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It is dense, it is long, it is complicated. It is also a magnificent triumph of artistry over blind anger.
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A 79-minute sonic sojourn of hard rock delivered with an arty, fusion-conscious sensibility rooted most obviously from the likes of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Jane's Addiction.
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Lateralus takes the L.A. band over the edge with elongated musical movements that simmer under heavy-duty distortion, Middle Eastern percussion and freakish guitar-and-drum time signatures that will make musical mathematicians (i.e., prog-rock dorks) as excited as the kids in the mosh pit.
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Q MagazineUltimately, it's Tool's experimental, borderline progressive, edge that proves most rewarding. [Aug 2001, p.141]
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So much of Tool's third full-length studio album makes so little sense at first. But that is one of Lateralus' most endearing qualities: It rolls out its pleasures and coherence slowly, even stubbornly.
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Tool has made an album that's undeniably its own, yet one which adds layers of subtlety, texture, and meaning that move its sound forward into complex new territory.
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The band continues to rock in the Rush/Metallica eight-minute flexathon tradition: it may impress you with individual lines, but in the end, it excels mainly at musical gymnastics.
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"Lateralus" is primarily a collection of puzzling time changes, haunting vocals and beyond-intricate percussive patterns that create a theme rooted more in Eastern philosophy than in rock and roll.
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Tool's songs are long because the band takes its time, resisting show-offy displays of speed in favor of texture and minimalist mood, borrowing key elements from Far Eastern music and industrial rock along the way.
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Research has led me to conclude that the correct, and possibly only, way to fully appreciate this album is at extremely high volume on a decent hi-fi whilst massively stoned out of your gourd.
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They're the metal Radiohead. Though it's definitely a million times more metal than anything the Oxford miserablists have recorded, 'Lateralus' still easily contains the same amount of misery and self-obsessed navel-gazing.
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Alternative PressLateralus could have been released four years ago, for all the sonic progression that's contained (or not contained) within its 79 minutes. [Jul 2001, p.57]
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Entertainment WeeklyThe music has a clean, fluid flow but sounds thin-blooded and far less visceral -- freeze-dried -- next to newer, younger Ozzfest regulars, like Staind, who have followed in Tool's wake. [25 May 2001, p.77]
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BlenderLateralus sounds like Black Sabbath jamming with Genesis at the bottom of a coal shaft. [Jun/Jul 2001, p.115]
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Now, with the early new century demanding "opuses," Tool follows suit. The problem is, Tool defines "opus" as taking their "defining element" (wanking sludge) and stretching it out to the maximum digital capacity of a compact disc.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 580 out of 641
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Mixed: 3 out of 641
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Negative: 58 out of 641
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JoeHMar 21, 2009
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Jan 31, 2011
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Oct 25, 2015