Lateralus
September 7, 2007
"Lateralus," by Tool
Volcano, 2001
It's always a shame when a great band gets co-opted by a menagerie of nitwits who use them more as a calling card for their social status than as a producer of fine music. Not to say the nitwits don't appreciate them, but they tend to drive a lot of people away. Do you really hate the Grateful Dead, or is it all the goddamned hippies blabbering on that drove you away? Are the Decemberists really that bad, or was all those geeky little indie-rock fuckers pushing them on you that made you turn against them? Who do you hate more, Yo La Tango, or the record store clerk shoving them down your throat? Such is the case with Tool and their vast following of Hot Topic-clad gas station attendents. Look past the fan base and you will find this album, a brooding, dark, cathartic slab of metal where the obtuse lyrics are spit out as if they made an ounce of sense, where the drums thunder in polyrythmic spasms of fury and the guitar and bass raise all kinds of dark, oceanic hell. A concept album of sorts with a concept you can basically ignore, the whole thing is a masterpiece of mood. Not to say it doesn't rattle the windows like any good metal album should, but it does it with a brain behind the dense wall of noise. Metal for the mind as well as the balls.
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