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LATERALUS
Tool
(Zomba/BMG)
Has "the new Yes" been taken yet? No?
It came to me while listening to Tool's grandiose fusion of heavy metal and atmospheric interludes that wouldn't be out of place in a sci-fi horror movie. It actually only sounds like Yes during one bit at the end of a song called Parabola, a guitar line over croaking frogs that reminds me of the famous intro to Roundabout. Except for the frogs. Whither art rock? Good question. Glad you asked.
Times have changed from when Yes took all the musicianship at their disposal and poked their heads into the clouds. Life is cheaper, people are meaner, the popular drugs aren't as happy and heavy rock is heavier than Iron Butterfly had ever dreamed.
Enter Tool. It's never been a conventional band, but with Lateralus, Tool goes into realms of progressive rock rarely heard before. This thing is packed full with nine-minute epics, three-minute guitar solos, dense layers of exotic sound in bizarre time signatures, polyrhythms on top of polyrhythms and deep thoughts about death, the universe and everything. Lots of anger, too.
"Suck and suck! Suckin' up all you can suck! ... you've turned my blood cold and bitter, beat my compassion black and blue!" spits lead vocalist Maynard James Keenan in Ticks & Leeches - one of my favourites. The song, like many here, builds to a raging climax, vents its spleen, blows off steam and then cools into a slow, black funk before jumping back to bite you a second time. It ends in a frenzy of screaming and manic drum beats. Cool.
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The experimental Disposition, Schism and the title track may also rock your world.
Chances are when you hear a line like "swing on the spiral of our divinity," you're not in for good-time rock 'n' roll. Lateralus is challenging fare for people tired of tidy three-pop songs about being lonely at 3 a.m. There's not a radio hit in the lot - and that may be a good thing.