Tool
Lateralus

THE REVIEW

Probably what is now defined as music are those fake rubbish that circulate and sell millions of copies to ignorant teenagers. For a long time, I've been searching for a true band that expresses feelings because I believe that this is the real purpose of Music, and not to extort money; wandering between Metallica, Apocalyptica, Malmsteen, Satriani, and Blind Guardian, I finally discovered a band that beats them all.

 Tool is a group formed in 1991 in Hollywood; they are founders of an undefinable genre: dark, melodic, powerful, and calm at the same time, from obscure dimensions, without a precise timing, without a precise structure, a crossroads of metal veiled with an inexhaustible genius that will characterize the band throughout its entire career (still in full swing). After releasing historic albums like "Undertow" and "Aenima", Tool repeats with a new masterpiece.

It seemed impossible to match the marked creativity shown in "Aenima", but in 2001 Jones, Carey, Chancellor, and Keenan released "Lateralus". The cover is very suggestive and introduces a rather mysterious genre of music: the album with transparent pages depicts a skinned man divided into frontal sections (one section for each page of the booklet) in which the chakras burn. But the stratospheric aspect of the album is certainly the Music, a million orgasms put on a music score wiping out all musical rules, extending or shortening bars, going from piano to fortissimo without warning, or from a clean sound to a monstrously energetic distorted one. Maynard James Keenan’s voice reaches perfection and accompanies the guitar melodies of Jones, melodies that transmit immense sadness and at the same time are frighteningly mysterious. Indeed, in my opinion, the key to the album is the mystery.

 It all opens with "The Grudge", a dark piece, yet at the same time an energy burst. After a minute of "Eon Blue Apocalypse", a mix of mysterious sounds produced by strange effects created by the great Jones, it proceeds with the beautiful "The Patient", which immerses us in what will be the whole genre of the album with brilliant riffs (if they can be called so) repeated to the point of exhaustion, yet never tiring due to Maynard's extraordinary voice and a rhythm that goes against all the rules of music and creates great disorder in our ear, puzzled in the face of such originality. After another mysterious minute with "Mantra," it proceeds with "Schism", a real masterpiece, with a guitar that almost transforms into an eastern string instrument, and a central piece of unheard beauty; without hesitation, I place this song among the most beautiful I have ever heard. The rest of the album is difficult to describe in words; it is refined and evocative, with tribal obsessions, and the lyrics themselves are difficult to interpret, the language is the apotheosis of synthetic-polysemy.

Overall, it is an extraordinarily complex work, and for this alone, it deserves praise. However, it is a privilege of the few (even though they have sold many millions of copies) to truly appreciate Tool; I hope you manage to love them because, in that case, they transmit incredible sensations.