Lateralus
Lateralus cover
Studio album by Tool
Released May 15, 2001 (2001-05-15)
Recorded October 2000 – January 2001 at Cello Studios, Hollywood, California; The Hook, North Hollywood, California; Big Empty Space, North Hollywood, California; The Lodge, North Hollywood, California
Genre Progressive metal
Length 78:58
Label Volcano Records
Producer David Bottrill, Tool[1]
Professional reviews
Tool chronology
Salival
(2000)		 Lateralus
(2001)		 10,000 Days
(2006)
Alternative cover
Holographic gatefold package
Holographic gatefold package

Lateralus (pronounced [ˌlæɾɹˈælɪs])[2] is the third studio album by American progressive metal band Tool. The album was released on May 15, 2001, and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. On August 5, 2003, Lateralus was certified double platinum by the RIAA. On August 23, 2005, Lateralus was released as a limited edition two-picture-disc vinyl LP in a holographic gatefold package. As with Ænima and Undertow, the album is replete with time signature changes, shifting riffs and the volatile vocals of singer Maynard James Keenan.[3] Overall, Lateralus was critically well received and its complexity provoked many responses akin to what Ryan Rayhil of Spin magazine had to say about the album, calling it a "monolithic puzzlebox".[4]

Contents

Overview

Lateralus emerged after a five-year legal dispute with Tool's former label, Volcano Records.[5] In January 2001, the band announced that their new album's title would be Systema Encéphale and provided a 12-song tracklist with titles such as "Riverchrist", "Numbereft", "Encephatalis", "Musick", and "Coeliacus". File-sharing networks such as Napster were flooded with bogus files bearing the titles' names.[6] At the time, Tool members were outspokenly critical of file-sharing networks in general due to the negative impact on artists that are dependent on success in record sales to continue their career. Keenan had this to say during an interview with NY Rock in 2000, "I think there are a lot of other industries out there that might deserve being destroyed. The ones who get hurt by MP3s are not so much companies or the business, but the artists, people who are trying to write songs."[7] A month later, the band revealed that the new album was actually titled Lateralus (supposedly named after a human leg muscle and lateral thinking)[8] and that the name Systema Encéphale and the tracklist had been a ruse.[9]

Lateralus and the corresponding tours would take Tool a step further toward art-rock[10][11][12] and progressive rock[13][14][15] territory. Rolling Stone wrote in an attempt to summarize the album that "Drums, bass and guitars move in jarring cycles of hyperhowl and near-silent death march... The prolonged running times of most of Lateralus' thirteen tracks are misleading; the entire album rolls and stomps with suitelike purpose."[14] Joshua Klein of The A.V. Club in turn expressed his opinion that Lateralus, with its 79-minute running time and relatively complex and long songs - topped by the ten-and-a-half minute music video for "Parabola" — posed a challenge to fans and music programming alike.[16] Drummer Danny Carey said, "The manufacturer would only guarantee us up to 79 minutes... We thought we'd give them two seconds of breathing room."[17] Carey aspired to create longer songs like those by artists he grew up listening to. The band had segues to place between songs, but had to cut out a lot during the mastering phase.[17] The CD was mastered using HDCD technology.

Reception

The album was a commercial success in the United States, reaching number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart in its debut week.[18] Well-received by both fans and critics, it was named Kerrang!'s album of the year in 2001, and the band received the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for the song "Schism".[19] During the band's acceptance speech, drummer Carey stated that he would like to thank his parents "for putting up with him", and bassist Justin Chancellor concluded, "I want to thank my dad for doing my mom."[20]

Special editions

A vinyl edition and two DVD singles from the album were released later. The "double vinyl four-picture disc" edition of Lateralus was first released as a limited autographed edition exclusively available to fan club members and publicly released on August 23, 2005. Two music videos were produced; one for "Schism" (with the short ambient segue "Mantra" at the beginning) and one for "Parabol/Parabola". These were subsequently released as two separate DVD singles on December 20, 2005, featuring remixes of the tracks by Lustmord.

Composition and content

 Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (June 2008)

Drummer Danny Carey sampled himself breathing through a tube to simulate the chanting of Buddhist monks for "Parabol",[21] and banged piano strings for samples on "Reflection".[21] "Faaip de Oiad" samples a recording of a 1997 call on Art Bell's radio program Coast to Coast AM.[22] "Faaip de Oiad" is Enochian for The Voice Of God.

"Disposition", "Reflection", and "Triad" form a sequence[1] that has been performed in succession live with occasional help from various tourmates such as Mike Patton, Buzz Osborne, Tricky, and members of Isis, Meshuggah, and King Crimson.[23]

"Eon Blue Apocalypse" is about Adam Jones' Great Dane named Eon Blue, who had died from bone cancer,[24] while "The Grudge" references the classic novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The track "Mantra" is the slowed-down sound of Maynard James Keenan gently squeezing one of his cats.[citation needed]

Album art

The insert is translucent and flips open to reveal the different layers of the human body. Disguised in the brain matter on the final layer is the word "God." The artwork was done by artist Alex Grey, who also designed the 3-D cover for 10,000 Days.

Track listing

All songs written by Tool.

  1. "The Grudge" – 8:36
  2. "Eon Blue Apocalypse" – 1:04
  3. "The Patient" – 7:13
  4. "Mantra" – 1:12
  5. "Schism" – 6:47
  6. "Parabol" – 3:04
  7. "Parabola" – 6:03
  8. "Ticks & Leeches" – 8:10
  9. "Lateralus" – 9:24
  10. "Disposition" – 4:46
  11. "Reflection" – 11:07
  12. "Triad" – 8:46
  13. "Faaip de Oiad" – 2:39

Just as Salival was initially released with several errors on the track listing, early pressings of Lateralus had the ninth track incorrectly spelled as "Lateralis".[5] The original title of "Reflection" was "Resolution" before being changed at the last minute.[6]

Personnel

Chart positions

Lateralus sold 555,000 copies in its first week, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200.[25] It is ranked number 123 on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "Definitive 200" list.[26]

Album

Chart Peak position
Billboard 200[18] 1
Billboard Top Internet Albums[27] 1
Australian Albums Chart[28] 1
Austrian Albums Chart[29] 9
Canadian Albums Chart[27] 1
Dutch Albums Chart[30] 7
Finnish Albums Chart[31] 11
French Albums Chart[32] 21
New Zealand Albums Chart[33] 19
Polish Albums Chart [34] 1
Swiss Albums Chart[35] 31
UK Albums Chart[36] 16

Singles

Year Song Chart peak positions
US
[18]		 US
Mod[18]		 US
Main
[18]		 NLD[37]
2001 "Schism" 67 2 2 54
2001 "Parabola" — 31 10 56
2002 "Lateralus" — 18 14 —
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.

References

  1. ^ a b David Fricke (2001-05-14). "Album Reviews: Lateralus", Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 19 February 2008. 
  2. ^ "MTV Riot Interview with Danny Carey and Justin Chancellor (pronounced at 23–26 second mark of video)." (UNK). Retrieved on 2007-12-29.
  3. ^ Farber, Jim (2001-05-20). "Mellowing Metallically Rock's Hard Men Show a Soft Side", Daily News (New York). 
  4. ^ Rayhil, Ryan (April 2002). The Spin Top 40 (Only Bands that Matter). Spin. p. 77. 
  5. ^ a b Akhtar, Kabir. "The Tool FAQ". toolshed.down.net. Retrieved on 2008-09-14.
  6. ^ a b Akhtar, Kabir. "Old News. January — March 2001". toolshed.down.net. Retrieved on 2006-03-06.
  7. ^ Gabriella (September 2000). "Interview with Maynard James Keenan of A Perfect Circle". NY Rock. Retrieved on 2006-04-28.
  8. ^ Joel McIver (2002). Nu-Metal: The Next Generation of Rock & Punk. Omnibus. pp. 137. http://books.google.com/books?id=grWO5XKtbCoC. Retrieved on 2008-01-27. 
  9. ^ D'Angelo, Joe. "Tool Tinker With Album Title, Set Track List". MTV News. MTV.com. Retrieved on 2006-03-06.
  10. ^ "Lateralus review". E! Online (2001). Retrieved on 2007-06-18.
  11. ^ Bond, Laura (2001). "Tool Stretch Out And Slow Down In Show With King Crimson". VH1.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-19.
  12. ^ Brett, Milano (2006). "Power Tool: Maynard James Keenan and band craft epic art-metal". Boston Herald. Retrieved on 2006-05-27.
  13. ^ Theakston, Rob (2001). "Lateralus Review". AllMusic. Retrieved on 2006-04-28.
  14. ^ a b Fricke, David (2001). "Lateralus Review". Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2006-04-24.
  15. ^ DeRogatis, p. 562.
  16. ^ Klein, Joshua (2002-03-29). "Lateralus review". The A.V. Club. Retrieved on 2007-05-25.
  17. ^ a b J.R. Griffin (May 2001). "Interview with Danny Carey", Mean Street, pp. 26. Retrieved on 19 February 2008. 
  18. ^ a b c d e "Tool Chart History". Billboard.com. Retrieved on 2008-09-14.
  19. ^ "Grammy Award Winners". The Recording Academy. Retrieved on 2007-04-28.
  20. ^ D'Angelo, Joe (2002). "Alicia Keys Takes Five, 'O Brother' Gets Most At 44th Grammy Awards". MTV News. MTV.com. Retrieved on 2006-08-07.
  21. ^ a b Ken Micallef (June 2001). "Danny Carey: Demon On Drums". Modern Drummer, transcribed by Ruskin F. for The Tool Page. Retrieved on 2007-04-17. "I also had a piano that was destroyed. I got some good samples from that, banging on the strings for 'Resolution.'"
  22. ^ Jim Abbott (2001-05-24). "Tool's latest a step ahead of the `metal' mouths", Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved on 15 April 2008. 
  23. ^ Brad Kava (2001-08-13). "Tool, King Crimson remind audiences how rock should be" (fee required), San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved on 19 February 2008. 
    "Tool shakes the walls" (fee required), The Roanoke Times (2002-11-05). Retrieved on 19 February 2008. 
  24. ^ The Tool Page: An Article
  25. ^ "Discography Tool Laterlaus". Billboard.com. Retrieved on 2006-04-29.
  26. ^ "The Definitive 200". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2007). Retrieved on 2008-09-15.
  27. ^ a b "Lateralus > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums". allmusic.com. Retrieved on 2008-09-14.
  28. ^ "Tool Australian Charting". Australian-charts.com. Retrieved on 2008-09-14.
  29. ^ "Tool Austrian Charting". Austriancharts.at. Retrieved on 2008-09-14.
  30. ^ "Tool Dutch Album Charting". dutchcharts.com. Retrieved on 2008-09-14.
  31. ^ "Tool Finnish Charting". finnishcharts.com. Retrieved on 2008-09-14.
  32. ^ "Tool French Album Charting". lescharts.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
  33. ^ "Tool New Zealand Charting". Charts.org.nz. Retrieved on 2008-09-14.
  34. ^ "Tool Polish Charting". olis.onyx.pl. Retrieved on 2008-09-14.
  35. ^ "Tool Swiss Charting". hitparade.ch. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
  36. ^ "UK Top 40 Hit Database". everyHit.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-28. Note: User must specify the band as "Tool" and the format as "Album".
  37. ^ "Tool Netherlands Charding". dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved on 2008-09-14.
Preceded by
Survivor by Destiny's Child		 Billboard 200 number-one album
June 2 - June 8, 2001		 Succeeded by
Break the Cycle by Staind
Preceded by
The Disney Album by Michael Crawford		 Australian ARIA Albums Chart number-one album
May 21 - May 27, 2001		 Succeeded by
Moulin Rouge! (soundtrack) by Various artists
v • d • e
Tool
Danny Carey · Justin Chancellor · Adam Jones · Maynard James Keenan
Paul D'Amour
Studio albums
Undertow · Ænima · Lateralus · 10,000 Days
Extended plays
Tool · Opiate
Box sets
Singles
"Hush" · "Prison Sex" · "Sober" · "Stinkfist" · "Forty-Six & 2" · "Ænema" · "Schism" · "Parabola" · "Lateralus" · "Vicarious" · "The Pot" · "Jambi"
Related articles
Related bands
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateralus"

No comments have been added.



Your name:

City:

Country:

Your comments:

Security check *
(Please enter the number into adjoining box)