Brian Stirling

I've been a Tool fan since Undertow and was blown away by both the music and the imagery of Sober. Aenima was even better and then, five years later, there was Lateralus which many think is there greatest album. Five more years and 10,000 Days was released and I love many of the cuts but was a bit disappointed with much of the rest of the album. And then the long wait with many rumors that never came to be. I also got a bad feeling with the talk about how this was done by remote control with individual band members submitting there work from a distance. I have to confess to feeling this might wind up being a huge disappointment. In the last few months we've heard some live versions of a couple of the new songs and I was pleased to see they appeared pretty good given the limits of crowd noise etc at a live show. So on the 30th I logged into YT and saw the new track listings but I could not bring myself to check them out as I was still fearing I'd be disappointed. Then, after dinner, I could no longer delay it and I began to listen to the new songs...... I'm not sure which song I listened to first as I went from one to the other repeating them numerous times, but I have to say I'm in awe of this masterpiece. It is too soon to make a fair comparison to Lateralus, but my first impression if that Fear Inoculum may well be regarded as there best album -- astonishing really. I'm a Classical music lover as well and I have to say this album has aspects that remind me of the expansive Classical pieces with multiple movements expounding on a theme.