LATERALUS

As a teenager in the 1980s I was brought up on a diet of awful pop music and hair metal, so I gravitated towards the classic rock of the 70s and then on to prog, attracted by the dirtier sounding guitars and the impressive musicianship. Of course with the demise of Floyd and the apparent selling out of Yes, Genesis and Rush in favour of more radio friendly material I assumed that prog had died before I'd really discovered it and that all we had left was Phil Collins and his Motown covers (so nothing then). I also assumed that Marillion were alone in the Neo-prog world and so into the 90s I started listening to the next best thing (so I thought) - a bit of grunge and as much industrial metal as I could find. I guess its the heavy distortion of the guitars that I liked and I was blissfully unaware of what was happening in the prog world until the early 2000s when I happened across Porcupine Tree. After that I looked for other bands and discovered Experimental metal with Townsend, Green Carnation and of course Tool. From there the entire prog world finally revealed itself to me.

Lateralus was my first Tool album and I was instantly hooked as it had all the ingredients that I valued from distorted guitar to extreme bass, emotionally charged vocals and of course quality rhythm the likes of which I hadn't heard since Santana and the Grateful Dead. It is difficult to say what is most important to me here but suffice to say it really helps that these guys not only write original high quality stuff but they also play like demons. I wouldn't say that Lateralus is an album that needs to be played through but I certainly find it impossible to switch it off not wanting to miss a single beat. The emotive vocals along with the punchy guitar and bass backed up by the superb afro/middle eastern/rock rhythms hold you mesmerized and keep you locked up, all Rapunzel-like, until the start of the final spoken track, Faaip De Oiad where the spell is finally broken. Its almost as if Faaip De Oiad is the final twist of a complex hypnotic spell intended to lead you to the point where you might actually believe what is being said in that final piece. Its a real shame that the final track is somewhat over-acted because it does seem to break the trance and return you to an unwelcome reality. As complaints go, I really was struggling to find anything and settled on this last track as a bit of an over-indulgence.

The listener's involvement in the music is governed initially by the powerful rhythms and dramatic riffs but the final tipping point is the energy and emotion provided by the vocals which are delivered expertly throughout; we are not talking about a once in a lifetime voice here but we are talking about a delivery that does more than it says on the tin. The primary purpose of the vocals are to captivate the listener, not really to tell a story although, they also do that with aplomb, to envelop you in the moment. The progressive nature of post rock and post metal can sometimes feel a little lacking as the music tends to engage with high levels of foreground repetition whilst providing the interesting stuff with the rhythm and the backing instrumentation. A good example is in the track Schism which would appear to be quite standard in structure until you realize that it undergoes over 40 timing changes in less than 7 minutes.

The production of Lateralus is superb and I do find the music instantly accessible mostly because of the interesting drum work from the start and because I love the heavy distortion on the guitars that are pounding out some great riffs. I do accept that many will not find this work as accessible as me and my fellow guitar junkies do but for me this is simply one of the greatest prog albums of all time. Its main weakness, well there isn't one but I do wonder if a little ambience in places would further enhance it but as always I'd hate for them to try it for fear of destroying one of the best albums ever produced. This album is essential to any prog collection and I'd recommend it to the disaffected and angst-ridden of the world as a way to help dissipate or channel those raw emotions.

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