Tool's NEW ALBUM Fear Inoculum - August 30th, 2019

Quoting pieces from mags on 7empest:

''Metal Injection: Rob: This is very clearly the single on the album as the first three minutes are the most old-school Tool-sounding of all the songs. The first few minutes are a great sample platter of everything we love about Tool – solos, bass riffage and staccato Maynard vocal patterns. Then, just as you're getting settled in, it really lifts off into another great jam session. Later, the song completely transitions into a slower pace, as all great Tool songs do, until it builds and builds to a great Meshuggah-like breakdown. Adam Jones comes back with another incredible solo in the middle of the breakdown. The song climaxes huge and then settles in for a post-hurricane rain shower of riffage. It builds and builds to a great duel between the rhythm section and the guitar until the song ends. Another long song.

Frank: "Tempest" starts out with a radio-rock riff that eventually pulls the band back into some old-school Tool vibes, before heading into further jam sessions. The song comes to a valley to create some tension before unleashing a full on syncopated rhythm which they all come together and perform in unison, in full precision. The djenty effect is something you’d hear on a Meshuggah album, and just sounds massive in the middle of a Tool song.

Loudwire: We’re probably an hour into the album. Coming up next must be the reclusive, 20-minute epic track people keep talking about.

Wow, GIANT riff right away. That’s more like it, Adam Jones. Maynard’s going into his classic grunting style. This is the first time Maynard has sounded angry this whole album. It’s definitely the most pissed off I’ve heard him in a long time… maybe since “Ticks & Leeches” or even “Aenema.”

“Acting all surprised / When you’re caught in a lie / We know better.”

Adam Jones is just slinging riff after riff after riff. Dude must have saved a dozen fat leads and crammed them, brilliantly, into one song. The song is mostly instrumental, but I don’t even miss the vocals. The interplay between Adam, Danny and Justin Chancellor is magnificent.

This thing is BRUTALLY heavy and there’s no breathing room at all. No little soft transitions to connect crucial landmarks, just vicious and relentless metal. How can a band string together so many gigantic parts without taking a breath? Tool give absolutely no ****s.

This is the best thing Adam Jones has ever recorded. It’s beyond epic. I’m absolutely blown away and baffled by this 20-minute monster. No other band could do this. Not a chance.

Revolver: "Here we go again!" Maynard James Keenan waited a long time to sing those weary, sneering words on "7empest," a fiery, noisy tune on Tool's first new album in 13 years.

At nearly 16 minutes, "7empest" is the album's final major track and its angriest, as Keenan wails to an unseen villain: "Acting all surprised when you're caught in a lie/We know better ... We know your nature!" The rest of Tool also brings the hammer down, going wild and sweeping against a militant beat. The song contains Jones's most crazed soloing, but the guitarist also regains control for more ocean-sized gestures.

MetalSucks: At least upon an initial listen, this is the album’s strongest track by far. A gently-plucked into gives way to a heavy, evil, and elastic-sounding riff over rolling drums and a stuttering Maynard, who at one point tells the listener that “Our tempers must be just that.”

As the song progresses, it gets heavier, and heavier, and heavier — it is definitely the most metal track on the record. There’s another “Jambi”-esque riff, only it’s considerably faster and sloppier sounding than “Jambi” — the phrase I wrote here is “Like a punch in the stomach.”

There’s also an incredibly weird guitar solo. I mean that as a compliment.

I wouldn’t be shocked if this was the first single from the album. Looking around the room, everyone was rocking out to this one, and hard. Honestly, it was the only song that gave me that electrifying “HOLY **** THIS IS NEW TOOL!” feeling that I’ve so desperately craved.

Metal Hammer: At points reminiscent of Cold and Ugly from their debut Opiate EP, it’s the highpoint of the record, comfortably the heaviest moment and with Keenan sounding genuinely embittered...with a touch of Thin Lizzy-style twin-guitar lead for good measure. As is true of everything on Fear Inoculum, it could only be Tool. Each member brings something unique; Jones’ slow-hand chameleon guitar, Carey’s remarkable off-kilter African rhythms and Indian tabla and Chancellor’s lucid, liquid bass thump all take over as lead at one point during each movement. Although Keenan’s presence isn’t as pronounced as before, his biting-to-soaring vocal dexterity remains otherworldly.

Sonic-seducer.de: (translated from German) “the most driving and hardest track on the album, which doesn’t show (slow?) any lengths over 16 minutes”

Metal.de: (translated from German) Here I am not sure if the title I got on my flyer is not a typo. Just because I heard out my "Tempest" in Keenan's singing, but so far I could not sort it out. It will most likely be clear as soon as the official tracklist goes out.

Although the album's longest song begins with a somewhat spiritually-charged atmosphere, it's by and large the hardest song on the album. There are several harder rhythm sections in the song that make you rock your head. Keenan's vocals are aggressive along with the riffs. The solo is melancholic and psychedelic, but at the same time appears chaotic, dissonant, slanted and intentional. Of course, we continue to encounter rhythmically challenging parts.

Only at the end changes the hardness and opens up a beautiful, catchy riff, which is changed in the course of time to illuminate different facets of the musical theme.''

 

I'll be honest, these kind of second-hand write ups are the kinds of things I don't want to know about before I can hear the album for myself.

The standard CD tracklist will be the same as the 7-song deluxe minus the 3 segue tracks which are digital-only. Why would it be any different?

 

Not sure if this was posted, but my store was told that 86,000 of the limited CD were made. Was told this by their supplier...do not know this for a fact, but that seems light. Has anyone else heard of the amount?

 

That sucks.

 

Well, we don't actually know this, given that the band hasn't officially announced the standard CD.

Not that I'm saying you are actually wrong - it may well turn out to be thus, and your supposition isn't illogical - but for now, everything is speculation.

I'm alluding to the theoretical possibility that by "standard" they mean a 2-CD edition containing the entire album (which is closer to my idea of "standard" than "here's what fit; we did what we could, sorta").

 

You're right, we don't know, but it seems more likely the standard will follow the deluxe format in terms of the bulk of the music on one disc. As they didn't see fit to include the 3 interludes on a second disc on the deluxe, it doesn't seem likely they'll do it for the standard edition.

The standard may also include the digital download for the other 3 tracks.

 

I think the biggest album last year in physical sales (all including vinyl) in the US was just over 300,000 units according to RIAA's 2018 report, so probably not too light given the price tag?

 

I'm wondering if this long wait and "gestation" period could mean another album in the next 5 years or so. If the band has moved on to long songs and interludes it could mean a more defined format for their creativity and it could be a formula they can write out of in a more timely fashion. Recording and publishing are a different matter.
They are very good at making long songs not seem so long, it's a pretty remarkable feat for a popular band.

 

Turns out there are worse things than just complaining about the formats on a message board:

Tool received death threats over wait for new album Fear Inoculum

The article also has this little tidbit, revealed in a recent interview:

 

I bet the majority of those dumped songs are better than the 90% of current rock released to the public.

 

Maybe some of the leftover stuff can be reworked down the road, if they feel like doing another record.

 

Maybe they were not expecting this much action around it then? Because at first I thought the quantity would be lighter than this based on just what you said. What's crazy is that you have some sellers on ebay with 30+ copies...

The owner where I shop said he has not gotten this many phone calls about a new release in a long time. Exciting stuff! Thanks for the response.

 

Death threats, good God. I mean, the most I'd ever throw at a band would be the threat of a frown.

"You better hope you don't see me comin' the other way down the street; that won't be a smile on my face, mister.

Make me wait 13 years and then only put part of the album on a CD, you sumbitches..."

 

Based on material in some of those interviews, I think it actually took them 3 years of direct work on the album, so if they spend 2 years touring, and then need a year apart (I think they mentioned time apart too, but I might be f*cking this part up), it looks like a bare minimum of 6 years for another one. Seems long, but the math checks out (do correct me if I'm wrong, folks).

 

If that's "true, a fact, actual" or something what we might call it today, it sounds like quite a low number.
I have 1 preorder in with Amazon (US), and 1 preorder with importCDs (US). So if most Tool fans behave in the same manner, it would equal to 43,000 Tool fans presordering 2 copys. One to use and one to keep sealed for "physical collectible purposes"
How many people typically attend a Tool gig, 5,000-10,000?

I'm probably way off here based on a unverified post about pressing quantities, but whatever. Look forward to the CD & download.

 

Does anyone know if there will be a non-deluxe release. I can't really shell out £80 on a single CD at the moment?

 

After reading this article it would not surprise me if they did break up. The amount of pressure they were under must have been incredible.

 

Minus 5k ordered to flip.

 

I don't think people will have a problem getting the cd package.

 

I stopped listening to the title track a few days ago so it still feels somewhat new when I put the entire album on for the first time. My local store said they expect to get their order in so I am hoping everyone who wants a copy of the CD package is able to get it without having to ebay it.

 

Me too, I listened to Radiohead's Burn the Witch and Daydreaming too many times before the release, won't make that mistake again.

 

The same applies here, I have not listened to the new Tool album track. Since you brought Radiohead into this thread I also concur the Radiohead "Burn The Witch" single did create a huge disappointment for fans when the new Radohead album was released. People anticipated Radiohead would release their first good record since O.K. Computer. Well that did not happen. I don't think that will be the case with Tool though. Tool have increased and broadened their musical capabilities and public mainstream awareness/demand since the 90's, Radiohead have done just the opposite.

 

Their 1st good record since OKC?? They've had about 5 of those since 1997, but anyway...

 

And thus screwing someone out of the chance to buy it. What a waste.

 

That is my thinking as well, I think they will keep making this for some time.