xp I was just typing "is the shiny side of the cd on the top?" but you were faster :-)
― StanM, Saturday, 31 August 2019 05:32 (four years ago) link
Listening to the Trap set episode with Carey, I thought he'd be a little more erudite, he sounds like some 70s burnout guy, with endless repetition of 'maaaan', 'dude' and 'fuckin...' was jarring to listen to.
― MaresNest, Saturday, 31 August 2019 10:09 (four years ago) link
7empest reminds me of Muse a bit
― imago, Saturday, 31 August 2019 10:12 (four years ago) link
...until Adam Jones takes us on a ten-minute tour of The Guitar
― imago, Saturday, 31 August 2019 10:19 (four years ago) link
photo of Mackie (art director for this album) by Buzz (who also had a hand in introducing Joe Barresi to Tool) : https://www.instagram.com/p/B1z9iruHWVn/
― StanM, Saturday, 31 August 2019 15:33 (four years ago) link
I really love the record and feel that "7empest" might be the quintessential Tool song.
― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Saturday, 31 August 2019 16:51 (four years ago) link
this album is pretty tight
― american bradass (BradNelson), Saturday, 31 August 2019 19:51 (four years ago) link
“pneuma” initially feels recycled and then unfolds really wonderfully. synth solo section + the actual guitar solo at the end are both pretty sick
― american bradass (BradNelson), Saturday, 31 August 2019 19:54 (four years ago) link
best interludes of any tool album for sure
whole thing kinda feels like 10,000 days but even more sedated and meditative and minus all the goofy shit
― american bradass (BradNelson), Saturday, 31 August 2019 20:01 (four years ago) link
― circa1916, Saturday, 31 August 2019 20:09 (four years ago) link
pneuma has a really sick syncopated something going on
― flappy bird, Saturday, 31 August 2019 22:44 (four years ago) link
this is the random access memories of stoner rock
― ilxors are still exuberant (Sufjan Grafton), Saturday, 31 August 2019 22:47 (four years ago) link
this is sold out everywhere, hoping i'll be able to snag a copy at some point
― diamonddave85 (diamonddave85), Sunday, 1 September 2019 00:29 (four years ago) link
After a couple listens I don’t feel like any of these songs are staying with me. I don’t dislike anything I’ve heard - but I couldn’t tell you how any of them goes after the fact.
― Mad Piratical (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Sunday, 1 September 2019 00:32 (four years ago) link
^ sums up most Tool for me
― Vinnie, Sunday, 1 September 2019 01:03 (four years ago) link
The vocal melodies & lyrics are more forgettable than their previous albums. Most of the songs would have been improved a lot if Maynard shot for some hookiness (also known as Radiohead syndrome). A few of these have really memorable guitar hooks tho, especially 7empest.
― billstevejim, Sunday, 1 September 2019 01:11 (four years ago) link
Quite like the album, but there are some things that stand out:
it feels less concept-driven than previously albums on first two listens, but I can't tell if it's because I'm missing something or if it's just not there. I'm trying to meet the album where it is, and I think that means losing myself to the journey from song to song, rather than waiting for moments that are explicitly emotionally arresting.
Danny is unbelievable, feels somewhat like he's carrying the team.
a buddy pointed out to me that Maynarde is just absent at a lot of the climax moments on the album, which has been a mainstay of Tool--and that struck me as a thoughtful point I hadn't realized just listening to the album.
All in all, I don't think it's the greatest album I've ever heard, but it's new Tool that sounds like Tool and that's enough for me.
― unashamed and trash (Unctious), Sunday, 1 September 2019 02:24 (four years ago) link
It's fine and about exactly what I was expecting once I knew the song lengths. It plays better with the interludes but it still lacks those releases and crescendoes they do so well. Maynard never screams, there are some (painful) eye-roll-inducing lyrics (wish MJK's sense of humor was still kicking around), and the whole thing isn't particularly catchy. I'll be shocked if this isn't their final album. As others have said, Danny's drumming is unreal, which it always has been, but "Chocolate Chip Trip" blows away every Dead "Drums" track I've ever heard...in under five minutes, at that.
It is the best packaged CD I've ever seen. Well worth $45.
― Wally P. Doyle, Sunday, 1 September 2019 02:37 (four years ago) link
“7empest” is the best tool song goddamn
― american bradass (BradNelson), Sunday, 1 September 2019 05:06 (four years ago) link
I feel like I'm missing out on so much by not knowing music theory :-/
12/8 & 5/4 guitar over 11/8 rhythm section in Fear Inoculumhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybgz0QvaE5k
7/16 & 7/3 drum rhythm in Invinciblehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLvxWix_Pzw
― StanM, Sunday, 1 September 2019 17:39 (four years ago) link
for me what sets tool apart from other prog metal acts i've heard (and makes them actually listenable) is that they are able to coax out visceral and enjoyable grooves out of complex meters and polyrhythms that feel natural and not forced. compare that with a group like 'animals as leaders' whose work seems to be just exercises in stringing together complex patterns to be appreciated at an intellectual level
― diamonddave85 (diamonddave85), Sunday, 1 September 2019 18:39 (four years ago) link
Very tribal/drum circle metal.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 1 September 2019 18:44 (four years ago) link
xpost: well put - I didn't get that invincible thing at all until 7:14 when he played it over the music, then it suddenly worked
― StanM, Sunday, 1 September 2019 19:09 (four years ago) link
It's 3/16 :) (the point is combining 3 x 7/16 with 7 x 3/16, which in both cases ends up as 21/16)
― Frederik B, Sunday, 1 September 2019 19:14 (four years ago) link
Reviewed it:https://t.co/rhiwrEeHnu
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Sunday, 1 September 2019 20:40 (four years ago) link
The guitar has always been the least interesting part of Tool
― FUCK YOUR POTATO (Neanderthal), Sunday, 1 September 2019 20:53 (four years ago) link
I still haven't finished this. Hurricane stress has me playing all death metal
I have liked what i have heard tho
― FUCK YOUR POTATO (Neanderthal), Sunday, 1 September 2019 20:54 (four years ago) link
love this record I decided.
― big city slam (Spottie), Sunday, 1 September 2019 22:41 (four years ago) link
same
― american bradass (BradNelson), Sunday, 1 September 2019 22:43 (four years ago) link
It's definitely growing on me. It helps to focus on the drumming. I think on first listen I was just hearing a lot of flat empty space where it seemed like they were avoiding songcraft. Probably why 7empest stood out first.
― jmm, Monday, 2 September 2019 00:13 (four years ago) link
Every few years I’ll catch Sober somewhere and I’m surprised by how much I still like it. Special kind of eeriness that sticks out in that early 90s rock landscape. Won’t rep for Maynard as a person or a lyricist but “Waiting like a stalking butler/Who upon the finger rests” is forever buried in my brain. Great haunted house of a song.The more prog they got the less I cared.
― circa1916, Monday, 2 September 2019 02:26 (four years ago) link
"Eulogy" is my all time fav
― FUCK YOUR POTATO (Neanderthal), Monday, 2 September 2019 02:36 (four years ago) link
Yeah that was a fav from AEnima too at the time. I really loved these guys in high school (up to the Lateralus era, which I half dug) so can’t fully get on the lol-TOOL train. Can’t make it through a whole album anymore, but still have some appreciation for the pre-Lateralus jams. Debuting your big deal followup album with a single about fisting buttholes was pretty good imo.
― circa1916, Monday, 2 September 2019 04:39 (four years ago) link
I liked your review, Whiney.
― StanM, Monday, 2 September 2019 09:05 (four years ago) link
if there's one album I'd completely trust Whiney to review well it's this lol
― imago, Monday, 2 September 2019 09:09 (four years ago) link
ha, thanks guys!
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Monday, 2 September 2019 20:57 (four years ago) link
I dreaded listening to this (the length, the austerity, the lyrics, Toolbros, etc) but...I like it? Adding some dynamics and simmer to odd-time meditations is a good move. And it sounds really good.
Oh same for sure, I imagined him being more of a pseudo-intellectual stoner type.
― change display name (Jordan), Wednesday, 4 September 2019 14:59 (four years ago) link
Put this on again yesterday, still think it's mostly just OK. "7empest" is cool but sounds like something that would have been toward the start of past Tool albums rather than its conclusion. And too many of their songs end the same way, with some minimal morse-code guitar riff while Carey does a bunch of killer fills. Though I kind of like that about them.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 4 September 2019 15:10 (four years ago) link
morse code uses a single tone and seems like a bad description. i don't recall any marquee moon solos in this thing.
― ilxors are still exuberant (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 4 September 2019 16:50 (four years ago) link
Morse code riffs then. Chug. Chug chug. Chug. Chug Chug Chug. Chug.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 4 September 2019 17:05 (four years ago) link
i agree that the single tone of a morse code and the multiple tones of these riffs are excited according to the timing of a rhythm
― ilxors are still exuberant (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 4 September 2019 17:12 (four years ago) link
I know what you mean. I just think all riffs are as much morse code as these riffs.
― ilxors are still exuberant (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 4 September 2019 17:15 (four years ago) link
and you are being unfair to these poor riffs, which are good
― ilxors are still exuberant (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 4 September 2019 17:16 (four years ago) link
lol I got back to my headphones and you are correct, Josh. They do that multiple times with the same tone at the end of songs.
― ilxors are still exuberant (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 4 September 2019 17:28 (four years ago) link
it is just Invincible and Descending, though.
― ilxors are still exuberant (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 4 September 2019 17:30 (four years ago) link
the one chord chug always sounds cool
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 4 September 2019 17:46 (four years ago) link
I love the minimalist one chord chugs, actually. And the Carey fills. It just underscores how for all the tightness of the arrangements and chops and stuff their compositions are often in the end just variations on time signature subdivisions. Which is cool, too!
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 4 September 2019 18:59 (four years ago) link
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, September 4, 2019 10:46 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
otmthe post-helmet database of 90s alt-rock bands copping staccato/modal/minimal riffs
― big city slam (Spottie), Wednesday, 4 September 2019 22:38 (four years ago) link
god this record is just so good. great review whiney
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 4 September 2019 22:42 (four years ago) link
yeah good review. i love all the six actual songs on here pretty much equally at this point.
― big city slam (Spottie), Wednesday, 4 September 2019 22:43 (four years ago) link