Tool, “Fear Inoculum” 6/10

Tool is seen now as one of the greatest rock bands to ever exist. With an almost flawless track record, Tool has easily had one of the best catalogues in rock history and one of the best concepts in rock. Taking inspiration from metal and progressive rock the band combines hard guitar passages with very surreal long songs. After the release of “10,000 Days”, one of the best of their albums, the band went on a painfully long 13 year hiatus. The American rock band is finally back, unfortunately it is with their worst album of their career. Barring “7leven”, the album lacks any of the originality and vibrancy that made Tool so good in the past. The band both expands too much on their sound, such as overuse of really ugly sounding synths, and does too little to show any kind of change from their back catalogue. This album is the kind of album a Tool cover band would release. Though the album isn’t necessarily bad, it’s a definite disappointment from one of the best bands of all time.