I've listened to Tool's new album twice now. This isn't meant so much as an insult, but it does very much play like "What if Schism was a whole album instead of a song."
It's also one of those situations where, after you've waited for such a long time for something to be released. There's not really any way that whatever it is can live up to what you might have in your head. It's definitely way more subdued that their older stuff, I'd say less heavy but not necessarily less interesting. It's different. I feel like whereas a lot of the appeal in the past used to come, for better or worse from Maynard, now the rest of the band have been given a spotlight to perform under so the stuff that shines tends to be instrumental more than how specific harmonies and lyrics of the vocals match up...if that makes sense?
I feel like it's one of those albums that will grow over time to be enjoyed much more. At the moment I tend to have it somewhere near the middle bottom of all of their albums. But honestly, the ranking of anything really doesn't matter. I've still ultimately listened to it twice in the space of a day, one of which was from midnight until about 1:30 in the morning.
To me it sounds like a band accepting and embracing the fact that they are older now, and changing their sound to reflect that. So it doesn't have the anger of earlier records, but I guess that's because anger at such an age when they're all relatively satisfied with their lives wouldn't be very authentic, and perhaps just a little bit silly.
It's like the NIN problem. If you like NIN, then you will always be able to find something to like about their new stuff. Even if some of it is admittedly very hit or miss. I feel like this is very much the same.
I know this reads a little negatively in some ways. But for the record, I do also think there are some really great tracks on this. It's just that I've not had long enough to really form a strong opinion on what stands out to me the most.
