Fear Inoculum is the fifth studio album by American prog-metal band Tool.
Founded in 1990, Tool is not known for its fast pace of work, but fans of the multi-million selling prog giant had to wait a whopping 13 years for Fear Inoculum. However, the band has not been on hiatus all this time, but has been touring quite extensively, especially in the USA.
The recording hiatus has been explained by legal problems, drummer Danny Carey’s motorcycle accident and artistic conflicts between the members, but I believe that part of the reason is also due to the paradoxical and dangerous combination of laziness and perfectionism.
A band that has achieved almost everything possible has probably found it difficult to motivate themselves for a new studio project, and at the same time the high standard of previous albums (and downright fanatical adoration from fans) has also raised the bar for self-criticism. With their best albums Ænima (1996, Lateralus (2001) and 10,000 Days (2006), Tool have created a very distinctive version of progressive metal that has gained many followers and even outright imitators. So how to stand out with a new album? How to create something new? Or, in the end, to try at all or just do what feels natural?
Now that the massive 86-minute Fear Inoculum has been heard, Tool’s choice seems obvious. Fear Inoculum is familiar and safe Tool music. For better or worse. But was it a clear conscious choice after all?
This makes you wonder about vocalist Maynard James Keenan’s lyrics in ”Invincible” (one of the best songs on the album):
Warrior struggling
To remain relevant
Warrior struggling
To remain consequential
Cry aloud
Bold and proud
Of where I’ve been
But here I am
Where I end
Maybe Tool did struggle and try to change, but some pull eventually threw them into the same spiral as always.
The long songs of Fear Inoculum (six of them are over ten minutes long) are familiar, at the same time surging forward heavily and sometimes flowing in a hypnotic way, despite all the complex rhythms.
Hypnoticism and repetition in cyclical riffs with irregular rhythms has long been a Tool trademark but with Fear Inoculum the band seems to take this aspect further than ever before. At times the songs just seem to go on and on and on and on… and unfortunately without any real highlights. Drama and contrasts are sometimes sorely lacking. Especially when Keenan sings the songs softer than ever before (this was already foreshadowed by the great 2018 album Eat The Elephant by Keenan’s other band A Perfect Circle), raising his voice to the previously so familiar roars only momentarily.
Fear Inoculum lacks the aggression and intensity that has made Tool’s best songs such intoxicating experiences. Of course, the band does come to life impressively at times, and the music on this album, even at its most trivial, is by no means bad. Just a little bland.
Only in the penultimate song of the album, ”7empest”, Tool really intensifies their music and this song is the only one on the album that can honestly be considered one of the best in Tool’s catalogue. Keenan’s ”A tempest must be that” scream is powerful and the song features the best guitar riffs on the album and Carey’s most energetic drumming. Guitarist Adam Jones gets to solo on the song with a tasteful psychedelic edge.
In fact, the solos are one of the things that give the album a touch of something new. There are a bit more of them than before. Or at least one or two more than usual! Even drummer Danny Carey gets to show off his skills in a never-before-heard drum solo on the entertaining ”Chocolate Chip Trip”, a song that brings to mind the drum trio interludes of King Crimson’s final line-up.
The sounds on the album Tool have again been honed to about as perfect as you can get in this kind of music. The guitars growl thick and powerful and the drums bang sharply in contrast. The bass adds roundness and balance to the sound. On the other hand, it would be interesting if the band ever tried a slightly wider dynamic range, but that might scare the little ones in the family.
Read also: Black Midi – Hellfire (2022)
All in all, Fear Inoculum is a somewhat contradictory and frustrating experience. On the one hand, I enjoyed listening to it almost all the time, sometimes a lot, but on the other hand, even the best songs on the album feel overlong and the album as a whole is far too bloated. This is especially true of the 86-minute digital version of the album, which contains several short interludes that feel totally pointless. The physical release of the album, which is 79 minutes long, omits some of these, but the album is still at least a quarter too long.
Fear Inoculum has been about as big a success as a rock album can be in 2019, so at least 13 years of pent-up demand was enough. Personally, I no longer believe that Tool would dare to renew their well-established, and lucrative, formula in the future. The best I can hope for is that in say five years’ time the band will release a 50-minute album where they manage to sum up their best sides in a more compact way than usual in the form of good ”Tool songs”. In the meantime, Fear Inoculum will certainly be blaring through my speakers from time to time, but more often I will return to Ænima or Lateralus.
Parhaat biisit: ”Invincible”, ”7empest”, ”Chocolate Chip Trip”, ”Chocolate Chip Trip”.
Rating: ****
Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI
Tracks (digital version):
Musicians:
Maynard James Keenan: vocals Danny Carey: drums Justin Chancellor: bass guitar Adam Jones: guitar
Producer: Tool
Label: Tool Dissectional, Volcano, RCA
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