Album Rating: 1.5 | Sound Off

no this is a tool thread

Album Rating: 5.0

Oh no a new page now all those points are lost forever.

Album Rating: 1.5 | Sound Off

is any point in a tool thread ever found

Album Rating: 4.0

Damn, it must suck to have worse taste in music than an opium addict[2]

Album Rating: 1.0

kind of weird to consider the audio equivalents of cathedrals worse than the shit filled opium dens

Album Rating: 1.5 | Sound Off

LOL

Smok might actually be right on this one

Album Rating: 5.0

https://imgflip.com/i/8cn1fd

Album Rating: 1.5 | Sound Off

dats right bitch i already read that book cover to cover

Album Rating: 3.0

No personality, sterile production, limited payoff, absent Maynard (with his new lacklustre Puscifer vocal style), bloated song lengths, Danny sitting on his toms for the whole album, call and response riffs ad nauseam.



Overrated album imo. Should have called it Fear AInoculum cuz it sounds AI generated.

>Overrated album
>Album Rating: 3.0
stop overrating it then smdh

Album Rating: 3.0

3.0 is probably fair. 3.6 is not. People out here acting like this album is their seminal work.

Album Rating: 3.5

Does anyone genuinely think this is their “seminal work”?



Descending is one of my favorite songs of theirs but the record as a whole is wildly inconsistent.



And a 3.6 makes this their lowest rated record by a decent margin. Idk what ur guys’ point really is rn

Album Rating: 5.0

I still listen to this thing all the time. Even Culling Voices has grown on me a lot, and I thought that had the corniest Tool riff of all time

Album Rating: 3.5

I honestly really wish i liked it that much art lol



The title track is fine. Pneuma is hot trash imo, the last few minutes are great but the buildup to it is just so dry and basic. I have the same complaints about Invincible. The plodding guitarwork is so tiresome and feels like padding to get the track to cross the 10 minute mark. Pneuma has few redeeming qualities but I do think Invincible has a good track in there somewhere, if they trimmed probably like 4-5 minutes of fat. The climax is legitimately exhilarating and one of the best moments on the record, but it feels like too little too late.



The second half of this record dwarfs the first half. Descending starts slow and subtle but it features Maynard’s soaring vocal melodies, combined with legitimately great lyricism makes for his best performance on the record. That track really kicks into high gear with that slide guitar, and the open chord riffing along with those synths really builds atmosphere in a way that feels much more organic than Invincible. And the guitar soloing immediately after is fucking explosive. I could praise Descending for hours but I’ll leave it at this: it very possible that it is my favorite Tool song.



Culling Voices may have taken a while to grow on you but I immediately loved how meditative the whole track feels. It’s much more subtle than Pneuma or Invincible but somehow still manages to be much more engaging.



Chocolate Chip Trip is a great drum solo for sure, but god that repeating synth is so fucking off putting that it threatens to ruin a pretty damn good performance. A more subtle synth would’ve gone a long way to making me appreciate that track more.



Then, obviously, we have Tempest. I don’t really think I have anything to say about it that hasn’t been said a thousand times before by people that are much better writers than I am. But I will say that I think it, and Descending, are really the only tracks here that justify their ridiculous lengths. I don’t know much about songwriting but I can hear the difference between meditative and boring, and it’s an almost even split with this record. And god all of the interludes are fucking terrible.



Idk I’ve never really done a write up on this record like that because my feelings on it are so conflicted. Despite thinking a good third of it feels either like aimless jamming or them retreading ground that they did much more successfully in the past, I think I can justify this high of a rating solely on how much I love Descending and Tempest. The 13 year wait would’ve been worth it for those two tracks alone. I just wish the rest of the record were as strong as those two songs.

Album Rating: 5.0

Completely disagree about Pneuma. I love that song mainly because that cool-down bridge is so fucking lovely it makes me so happy. Invincible is absolutely brilliant in 10000 ways also, I love the riffs and the retrospective lyrics. Just a great album all around, my only complaint is it doesn't do anything new after such a long wait

Album Rating: 3.5

Yeah I just can’t for the life of me get into Pneuma. The first time I heard this record I just stopped and went to sleep after that track because I was so disappointed.



Invincible does have some good lyrics and Maynard does sound pretty fired up in that last leg at least. Plus that song is fun as hell to play on bass.

Album Rating: 5.0

Whole album is unforgettable and a huge masterpiece agreed

Album Rating: 3.5

Unforgettable in the sense that it was a massive self indulgent jerk off session from musicians that are capable of much better.

Album Rating: 3.5

Pneuma's always been one of my favorites on here tbh, alongside Invincible and 7empest



Descending and Culling Voices are where the album starts to lose me