Fear Inoculum by Tool (Single)

The day that I never thought would come, has finally come. Tool - who haven't released any music for 13 years - have released a single off of their insanely anticipated new album Fear Inoculum coming August 30th, 2019. Their album release strategy has been an absolute joy to follow in real-time. From the announcement, to the old albums getting released digitally, to the single release, and the constant almost daily updates of news about the album - its the most exciting album launch I can remember.

If you aren't familiar with Tool, stop whatever you're doing and go listen to them right now. I don't care what type of music you're into, just do it. To give you some context, Tool is a progressive metal band of sorts known for taking their sweet time sculpting their music. They only have 4 albums out, and they put out their first one in 1993. The band's sound revolves around complex rhythms, odd time signatures, catchy-yet-creepy vocal melodies, and long song structures that more resemble movements than singles. The new single Fear Inoculum is over 10 minutes long, about the album is 80 minutes long with only 7 songs.

Now about the single... You should go listen for yourself, and I will link to their YouTube video below, but its about as wonderful as I could have hoped. I know a lot of people tend to hate new music by bands they love, at least at first, but try to listen with an open mind without the baggage that 13 years without new music brings. Fear Inoculum sounds very Tool, but you can tell they're all in different places than they were in their last album.

The chorus is super catchy, the bass and drums are constantly pounding out new complex grooves, the guitars swell in and out from beautiful background ambiences to crushing dissonant riffs. Danny Carey, the drummer of Tool, is at an absolute new level of godliness here - I tried just following the drums throughout an entire listen through, and I swear he never truly repeats the same thing twice throughout the 10:21 duration of the track. Every time a part repeats it gets a new fill, a new cymbal or ride tap, and parts are constantly building and swelling in intensity.

Despite all the talks about 7/8 time signatures being all over this album, this song appears to mostly be in 4/4. Although I wouldn't be surprised if there was some polymeters in here I haven't noticed yet, which is kind of the beauty of Tool songs - you keep noticing new things with repeated listens. Around the 6 minute mark this is a cool guitar riff that is in 11/8 I believe, and the bass and drums are doing something completely different, so be on the lookout for that bit of ear-candy. Anyways, heres the song: