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Critic Reviews
100
If you’re wondering whether ‘Fear Inoculum’ was worth the wait, then the answer is yes. If you’re wondering whether it’ll touch your heart, soul and spirt, the answer is also so.
6y
100
An album that pushes and challenges its creators and its audience in new ways, the finer details of which will probably take another 13 years to fully unwrap and appreciate.
6y
100
A modern masterpiece, Fear Inoculum is a welcome addition that further develops and progresses the already legendary discography of Tool. The record is a journey, with each song ending so far from where it started, often concluding in a manner that begs the question, how did we get here?
6y
91
Fear Inoculum lives up to its daunting expectations with songs that showcase Tool in peak performance as musicians and compositional arrangers.
6y
90
Was the 13 year wait for Tool’s Fear Inoculum worth it? Yes.
4w
90
Considering the long gap between albums, there was a lingering fear that they couldn't live up to their own hype or legacy. Fortunately, Tool managed to improve and perfect their sound even further, resulting in one of the strongest statements in their catalog.
6y
90
The real mastery in Fear Inoculum is that the band manage to make this culmination of songs, expressions, musings and musical masturbation feel whole, complete, and more so than anything else, worth the wait.
2y
90
Keenan was accurate to say that Fear…. would require patience to ingest, being a massive, compelling piece of music that unfolds beautifully and balances Tool’s unique style with plenty of rewarding new elements. Any fears that they would not live up to their past can be abated; Fear Inoculum is truly groundbreaking and one of the best albums of the decade.
6y
90
Ultimately, Fear Inoculum is a record that will never lose its potency; it'll be passed down from this generation to the next, and the generation after that. And, crucially, the Tool back catalogue retains its prestige and indispensable greatness.
6y
90
A visceral collection of hypnotic dark songs that combine drones, electronica, psychedelic prog with the dynamics of rock into a brave new whole, Tool have created an album that drips emotion and a deep passionate intelligence that is almost the opposite to the dumbed down stupidity of these times we are stuck with.
6y
83
All the hallmarks of the band's last two albums — 2001's Lateralus and 2006's 10,000 Days — are revisited and reinvented.
6y
80
Intricate, immersive, and thrillingly warped.
6y
80
Fear Inoculum represents the best of what Tool are capable of doing in 2019, the very tip-top version of themselves. They didn’t phone it in. It’s focused, it’s grand, and it was worth the wait.
6y
80
Fear Inoculum is a legacy album that shows the band are not some rock relic but undisputed masters of metallic churn.
6y
80
"Fear Inoculum" is a tour de force in prog rock, hard rock, metal and psychedelic madness.
4y
80
Among some of the best music the band have produced, Fear Inoculum both cements the TOOL legacy as one of the most deeply interesting musical outfits we have ever had the joy to experience, but also as a band that will likely always remain an enigma.
4y
80
Despite the considerable lay-off, Tool haven’t missed a beat.
6mo
75
Fear Inoculum is a massive, sprawling opus of record that transports the listener to realms previously unimagined—exactly what you’d want in a Tool album, especially after waiting this long.
6y
70
Tool's Fear Inoculum meets nearly every expectation admirers could have and ranks as a worthwhile extension of the band's legacy.
6y
70
A formal masterpiece that should stand the test of time — either as a defining record of its era, or a monumental relic of an art form that had its day.
6y
70
Musically, Tool have taken the best of Lateralus's dynamism and the heaviness of 10,000 Days to explore the middle ground with great length on Fear Inoculum.
6y
70
Fear Inoculum already feels like an event—It's the kind of grand statement that will equally delight and confound, where Tool allows themselves to highlight their technical prowess with uncompromising integrity. Though the lengthy tracks convey great character and complexity, it's best to experience its ambient soundscapes and strapping guitars with a full, uninterrupted listen.
6y
60
If Fear Inoculum is your first taste of Tool then you may well be very happy with this album. But if you’re more familiar with what they’re capable of then it’s hard to not feel at least a bit disappointed after waiting 13 years for it.
6y
60
If nothing else, the band deserves credit for releasing an album as challenging and incrementally rewarding as this.
6y
60
It's an impressive feat of engineering, but one that anyone other than ardent fans will struggle to find a way into.
Print Only
5y
60
The majority of Fear Inoculum’s songs are more or less interchangeable, achieving the same overall effect in slightly different ways. And like the interminable wait for the album itself (and this review of it), virtually every song takes too damn long to get to where it’s going.
6y
54
The prog metal band’s fifth album is exactly what you’d expect from a project over a decade in the making: a more mature, sometimes exciting collection that feels both overworked and undercooked.
6y
40
Tool’s comeback album Fear Inoculum is insufficient not only by the immaculate standards of the band’s past work, but by the standards of rock and metal music at large.
6y
IT TOOK 13 YEARS TO MAKE!
IT'S ALL RELATED TO THE NUMBER SEVEN!
IT CURES CANCER AND REVERSES THE DAMAGE OF AIDS!
THIS ISN'T AN ALBUM, THIS IS A EVENT AND A EXPERIENCE!
THEY JERK OFF TO THE FIBANACHI SEQUENCE!!!!!!!!
But does it slap tho?
That was the only question I had for this record, does it slap? And going into this album, this question was growing more questionable. Tool has been a band that I never got into, despite the fact that literally everyone on the face of the earth has at one ... read more
After thirteen long years, Tool finally release their highly anticipated follow-up to 2006's 10,000 Days. I am luckily a relatively new fan to these guys having only heard their previous albums for the first time back in January of this year, so I am lucky enough to have not waited as long as others, but being apart of the fanbase for the few months that I have been, it was clear just how excited and fed up people were with the constant promises the band gave of this albums existence without ... read more
I think this is what older Tool sounded like to the people who hate on it for being pretentious and boring. This album bleeds pretension and is nothing new, just more of the same, from Tool. I hate to say it, but Tool just dropped some... mid.
fav tracks: Chocolate Chip Trip (Honorable Mention: Culling Voices)
least fav tracks: Pneuma, Descending
TOOL's worst album but like, come on. It goes hard.
Many people describe this as a self-indulgent, bloated, chug-fest. To be fair, yeah, it's that. But it's also MORE than that. It's an evolution of sorts in a strange way, an album that refuses to be catchy and memorable like previous releases sometimes were, fully throwing itself headlong into more subtle, hypnotic sections that seem to go on for eons. And I love it for that. It's not Lateralus or Ænima or ... read more
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Track List
| 1 | Fear Inoculum 10:20 | 82 |
| 2 | Pneuma 11:53 | 88 |
| 3 | Litanie contre la Peur 2:14 | 49 |
| 4 | Invincible 12:44 | 80 |
| 5 | Legion Inoculant 3:09 | 52 |
| 6 | Descending 13:37 | 80 |
| 7 | Culling Voices 10:05 | 78 |
| 8 | Chocolate Chip Trip 4:48 | 62 |
| 9 | 7empest 15:43 | 89 |
| 10 | Mockingbeat 2:05 | 41 |
Total Length: 1 hour, 26 minutes
Year End Lists
| #1 | / | Metal Hammer |
| #1 | / | Revolver |
| #1 | / | Spill Magazine |
| #2 | / | Kerrang! |
| #3 | / | Good Morning America |
| #6 | / | Gaffa (Denmark) |
| #8 | / | BrooklynVegan |
| #8 | / | Gigwise |
| #10 | / | Consequence of Sound |
| #11 | / | OOR |
| #12 | / | Sputnikmusic |
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2w
awesome to see the blue must hear! while i do think this is one of Tool's weaker works for sure, i do feel it to be just a little bit underrated; sure the interludes are kind of odd but the musical content itself i find to be a good bit lovely. (i am TOTALLY not a Tool fanboy)