For the review of this album, I will be reviewing each individual track on the album, to which there are ten in total. “Lateralus” is the third studio album by prog metal band TOOL, and is their most commercially successful album to date. The band has released a total of 5 studio albums to date, as well as one box set, two live albums, one EP, and a single. The band consists of Maynard James Keenan on the vocals, Danny Carrey on the drums, Justin Chancellor on the bass guitar, and Adam Jones on the guitar. Without further ado, I will begin my rating of Lateralus in chronological order.
“The Grudge” is the first song on the album, and one of the most discussed tracks on the album, particularly for Maynards 25 second long scream. I will start the review of this song by taking a look at the instrumental elements, then I move on to the vocals and lyrics. From an instrumental standpoint, The Grudge does an excellent job at encapsulating the listener and displaying a sample test of what the entirety of the album has to offer. The most prominent and memorable part at the beginning of this song is the sound of the thunderous drums being played by Danny Carrey. These drums stay as a great accompaniment to the overall feeling of suspense within the song, as there are multiple portions of the song dedicated to building up to a climax, which is quite common throughout the album as well as other TOOL releases as a whole.
I also want to bring up the other percussion elements in The Grudge, as this song has a whole host of subtle but really effective sounds and quirks in the background of it. The song opens up with this quiet and churning electronic sound that signifies the opening of the album, which I think is a nice touch. Throughout the song, most noticeably during the buildup, there is also this noticeable wahhhhhh sound that can be heard throughout, alternating gently between each ear when using headphones. There are also these occasional percussional jingles that sound quite nice. Overall, all of these little effects come together to further emphasise the atmosphere of the song.
Now to focus on the next part that the listener is enveloped into when listening; Justin Chancellor’s bass guitar. In all honesty, this performance doesn’t particularly stand out to me all that much, it is actually the main reason I find this song tends to drag on for me at times, the bass work during the buildups doesn’t offer much to keep me engaged. Most of these critiques come from the first half of the song though, and during the last buildup I do appreciate the bass work there. I feel like the biggest and one of the only setbacks for the song is that it feels stale during the first few buildups, and only really sorts itself out during the last one. I feel like most of this has to do with the lacklustre variety in the bass work from Justin.
Onto the last instrumental element I would like to bring up, the guitar. There aren't really any flaws I can think of when it comes to Adam’s playing in this piece. It isn’t necessarily a groundbreaking performance, but it does what it needs to in order to hold the song together. I feel like Adam’s playing on this song really saves the dreaded and boring buildups, specifically from the 5 minute mark onwards. Adam’s solo during the two minute buildup conveys to the listener that this is the “big break” part of the song, and that what lies ahead is the climax.
That climax definitely holds up though, as the song hits its peak with what is in my opinion, Maynard’s best single vocal performance of his career. The 7 minute mark of the song begins with a twenty-five second long scream from Maynard, accompanied by simple but effective riffs from the other band members that allow the emotion of the scream to have a lasting effect on the listener throughout the duration. Even after hearing such a powerful and high energy scream, the song still maintains the energy for the last minute by a crescendo of the repeated phrase “let go” by Maynard and a very rough bass line by Justin.
Speaking of Maynard’s vocals, I want to explore the meaning of The Grudge. The Grudge isn’t a song with embellished lyrics, full of disguised meanings or things up to interpretation, it is pretty straightforward, which I think is a pretty smart move for the first track of the album, as it does a good job of opening up the lyric theme of the overall album, with The Grudge being about, well, holding grudges. The lyrics depict holding grudges and not being able to forgive and let them go, with some key phrases being:
I believe that these aforementioned phrases do well in displaying the overall meaning of the song, and how holding grudges can only do more harm than good, and it is better to let them go and be a bigger person. I think that the meaning of the song fits in well with the other songs on the album and is a great way to introduce the listener to Lateralus, which in my opinion, is a mostly optimistic album about looking deeper within one’s self and overcoming things that hold us back as people. Maynard really brings out his singing voice here, free of any rougher sounding vocals or screams, which he still does beautifully, but I find the more raw and organised tone of his voice on this song fits the instrumental and the lyrics well.
“The Patient” is the second track on the album, and I would consider it to be the tamest song on the album in terms of instrumentation. I believe that the most favourable part of The Patient is the vocals and lyrics by Maynard, but I will get into those two topics after talking about the instrumental aspects first. I believe this song is the tamest on the album because of the almost serene feeling it gives. The song starts out and remains pretty slow and relaxed in its tempo throughout, contrary to the energy given on the majority of the album. There are still sections of the song that pick up in tempo and still have an upbeat feeling to them, but I think a large portion of the energy in the song comes from the lyrics and the song’s meaning as opposed to the instrumentation. From an outside perspective, the song is indeed a heavy song, but when in the context of TOOL’s entire discography and this album specifically, it is definitely not considered their most energetic composition.
Although this song seems to lack the energy of the other songs on the album, I believe it is one of the more emotionally packed on Lateralus. I want to state clearly that I thoroughly enjoy The Patient, but it isn’t something I would seek out to listen solely by itself. I feel like the song fits best as a part of the listening experience when listening to the album as a whole, I think that a lower energy song is important to maintain the albums flow, as if every part of this album tried to be just as hard and epic as the last, there would be no balance. That is the purpose of The Patient, to glue everything together and keep that balance. Sure the instrumentation might not stick out and it may not be an unforgettable performance, but that doesn’t mean it is bad, and although I feel more could’ve been done, it is certainly not the worst moment on the record.
I think that the main problem with The Patient is it simply isn’t placed on the album correctly. I don’t think placing it directly after The Grudge was the best decision, and I think a simple fix for this would’ve been to place it directly after Schism, and have Schism come directly after The Grudge. I think that the transition between The Patient and Parabol would have been a much more satisfying and proper transition, and I feel like it wouldn’t make The Patient such an underdog on this album. I feel The Grudge outshines The Patient so much because of the positioning of the two songs. The Grudge was a great album opener, and is filled with a large amount of sounds that take a little bit of the whole album and put into a neat little package, and then The Patient comes right after, and doesn’t really do any of that whatsoever. I feel like The Patient could’ve been a much more enjoyable track if it hadn’t come as the second track on the album, and normally I wouldn’t bother to make much of a fuss about this, but because it is a progressive album, it is most often listened to as one project altogether, which makes the placement of tracks VERY important to the overall enjoyment of the album and keeping listeners engaged throughout the lengthy project.
The final thing I want to talk about is the lyrics and vocal performance heard on this track, because it most certainly outshines a lot of the other songs on Lateralus in these aspects. One of my favourite moments from this entire album is Maynard singing on this song. The song begins with soft vocals but as it progresses, it feels almost as though Maynard is becoming more emotionally invested within the song, and he slowly gets louder and puts more emphasis on his voice, and it is executed beautifully.
The meaning behind The Patient can be interpreted in a few different ways, and it depends on how you want to look at it. One one hand, The Patient is about Maynard’s mother, who was paralyzed in 1976 and remained that way until her passing. The song can be interpreted as being written from a patient, in this case his mother, who is battling their illness while still trying to keep an optimistic mindset about their situation. The song addresses both nihilistic and optimistic views about dealing with illness, while ultimately deciding to stick to an optimistic view, or as the song puts it, “waiting it out”. While this may be what the song means to Maynard himself, the average person listening and analysing the lyrics of the song will most likely interpret it in their own ways, inserting their own experiences and emotions into the song. This works like a song with The Patient because although Maynard wrote the song about his mother, there is no clear indication of that within the lyrics, and the base meaning of the song can simply taken as “working through a difficult situation and staying strong” or something with a similar notion to that. I feel that this song is definitely the most uplifting song on the album, and Maynard’s strong and powerful vocals definitely give it a stronger emotional feel.
Schism is the third track on the album, and is TOOL’s most played track overall. The track is the first real eligible use of interesting and interchanging time signatures, and is in my opinion, the best performance by Justin Chancellor, the band’s bass player. The song opens up with a unique bass riff in three different alternating time signatures that give it the distinctive sound. The time signature in Schism changes 47 times in total, and is one of TOOL’s most technically intricate compositions. Although the tone of Justin’s bass is kept relatively similar throughout the album, it is clear that he knows how to effectively play and is able to make use of and create diverse sounds despite a similar sound at a base value.
One detail that I think is not very often talked about but is very noticeable once pointed out is the flanger sound on the percussion when the drums first kick in. The percussion doesn’t do much to stand out within the song, but this little effect placed on the drums does tremendous work at making the bass stand out even further. Adam also does a great job at accompanying Justin while still keeping the focus on the bass throughout. I really love the buildup that starts three minutes and thirty seconds into the song, some nice beautiful playing by Adam as well as tons of digital add-on effects that really add to the feel. This buildup is also accompanied by the soft vocals of Maynard, which sound great as they slowly gain more “dirt” to them as the energy begins to pick back up in the song.
Schism contains what seem to be the saddest lyrics out of any song on the album, and I can only interpret it as “TOOL’s breakup song”. The lyrics clearly have correlation to romantic relationships, with the word lovers being used many times throughout the song, but I believe that it is not a romantic song, but rather a song about a relationship slowly falling apart. The song uses the phrases “I know the pieces fit” often and I believe it can be interpreted as someone who knows that the “pieces” of the relationship once fit, but what they once shared with their lover is no more. They desire and long for what once was, and they know the pieces fit, but they are slowly falling away. There are more lyrics to back up this theory such as:
Despite this song being almost depressing, it still contains lyrics of hope, which are almost a trademark throughout Lateralus at this point. I believe that this song is specifically about a relationship failing due to lack of communication, since that is the most commonly referred to reason throughout the entire song.
Parabol and Parabola are two separate tracks on Lateralus that come together and combine as one single composition, so instead of reviewing each by itself, I will review them as one since neither track makes much sense on its own. Throughout the entirety of the first section, Parabol, there is absolutely no percussion whatsoever and it is the slowest track on the album. However, these slow guitar and bass notes played on occasion lead to a very satisfying climax well worth the wait.
Throughout Parabol, Maynard comes back with upbringing lyrics throughout the song with soft and reassuring vocals. There isn't much to say about the instrumentals here, but Maynard shows some powerful and meaningful lyrics in a proper TOOL fashion, the lyrics in both Parabol and Parabola are about finding comfort and meaning in life, choosing to remain in life and finding a way to live and embrace happiness.
Now onto the instrumental worth talking about, which is the second half of the song, Parabola. Parabola immediately picks up energy from the 1st bar of the song, substituting for the lack of it in Parabol. The song follows a similar path instrumental-wise to Parabol, just with much more intensity and energy behind it. Maynard’s vocals also shift in both of these aforementioned manners to accompany the increased energy in the song. Adam creates some very distorted but well fitting guitar noises throughout, mostly to accompany Maynard’s softer vocal parts throughout the song. These stand out the most in the song as opposed to any other instrument heard. I wouldn't say this is a bad song, but it doesn't necessarily stand out nor do anything for me after the first two minutes. The drums don't have much to say, and the bass work is kept to a minimum here. The energy seems to die off around the middle of the song, and although Adam produces some very nice sound throughout, this song feels as though it falls a little short, and I believe more could've been experimented with here.
Ticks & Leeches definitely stands out on this album for both good and bad reasons. To state the good first, this song is one of my personal favourites from TOOL as a whole. It is by a long shot the hardest and heaviest song on the album, opening with some insane pounding drums that remain there the entire song, as well as heavy bass work from Justin, and Adam also has some pretty heavy playing here. What makes Ticks & Leeches stand out the most to me is the vocals. They are completely different from any other song on the album in the sense that Maynard essentially screams the entire song and there is no sign of soft vocals anywhere. They remind me of vocals you would hear from Deftones on their earlier albums, it is absolutely amazing and refreshing to hear especially halfway through the album. There is so much that makes this song stand out, and unfortunately that is sort of the issue with it.
Don't get me wrong, I REALLY like this song, but it does not fit in with Lateralus whatsoever. I am reviewing an album, not just the song itself, and this should not have been included on Lateralus, especially right before the title track of the album. This song stands out so much that I actually cannot see it fitting anywhere on the album, moved around or not. It's a great song, but it disrupts the overall listening experience completely
This song bears little resemblance to the rest of the album, from instrumentals to lyrics, and especially does not make sense to be placed right after Parabol/Parabola’s quiet and gentle ending, and right before a track such as Lateralus. All of this makes me feel so divided about the song. From a project standpoint, this song should not have been here at all, but the song itself is still worth a listen. The best thing that could've been done with the song is to have it released as a standalone single, or even included on the Salival live album. It just does not fit here.
For most people, Lateralus is most likely THE TOOL song that comes to mind when the band is mentioned. Most would consider it to be TOOL’s magnum opus and best work, and for good reason. No other track here would've fit better as the title track of the album, and is my personal favourite song of the project.
TOOL sort of does everything right here and they include the good elements that I've mentioned from every previous song in this review. Lateralus starts out with an elongated but attention grabbing intro, with a repeated guitar riff and gradually crescendo-ing drums that slowly buildup to reach a climax, where the song really starts to take off and reveal itself in all of its glory. The climax starts with a beautiful guitar riff often switching between three time signatures:
9/9
8/9
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and then repeating. This riff doesn't last too long, however, as it stops to once again reveal the thunderous drums alongside soft vocals from Maynard. After the first verse from Maynard, Justin comes in again with a simple riff that allows the drums to be the main focus. As the second verse starts, Adam comes back in with a nice riff to tie it all together. This structure of building up to a climax and then coming back down repeats for a little while before reaching an even bigger climax around the four-minute mark of the song, which really takes off after Maynard's verse ends. Adam temporarily takes the spotlight here, and Maynard comes in soon after with heavier vocals then the last verse, and the band almost seems to all be playing their own solos at the same time, and once again, the song goes back to a quiet but engaging point, this time with Justin playing bass. Danny comes in soon after with quiet high hats playing an interesting and almost distracting time signature that somehow still fits Justin’s bass. Maynard comes in once again and the band slowly builds up to yet another climax which is just as engaging as the last.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the song completely rids itself of what may seem upon the final climax of the song, and introduces an entirely new part, with an interesting time signature that is more noticeable than any other time signature change on the entire album, almost giving the feeling of the song going around in circles. Maynard accompanies this interesting time signature with powerful but still subtle vocals until the end where he picks the energy back up for a few more lines. The song then ends, most likely leaving the viewer perplexed upon first listen.
This song goes a lot deeper than that though, although there are definitely some misconceptions about it that I will address here. The “fibonacci sequence” has been brought up in conjunction with TOOL, specifically on this track, more than the actual fibonacci sequence has probably been talked about by itself, not in correlation to TOOL. For a little background information, the fibonacci sequence is the sequence in which every number within the sequence is the sum of the last two numbers added together. For example, the sequence starts as such:
and will keep going infinitely. Visually, this sequence is a spiral like shape, which can be seen mentioned throughout the song. The songs first three time signatures line up with the 16th number of the fibonacci sequence, 987. A misconception about this is that the band had done it purposefully, while in reality it was a coincidence that Maynard later had built off of when realising this. Although the time signatures line up, the instrumentals were not originally created to follow the sequence in any way, and the song was originally named “987” simply because of its time signatures.
However, the band had realised they had accidentally followed the sequence, and Maynard then structured his vocal verses around the sequence. Maynard followed the sequence by writing the lyrics around the number of syllables in each line of the verse to correspond with the sequence. The first verse follows the syllable sequence up to the thirteen, the fifth number of the sequence, and then back down from thirteen. This sequence can help further understand the song's lyrics, specifically the use of the concepts of spirals throughout.
In terms of the actual lyrical meaning of Lateralus, the meaning follows a similar structure and meaning of the other songs in the album, featuring uplifting and motivational lyrics through speaking of the soul and separating the mind from the body. The song starts off with lyrics about the birth of a being, opening their eyes and seeing different colours for the first time. It then talks about the infinite possibilities in life and how overthinking and spending too much time worrying or analysing things in life can separate the mind from the body, and makes people miss opportunities and things that are more important in life.
The final portion of Lateralus is a three part triad separated into three different songs that are mentioned to be listened to. For the sake of this review, I will review all of them as one cohesive composition. This triad is TOOL’s longest composition as a whole, and is also their most disappointing. Fear Inoculum is an album that seems to try extremely hard to lengthen its songs to an extensive point, and even that entire listening experience is more tolerable than this single composition.
First things first, it is WAY too long, and it feels like it is placed for nothing more than just filling up the length of the album. Disposition is boring, and not much goes on for its five minute length. Not many vocals to speak of, and the ones here only repeat two lines over and over, there isn’t much meaning to this song at all. Vocals aren’t everything if the instrumentals can compensate for them, but even that is not accomplished here. Disposition serves as nothing more than a segue into Reflection, which I'll talk about now.
Reflection is the middle piece of this trio of songs, and it too, is unfortunately disappointing. It is the longest single track on the album, clocking in at over eleven minutes, and nearly nine of them are spent building up to a lacklustre drop and climax. Once again, this song feels as though it is nothing more than a filler to boost the album’s total length. It is lengthy and dragged on to the point of disinterest, and there is absolutely nothing that is memorable here.
When it comes to Triad, the latter part of the trio, you’d expect a pretty decent finish to the album here, after almost 15 minutes of meaningless buildup. Instead, Triad continues to reinforce the feeling of disappointment within the listener. It spends half of its six minute length once again throwing more building up upon the listener, only to reach its peak with the weakest climax featured on the album, without vocals, and without any of the uniqueness or variation that makes this project shine and stand out from the rest. This entire twenty-one minute section of the album’s only strong point is Maynard’s haunting vocals throughout reflection, but that is not enough to consider it worth listening to. It is a major disappointment to hear after one of their best tracks, Lateralus.
Overall, Lateralus is not the project I would consider to be TOOL’s best work, and this is due to its numerous shortcomings and disappointing structure. While it is worth mentioning that Lateralus features some of the best tracks ever composed by the band, it features almost the same amount of disappointment. Some of the positions of the tracks here make no sense, and the entire latter half of the album is simply filler garbage. TOOL had taken quite a leap with Lateralus, as it is a much different sound to that of their last two projects, and it is clear that they weren’t exactly sure what to do in certain situations. With that being said, there is an equal amount of positive things to say about this album as well. Overall, aside from the album post title track, the overall listening experience is unforgettable, featuring powerful lyrics, vocals, instrumentals, and all of this combines to keep the listener engaged throughout. Although not mentioned in the review, the segues between songs are fitting, and do not annoy or deter the audience. TOOL was able to introduce very technical aspects into the songs within the album and pull it off as an enjoyable listening experience that is void of experimentation to the point of an uncomfortable experience. Despite its shortcomings, I still recommend Lateralus as a project that should be experienced at least once by everyone who comes across this review, thank you.