HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: ON THIS DAY: Lateralus – Tool

While it pales into comparison to what we’re used to today, by 2001 TOOL fans were itching for new music. With the exception of 2000’s Salival – a collection of live tracks and rarities – it had been five years since the world last heard from the four-piece. After the back-to-back critical acclaim of 1993’s Undertow and 1996’s Ænima, whose title track landed the band a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance, TOOL had become locked in a lengthy legal dispute with their label Volcano Entertainment. The delay was so great that at points rumours were even swirling that the band were breaking up – ha! Finally, on 11 January 2001, the wait was over, and the band announced their third studio album, Systema Encéphale.

Of course, we now know that Systema Encéphale, and the track-list announced with it, was a ruse – the product of a deep distrust of the digital, and specifically of the file-sharing websites which were only just rising to prominence in 2001. Again, this is something we’ve kind of come to expect from TOOL. Smoke and mirrors have accompanied pretty much everything they’ve done ever since, with frontman Maynard James Keenan often particularly known for casting a sceptical eye over technology in its various forms. Back in 2001 however you can imagine it caused quite a stir when the band revealed the album was actually titled Lateralus just a month after Systema Encéphale had initially been announced.

Perhaps less of a shock was Lateralus’ quality. TOOL were already held in extremely high-regard off the back of the album’s predecessors, but it was this record which proved beyond any doubt that they were one of the most fascinating and cerebral bands ever to offer a take on heavy music. As well as carrying on with both the swaggering alt-metal and the knack for artsy experimentation they’d shown on Undertow and Ænima, on Lateralus they leant significantly into more progressive territory, with towering lengthy songs and the use of often mind-bending odd time signatures.

It almost goes without saying that the level of technicality is consistently outstanding on Lateralus. However, a major part of what separates this record from so many other ‘progressive’ offerings is not so much the sheer skill of the individuals involved, but the extent to which each of them are capable of showing genuine restraint. While many bands both before and since have come along with musicians who can play the crap out of their instruments, few have ever managed to stay as unwaveringly focused on the song and the overall journey of the music itself as much as TOOL. Rather than everyone firing on all cylinders all the time, each member knows when to step forward and when to step back, when to diverge and when to coalesce.

As such, there is no one ‘man of the match’ on Lateralus, with everyone instead getting their fair share of moments to shine. Think of bassist Justin Chancellor’s iconic intro to Schism, or drummer Danny Carey’s mesmerising tribal toms which open Ticks & Leeches; think of guitarist Adam Jones‘ multiple massive riffs and leads, or Keenan’s ability to go from light ethereal stylings to absolutely screaming the house down at the flick of a switch. Moments like these have no doubt inspired and indeed frustrated bedroom musicians the world over, but what’s crucially important is that, with everything in its proper place, TOOL never feel any less than a living, breathing whole on this record.

It was as this whole that the band produced multiple genuine contenders for the best metal song of the 21st century. There’s the aforementioned Schism, for example – a song which landed them a second Grammy for Best Metal Performance, and was accompanied by one of the most unsettling music videos you might ever see. There’s also the stunning one-two of Parabol and Parabola, a ten-minute pairing which shows TOOL in all their dynamic, intricate and thunderous glory.

It would also be impossible to talk about Lateralus without mentioning its ninth and title track. In many ways, it was this song which spawned the meme of the insufferable TOOL fan over-explaining the band’s use of odd time signatures and dalliances with the Fibonacci sequence. We’ll try to avoid that here, but suffice it to say that the amount of thought that went into this nine and a half minute piece – much like the rest of the record – is staggering. Most important of all is that even Lateralus’ extensive intricacies never get in the way of its sense of groove. Who knew you could headbang to 9/8, then 8/8, then 7/8!? 

As cerebral as Lateralus is, it’s this sense of accessibility within its complexity which no doubt led to the album’s considerable commercial success. In the US, it debuted at Number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, going double platinum by August 2003. It also peaked at Number 1 in Australia, Canada and Poland, with top ten finishes in six other countries. Here in the UK, it peaked at a still highly respectable Number 16, going on to receive a Gold certification for 100,000 sales in 2015. Since then, you’ll still find it regularly topping lists of the best progressive and metal albums out there, and both Schism and Parabola were even featured on Guitar Hero: World Tour. All this for a record with nine, ten and eleven minute songs, and interludes which literally comprise the slowed down sounds of the singer squeezing his cat.

Twenty years on, Lateralus still marks a crowning achievement for TOOL. Ænima before it had already set the bar ridiculously high, and while the quality wouldn’t exactly drop on 10,000 Days and Fear Inoculum which (eventually) followed, it’s Lateralus which stands out as the band’s masterpiece amid a discography of unwavering nines and tens. Every second of its near 80-minute runtime speaks to the sheer mastery of four musicians who few before or since have ever been able to hold a candle to.

Lateralus was originally released on May 15th 2001 via Volcano Entertainment.

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