I loved this album on the first listen through. Eary, creative and atmospheric. Brilliant.

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I’ve waited so long for this record .. I loved 10,000 days so much I prayed this would not disappoint .. it took 3 listens to hook me .. this album is a work of art .. IT IS INCREDIBLE .....

I love this album. Yes there is a higher proportion of instrumental sections vs vocals compared with previous albums but it works for me and just emphasises Maynard’s reliably excellent vocals when they do come in. Even the repetition of some lyrical and musical themes from previous albums does not bother me. I have also heard criticisms of the production but the Itunes version sounds fantastic on my less than perfect car stereo. My only criticism would be that, whereas on previous albums I have enjoyed the interludes, on this album I find them intrusive and not in keeping with the flow of the album.

At first I was a little disappointed, as there were not many high energy tracks like vicarious or the patient. But I read a review saying that Maynard is in his 50s, and he’s still one of the coolest guys.

Tool has 5/6 albums out, and this is prog metal, they’re still allowed to experiment, and this is what they wanted us to hear. Pneuma, invincible and descending are my favourites

I’ve loved this band since 1996. This is the best album they’ve done. All the elements are there, it builds on everything they’ve done before. Feels like a true evolution from earlier albums. Well worth the wait.

Tool are back. Simply incredible musicianship from this unique band.

Pneuma may be the best piece of music I’ve heard. That good.

I think people would have been more forgiving if there were a few shorter tracks with drops and MJK’s screams here and there but hello? The man is in his late 50s... you wanted Tool, this is Tool but you’re not getting Undertow or Opiate any time soon lol. Danny is still an absolute machine, Adam sounds like Adam and Justin still rocks that sexy bass tone. If you want one hit wonders, look elsewhere. If you want the Tool experience, dive on in!

8 listens through the entirety of the record and it’s been a journey. Total masterpiece

This album has made me get into Tool. After a 13 year gap, they’re back with a vengeance and have created something sublime.

Absolute masterpiece guitarist has improved a lot

vry gud

They’ve grown as a band and continued to innovate with this album, but have remained true to their roots as well. Pneuma and Culling Voices are currently stand out tracks but I already know this album will grow and grow on me so I fully expect other tracks to deservedly challenge my initial take. Well worth investing time to listen to this amazing record.

Rhythmically interesting. Harmonically dead in the water. If you like songs that pedal on one chord throughout for 10 minutes then knock yourself out. I’ll occupy myself with something more musically challenging and rewarding.

Ehh. It a good album not deserving of 1 start but understandable that people are irritated. Put it on in the background while you chat to friends but not something I'll be going intentionally back to. No point in making something long for the sake of it. Dream theatre have the problem that they are talented musicians that can't write songs. That's not the case here just it gets boring when the is a repetitive instrumental part. Bat out of hell can get away with being nearly 10 minutes long as it continuously tells a story and keeps you attention where as this goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on.

it’s bad

13 years later.... oh dear

Af7er the firs7 2 lis7ens i gave i7 a 7wo day break, jus7 7oo much to diges7 and maybe a shock 7o 7he sys7em af7er so long. Now I'm back a7 i7 and i7 ge7s more glorious 7he more i lis7en. I love 7he produc7ion, Dannys drums sound like cannons! awesome! 7/7

Thank you Tool

So happy with this album, it gets better every time I listen, it is a good experience with headphones also. Not a weak track on it IMO. It’s quality from start to finish and I am grateful it exists.

I can only describe it as a lot of different types of sounds merged into “it’s taken us 13 years to come up with this”.. I’m now questioning the people who purchased the album making it No. 1 in the album chart.

It’s perfect (that word needs redefining for this album) nothing will ever be as perfect/brilliant/amazing as this.

Now all open your third eye

The best thing to happen in 2019

i see hundreds of reviews from tool fans claiming LDR fans are hijacking the reviews, but i spend ages scrolling through and can only see two and one of them is clearly a joke? tool are number 1, what more do you want? anyway go listen to NFR

It brings me joy to see a band like tool get up there with all the trashy pop artists

Tool have done it again. A truly epic album, worthy of their other masterpieces. Definitely worth the wait for such a powerful album. Left me in tears. Well done lads. Hope we don’t have to wait quite as long next time.

Utterly amazing album, don't make your decision based on one or 2 listens, each time you put it on there is more & more that reveals itself, so much going on in Tools most prog record to date... Pneuma, Invicible, Descending & 7empest are just out of this world when you strat to break down the layers.... a musical onion or is it a progressive trifle?

Their most mature release & after 13 years their most refined... flawless production, check the panning out as Dannny moves across the kit, you get to follow him.

In time this will be regarded as much of a classic as the others, we have been listening to them for so long the nostalgia mountain is huge, but this is a stunning & glorious piece of music, an album thats mean to be played from start to finish... its crack for any prog fan.

Very Tool-y, a beautiful album that still after 8 listens gives me goosebumps. So many layers, details and with every listen I am uncovering something new. Pneuma might have to be one of the most beautiful metal tracks ever written.

Haters be gone.

epic album will take a good few plays to get through sounds like pink floods division bell in parts is there a floyd fan in the band

Like a lot better

Thank you Tool...

Tool showing why they have so much praise yet again

This album is long, not easy to listen to on its first go and will probably be a bit of a grower. But then again if all the best albums are the ones that develop and grow on you, then this is an absolute masterpiece of how to write engaging, emotive and at times indulgent rock. There is no band that sound like them and if you want to expand your musical education further than the bland sound like everyone else music that is in the charts, then get into this band and liberate yourself. There’s a very good reason that it’s riding at the top of the charts.

This album is everything I have been waiting for.

Like pretty much all tool albums the more you listen. The more you hear. The better they get. I’d just like to take this opportunity to say, gutted Lana. You should have released your album a week earlier.

See title.

It’s a shame the LDR fans have decided to (bitterly) hijack the reviews of what is a really a great album. Invincible, Descending and 7empest are all incredible and FI does not disappoint!

It seems the review section is full of trolls and moaners- hush now guys.

;)

I’ve been a Tool fan for years, and I anxiously awaited this and was really excited to buy and give it a listen and it didn’t disappoint. It is Tool all over, it has little reminders of albums past too- ‘Pneuma’ for me vibes a little bit like Schism, and there are hints of ‘Jambi’ and ‘Wings for Marie’ instrumentally throughout the album. But it’s also new, beautifully put together and Maynard’s lyrical honey vocals really tie it together that all in all make for a very thoughtful, intrinsically gorgeous album.

Perfect

Pathetic Lana del ray and Taylor swift fans getting but hurt that something that isnt generic bland pop music is trending. Get a life

...I mean, it’s not ‘Before The Applause’ is it!

13 years of waiting worth of every flipping drum beat! Absolutely masterpiece!

difficult to digest and review after only 24hrs, but it is clear that a huge amount of work and musician ship has gone into the making of this record. 13 years later there is still not another band on the planet that sound like tool. i for one, am glad they’re back.

Just a great album, great tool riffs

This album could be touching on sonic perfection... Listened to it 4 times back to back non stop and it gets better each time. I get why fans of the earlier sound might need time to take to this. Not like your probably gonna have another decade to do so... People and bands evolve, that’s life. This is as mesmeric and challenging as what they have done before. Familiar but also fresh and new. The whole album feels like one continuous track, brilliantly mixed and produced. “7empest” perfectly encapsulates everything. Masterful wizardry from musicians playing at their peak. That’s all to rare these days. EPIC.

Genuinely disappointed and I feel hurt and betrayed. I can’t believe one of my favourite bands could make an album so bland and boring.

When you consider how amazing Lateralus and Aenima were, nothing on this album even comes close. Quite a few songs on Undertow and 10,000 Days were better than any of these as well.

Fear Inoculum literally feels like 87 minutes of arrogance and laziness. There is nothing original and I can hear recycled riffs and elements from their other songs. No songs are very exciting at all and I honestly can’t believe they would think it is.

If you like to spend your money on worthwhile things then don’t waste it on this.

I’m approaching 40, I’ve seen Tool live several times way back when. I’ve been a listening to them since Opiate. You could say I’m somewhat of a Tool fan therefore.

That being said, Fear Inoculum is what happens when a band ceases to be a band, over thinks it’s music for 13 years and creates one of the most overblown, blandest, tedious sounds-like-the-song-before, piles of progressive metal excrement I’ve ever heard. At its best moments, the album sounds like a hidden gems off their Lateralus era, at its worst, it sounds like discarded dull b-sides from it’s Lateralus era. Sadly the majority of the album falls into the latter category.

Maynard, who revealed that he records vocals separately away from the music writing process because Adam, Justin and Danny take so damn long, sounds as disconnected as that suggests. The aggression and energy that Tool displays in their earlier releases is vacant and as a result there is no previous “edge” to any of the songs resulting in 10+ minute endurance tests that follow the same pattern and formula: start with a clean guitar or phased base line: repeat with a 7/4 time signature, add some vocals, build to a hopeful metal crescendo, deflate to fiddly and awkward tired singular note guitar riffs, rinse and repeat. YAWN. I’M BORED NOW. END ALREADY.

Consider progressive rock before them, in the late 60s bands like Pink Floyd, Emerson Lake and Palmer and (tool influencers) King Crimson became so overblown that punk exploded in a counter culture of hegel’s dialectic. Back then rock music was relevant for this to happen. In 2019, rock music has become as dead as film, jazz and other predominantly 20th century pursuits. Tool’s destiny will undoubtably end with the all too familiar cliche of the fade away, with Fear Inoculum the evidence for this. My only hope that is that the next Tool album will be 26 years away at which point I would have developed dementia and their music will sound like something new to me with every listen.

13 years is a long time in rock music. The Beatles produced their catalog of timeless classics in just 9, Grunge and its legacy lasted for about 5, Led Zeppelin conquered the world in 10, Black Sabbath changed the musical landscape in 8. Tool sound like they’ve spent 13 years overthinking a bass riff.

9£ and 15 minutes that I will never get back. Atrocious.

Possibly my favourite TOOL album. Absolutely stunning, a masterpiece.