LATERALUS

You wanna know how a band like this is so awesome?Because of how polarizing they are.Never do you ever hear of someone shrugging their shoulders when approached with the band Tool.They either love them or hate them with a passion.Most people simply give this a bad review because they are so indulged into prog rock that when they hear that someone says that this album is a great prog masterpiece that when they listen to it they realize that it's not exactly the prog that they've come to know and love.So they automatically get angry and write this band off altogether without even listening to it a few more times just to give it a chance.

Good music gets you hooked in no time but later on down a few years other things come to take its place.Great music though,and I mean truly beautiful music,will not get you hooked.No,instead it grows on you and it keeps growing until it has become something entirely different: an important passage in the book of your life, a cure to go to when you're down and in doubt, a state of mind, a fire burning deep within your heart in almost spiritual sense.You get the idea.

Very rarely does a certain kind of music come a along that defines a generation.And very rarely does music come along that defines society.But even rarer still does there ever come a certain kind of music that doesn't simply reflect the state of society in its time or expresses a strong opinion about conflicts national or global,but shows us something never seen before,an alien world that just might be a transcendental portal supreme revelation.It is a view that simply cannot be seen through ignorance or prejudice.It takes time to adjust your ears to this musical horizon so you must be patient and give it exactly well spent time.Most people would argue that music shouldn't have to take so long to become effective but I so very beg to differ. All truly awesome things take time to develop. Trust me,look up anything be it a sport or band or artist or religion that you share a strong bond with and you'll see that anything you have come to like didn't happen just like that.It took time and struggle and persistance.It is the same with everything else.

Let's face it,nodobdy completely loved any album off this site through just one listen.It took a little more than that.Some albums take more time than others like Tales From Topographic Oceans.It took me at least ten times till I finally "got it".But that preserverance paid off like you wouldn't believe.It brought me a new vision,a new way of looking at things,and so much raw emotion,fire for my heart.There have only been two albums to help me transcend the previous state for which I lived:Tales from Topographic Oceans and Lateralus. Lateralus sent me on a musical journey like no other.

Transcendental,inspiring,mystical,spiritual,an uncanny masterpiece.This album didn't just become enjoyable to listen to,it became superb insight for my heart,mind,body,and soul.Should music be this effective on a person?Should it even have this purpose at all.In my eyes,this is what makes music matter: to bring an overwhelming rich of pure uncontaminated emotion that can rid the mind of one's current hardships and regrets,make someone a totally new person.Jimi Hendrix made my dad the man he is today.And now Tool has made me the man I am today.

Full of very lively spiritual passages as well as contemplations of one's own journey throughout the darkness in their life,the musicianship is so very dark.I see Lateralus as a complete double-edged sword.One side is the dark musical side,with absolutely drenched dread chaotically yet uncannily organized and technical ideas that scrape the landscape ferociously to hellish inferno.Then there's the bright lyrical side,filled with an almost supernatural language that can only be correctly deciphered through the breaking down of one's own walls of security and comfort and leaving them to complete utter vulnerability.And when the sword becomes ultimately one plane instead of two edges,you get Lateralus's effects.Very few albums are able to pull off a revealing omni-drug that can positively uplift the mind and spirit as well make the whole process so unforgettable and enjoyable as if one was sent into god's dimension for a brief amount of time only to catch a fleeting glimpse of the unexplainable. For me Lateralus does all of this and so much more.

I won't go into too much detail about the whole album because I feel that most of the people on here have done a good job with explaining the tracks and their qualities.But I strongly believe that this album is prog,though not the kind of prog that we're used to.How can anyone say that this is not innovative or progressive?I've people say time and again that "Tool ripped this part off from so and so" and "So and so have done this way before Tool started that".First off,I think it is safe to say that every single band today has gotten their chops from bands in the past and mashed those chops up into their own kind of music.Tool has done this as well,but that doesn't make the music bad.Everything has been explored in the realms of music already so the only innovative thing left to do is mix things together and hopefully come out with a worthy product.Yes,Tool is guilty of this,but in my opinion they have mixed together something so wonderful that it has become a thing all its own.And there are a few traces of king crimson "progression" in their works.King Crimson was their main influence for goodness sakes!But those traces I would have to say are well hidden.And of course these guys can be loud.Is that bad too?Surely not if that loudness is put to a meaningful way.And Tool knows how to be effectively loud in this album.

I could go on writing a book about this album but I'll leave that to someone with better writing skills.People have already why this album is so great so I only wanted to explain it in personal sense.

This album and Tale from Topographic Oceans are probably the only two albums I will ever give 5 stars to period.Lasteralus is a masterpiece in it's own wonderful metal way.

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