Tool's Latest a Step Ahead of the `Metal' Mouths
By: Jim Abbott The Orlando Sentinel - Knight Ridder/Tribune
May 26th 2001 4:35am
Hate to break it to you, kids, but the spectrum could be infinitely more creative than the rap-derivative monotony that now passes for metal music. Fred Durst, Aaron Lewis and a dozen of their most devoted imitators together aren't worthy to hold the microphone stand for Robert Plant in his prime. Nor does the ever-fashionable trend toward venom and anti-establishment angst seem credible against an indistinguishable nuclear blast of guitars and drums. If Led Zeppelin taught us anything (and it did), it's that texture and sonically adventurous arrangements are as integral to heavy metal as turning the amp to 11. It's that ambitious approach that separates Tool and its long-awaited Lateralus from the growing list of less talented posers. With roughly 77 minutes of music, including numerous songs in the 7- to 8-minute range, Lateralus makes immediate demands on listeners who inevitably will make comparisons to the Grammy-winning 1996 Aenima. Titles such as "Parabol" and its bookend companion "Parabola" reflect the album's theme: math and science as metaphors for the human condition. The approach sounds pretentious although the academic preoccupation is a natural extension of the band's penchant for odd time signatures and complicated, pseudo-classical "movements" within the longer songs. Yet singer Maynard James Keenan, bassist Justin Chancellor, guitarist Adam Jones and drummer Danny Carey miraculously manage to keep the marathon songs from spinning into self-indulgent jamming. In the way that a student might balance a math equation, each jarring drum pattern or woozy guitar solo is countered with gentler, evocative passages in songs such as "Parabola" and "Schism." Likewise, Keenan's larnyx-shredding vocals are delivered in finely measured increments, building to a fever pitch in the manic tension of "Ticks and Leeches." Outside of the basic instrumentation, the band and co-producer David Bottrill keep the other sonic diversions to a minimum. A panic-filled snippet of conversation from radio host (and UFO aficionado) Art Bell's syndicated radio program lends to the paranoid mood of the closing "Faaip De Oiad." Keenan (back from a successful side project with A Perfect Circle) and his mates deserve to stand above the current hard-rock, metal crop for their ambitious approach alone. "I know the pieces fit," Keenan assures us in "Schism." Lateralus generally proves that he's right, which sets the bar pretty high for the band's competitors. X X X Tool, Lateralus (Volcano): 4 stars
 (c) 2001, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).
| 
