LATERALUS

When I scroll through the list of ratings for this album the first thing I notice is the polarizing outcome. This is really an album you extremely like or (almost) hate apparently. When I bought it 5 years ago it was album of the month and Tool was mentioned as a metal sensation. I didn't know them then so I bought this one. In such a situation you expect a lot and because I didn't know them I hoped for something like Dream Theater or even better. That proved to be a big misjudgement.

Tool isn't at all like Dream Theater, it could even be their opposite. In a review of an Agalloch album I maintained that prog metal could roughly be divided in two categories: The DT- like prog metal with recognazible song structure and almost symphonic compositions at times. Symphony X could also be in that categorie as of course quite some others. In the other categorie there were bands like Tool, Anathema and Fates Warning. Every time I listen to an album of one of those bands I can't help it, but I'm not enjoying myself. Even if I give it the best try I can I can't get into that groove. I can't really get my finger on it what that is. I mean, it's metal, I like almost all metal but not this. There are not really great songs or compositions found with these bands.

So when I was going to review this I thought I was going to give this 2 stars but I gave it another listen and I have to admit that there is a certain class about this band. They are not doing a bad job for their style of music and usually I only give 1 or 2 stars when the music is really bad or the band is doing a poor performance or something. That is not the case here so I will give them 3 stars for this but it will never be my cup of tea.