LATERALUS

Perfection. This is a rare word when it comes to art. But Tool managed to materialize something that most musicians might not even have imagined into one album. Tool's style is unique and unlikely to be copied by anyone. There not metal or rock, they are progressive in their own way. Their skills are undoubtable, but what comes in front is the quality of the music itself. The songs on this album are not really complex, or over-orchestrated, but their depth is amazing. A creepy, sick yet somehow sweet feeling of satisfaction along with insatisfaction comes to me when I listen to this album. A dark atmosphere for sure, with vocals ranging from almost death growls(in one song only) to unbelievably melodic ones. There is no need to focus on any particular song in my opinion as this is a construction of masterpieces that stand amazingly by their own but fit in perfectly in the album. The pieces fit. The lyrics are an enigma once again, but are written in a way that force you to assume things and adjust their meaning to your imagination. The background behind them is rumoured to be really deep however, similarly to the music itself, based on terms of mathematics(the fibonacci sequence on the lyrics of Lateralus for instance). Apart from the myth that burries this album more into the difficulty to understand, this gloomy, sick air around it stands there by itself. Technically, emotionally, lyrically, a masterpiece, probably the best album released after 1990 in progressive music in general, and one of the best albums in history.