LATERALUS

Not much can be said about this album that hasn't already been said. For me, this is it. This is the masterpiece of the past 10 or 20 years. This is one of the few modern albums I can put next to recordings of Beethoven or Schostakovich and feel it completely belongs there. In 100 years, they'll be teaching it in schools.

As with every other great piece of music I have ever heard, I didn't get Lateralus on the first listen. Like Mahler's 9th Symphony, it sounded like nothing at first. Only slowly, with time, do the pieces start to click into place, and the big picture suddenly dawns on you. That 'reveal' is one of the reasons I listen to music. Other reasons include moments like the outro of the title track, where the band suddenly scitches into 4/4 and gives us one of the great song outros of all time. It's the kind of moment Wagner lovers pay $100 and sit through six hour operas to hear. It's music of the highest calibur, and if it isn't 5-star worthy than not much else is.

Share this TOOL review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Virtuoso80
• Report this review (#118777)
• Buy TOOL music online with PA partners
• Show all TOOL MP3/Stream
• Go to TOOL page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Lateralus page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for TOOL related discussions