LATERALUS

Beware of (prog) metal groups said to be "influenced" by KING CRIMSON and PINK FLOYD. I'm not sure how the "post" prefix has become attached to groups like TOOL, but I feel obligated, as someone who represents a segment of the progressive aficionado base, to say that this is 90% undistinguished growling atonal, angry metal, and 10% prog. Unfortunately, even that small percentage is marred by precious little certifiable progression. Instead what we hear are repetitive atonal quiet phrasings just before the metal plunders the entire landscape, with precious little by way of transition. I myself do not consider this to be progressive in any significant sense. It is not the ponderous part of PF and KC that makes them progressive, but how they meld the disparate parts into a whole.

Of course, exceptions can always be found, and here the notable exception is called "Reflection" which experiments with violins in lieu of violence, and actually brings RIVERSIDE to mind, which in this barren wasteland is a distinct positive. But TOOL considers 5 extra minutes of a good thing to be a great thing, and even in more melodic subgenres this is rarely the case.

This power tool performs too often at deafening volume, and moves more laterally than forward. 1.5 stars rounded down.