Red Mosquito

I'm on my first listen but I count at least six long tracks:

Fear Inoculum
Pneuma
Invincible
Descending
Culling Voices
7empest

bune wrote:

Bammer wrote:Just grabbed it on iTunes and will be taking the long way in on my drive to the office tomorrow.

at 90 minutes, how long is your drive?

Got it last night at 9:00 on the dot. I love companies based in the Eastern time zone because it was "tomorrow" to them and I could buy it from them.

verb_to_trust wrote:I didn't realize this thing was only, like, four actual songs. Granted, they are really long songs. I actually find the interludes and Chocolate Chip Trip insulting after 13 years.

That's one of the most common negative things I've read about the album. That and how they released the single and two other songs live, and then the rest of the album was only four other songs and most of those were interludes.

I was running late. Came right in. Had to let the last 1:30 of first song finish before I got out of the car.

I just went for a walk and made it through the first two songs. Helps that it's the day before a three-day weekend and almost no one is in the office.

I don't dislike this collection of songs, but so much of it feels like they're covering the same ground of the last couple albums both from a sonic and songwriting standpoint. It's not helped by the 13 year gap between records. And there's none of the punchiness of songs like Ticks & Leeches, Parabola, Vicarious, etc. I've given up that they're ever going to write songs like Prison Sex, Intolerance, Stinkfist, etc. again, and that's fine. Overall this album so far feels to me like a less-focused 10,000 Days, without the MJK highs that he typically brings to what the band is doing. Again, I don't dislike it, but I'm not finding myself blown away by it and a lot of the time it sounds like rehashes of what they've done before.

I'd add that MJK sounds like he phoned this one in.

Current ranking:

Aenima
Lateralus
Undertow
10,000 Days
Opiate
Fear Inoculum

meatwad wrote:I don't dislike this collection of songs, but so much of it feels like they're covering the same ground of the last couple albums both from a sonic and songwriting standpoint. It's not helped by the 13 year gap between records. And there's none of the punchiness of songs like Ticks & Leeches, Parabola, Vicarious, etc. I've given up that they're ever going to write songs like Prison Sex, Intolerance, Stinkfist, etc. again, and that's fine. Overall this album so far feels to me like a less-focused 10,000 Days, without the MJK highs that he typically brings to what the band is doing. Again, I don't dislike it, but I'm not finding myself blown away by it and a lot of the time it sounds like rehashes of what they've done before.

Pretty much how I feel after 1 listen. I'll still always love hearing these guys rip though. Super excited to see it live, as always. They've never disappointed me in concert.

meatwad wrote:I'd add that MJK sounds like he phoned this one in.

Of course he did.

If we're being honest, Maynard probably hasn't given a flying fuck about TOOL since about 2002.

swan wrote:If we're being honest, Maynard probably hasn't given a flying fuck about TOOL since about 2002.

I've gotta disagree with you there, I think 10,000 Days is among his finest work both lyrically and vocally.

meatwad wrote:

swan wrote:If we're being honest, Maynard probably hasn't given a flying fuck about TOOL since about 2002.

I've gotta disagree with you there, I think 10,000 Days is among his finest work both lyrically and vocally.

I'll give you that. And the "Wings" suite (if you want to call it that) is one of my favorite things he's ever done.

But I was disappointed that even on the 10,000 Days tour he couldn't or wouldn't sing the climactic high note at the end of Vicarious. That is super nitpick-y & fanboy-ish, I know.

I'll always love TOOL, and I really hope this album grows on me as 10,000 Days did.

I don’t get much of a 10,000 Days vibe myself. I didn’t like that album when it came out but its grown on me.

The filler songs are annoying but the actual songs are terrific on this new one.

Definitely going to take several listens to get a feel for it. I'm already liking it more on the second go round.

meatwad wrote:I'd add that MJK sounds like he phoned this one in.

he kind of literally did, since he recorded everything not with the band.

I finally got to listen to the whole album - all ten songs - and it's alright. I really like parts of a lot of the songs but to me this album is them embracing the prog side of things and using keyboards and other things that takes it out of 'hard rock' for me. The good parts are really good but there are too many other parts where Adam's got his guitar sound that he likes and by God he's not going to change it for anyone or anything, especially not a 13-year gap.

Found out that Lustmord did some work on the album, and after listening to his 'remixes' of the songs on the DVDs I think he maybe did the segues because they are similarly terrible.

I wonder if there’s some button combination on the special edition screen that unlocks secret content. That seems like the kind of Easter egg they’d include.

Either that or someone figured out how to jailbreak it and upload all the bands videos

bune wrote:

looks like I got #1.

OK. I listened to this album 3 times at work today.

It's pretty amazing once you get past MJK's contributions.

I wanted the typical Tool vocal melodies, but it's pretty clear they are done with "typical."

Like I said previously, they are pretty much a post-rock band now.

bune wrote:

bune wrote:

looks like I got #1.

What is this?

Those are several versions available of the album.

The Opiate thing is there because - and this isn't something I figured out - the priest there plus the acolytes (?) are in the same arrangement as the circles/lines on the back of the album.

Also looking at ebay I'm not opening mine until I see there's a second printing coming, otherwise I'm keeping it sealed forever. Or until the battery dies and explodes.

I find it hard not to view all of MJK's lyrics on this album through the lens of the rape allegations against him.

Basically, it's him screaming at all the "keyboard warriors".