Be warned: if you’re expecting Lateralus to push back the boundaries of what can be done in the name of modern music, think again. That infers some acknowledgement of the boundaries in the first place. Lateralus is the most unique collection of songs you’ll find outside of, well, the last Tool album. it’s also the most perfectly played, perfectly produced record you’re likely to hear this or any other year. In anybody else’s hands, perfection is just a code word for repugnant tedium. In Tool’s hands, it’s the ultimate raison d’etre.
It’s almost easier to describe Lateralus in terms what there isn’t rather than what there is. There are none of the lightning-strike dynamics of the past (see Ænima’s Stinkfist or Hooker With A Penis). There’s no grinding repetition, no marathons of aural endurance (see: the same record’s gargantuan closer Third Eye). And there are no, to paraphrase one of the band’s old slogans, absolutely, definitely, unequivocally no fucking hit singles.
What there is, is a constant unwavering feeling that something truly special is unfolding right before our ears. Of the 13 tracks that constitute Lateralus, only five duck in under the five-minute mark, two of which (Eon Blue Apocalypse and Mantra) are short, hypnotic segues, and one more of which (Faaip De Oiad, a piece that reputedly takes its title from the language of angels) is a ‘hidden’ track consisting of two minutes and 39 seconds of pure me(n)tal machine music.