground for a few albums and then to come to a complete stand still is an obvious sign that TOOL is afraid to grow any further in fear that they might lose that fan base and all important pay check. Is there any integrity in that? TOOl became horribly predictable ( In several spots on any post Aenima TOOL album you have DANNY CAREY subdividing the beat to end a song and ADAM JONES dragging his pick up and down some strings with a light delay on it). In the end it's a sad day when a band that is regarded as progressive stands still and refuses to move their sound forward in any real way. If you are new to TOOL check out Aenima and Undertow you really don't have to go any further in their discography because everything they do as a band is done on those 2 albums in a genuine way.