Released on 30 August 2019, "Fear Inoculum" was the fifth studio album by American rock band Tool, it was the band's first album in 13 years, due to creative, personal, and legal issues band members encountered since the release of 10,000 Days. It was released to critical acclaim, with reviewers generally agreeing that the band had successfully refined their established sound. The album topped the US Billboard 200 chart, and spawned two singles "Fear Inoculum" & "Pneuma".
The album was like a slow-burn, back in 2008 band member Keenan said that the band would begin writing new material for their fifth studio album "right away". In 2012, the band's website was updated again, with the webmaster writing that they had heard instrumental material that had "sounded like Tool…some of it reminiscent to earlier Tool stuff, with other parts pushing the envelope" and that they estimated that the album was around half done. In 2013, it was reported that two separate scooter accidents injured two undisclosed members of the band, eliminating nine days of planned “jamming” time. In 2014, Jones and Carey revealed that complicated legal issues and court battles stemming from a 2007 lawsuit had been slowing down the process as well.
The issues stemmed from a lawsuit from a friend who claimed credit for artwork the band had used, but escalated after an insurance company involved sued the band over technicalities, leading to the band then counter-suing the insurance company. The constant court battles and delays, coupled with other life obligations, limited the band's time for working on music, and drained members of their motivation to be creative and write music.
Work on the album continued to progress through 2015 "slowly", according to Keenan. Jones reported that the band had 20 different song ideas being developed.The band toured, and debuted a new track, "Descending", in a shortened, incomplete form, according to Jones. While it was reported in early 2016 by the band's webmaster that it was largely just a few shorter songs and interludes that needed finishing. This work on the album continued throughout 2017. At the time, Carey predicted finishing and releasing in mid-2018, while Keenan countered these claims, stating it would likely take longer than that to finish.
On March 10, 2018, Tool entered a major recording studio to start recording sessions with Joe Barresi, with whom they had worked on 10,000 Days. Keenan recorded his vocals during the 2018 wine harvest at his Caduceus Cellars winery, resulting in him having to fit in his recording hours around his winemaking. Barresi and engineer Mat Mitchell traveled to his Arizona home for the recording process. In January 2019, Keenan announced that he had finished his final vocal recording sessions "months ago", but that the album would still likely require lengthy mixing sessions.
The album consists of seven main tracks of music, and a run time just short of 80 minutes, the maximum runtime of CDs The digital version of the album contains three short interlude tracks, stemming from Carey's scrapped plan to have the album be entirely one long song.Jones and Carey described the songs as lengthy, but containing multiple movements within each track.The concept of seven is a recurring theme of the album both musically and conceptually; Chancellor and Jones wrote guitar riffs in unusual time signatures related to the number seven, while Keenan introduced ideas related to seven as well.
The album also explores the concept of growing "older and wiser". Keenan explained that the album covers the idea of "embracing where we are right now, acknowledging where we've come from and some of the things we've gone through." Keenan also advised that patience and multiple listens were required in understanding the album, comparing it to a slowly developing movie. Jones described it as very different from their prior album 10,000 Days. Music critics and journalists have described the album as progressive rock, progressive metal, and alternative metal.
The album received acclaim from critics, giving a perfect score, singling out Keenan's work as "perhaps the best collection of vocals that singer Keenan has ever committed to tape, with many lines exiting the vocalist's lips closer to the honey daubed croon of Keenan's, also agreed with the sentiment, praising the album for being an 80-minute prog-metal fever dream that proves the band is back and better than ever.
No hay comentarios.:
Publicar un comentario