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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Lateralus
by Tool


9.4

based on 15 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 382 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

MUSIC:

A Perfect Circle: Thirteenth Step

The Tool Page (Unofficial Site)

The band's first album of new material in five years was produced by Tool with David Bottrill and features 13 tracks.

LABEL:	Volcano
RELEASE DATE:	15 May 2001
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Alternative, Rock, Metal

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Dot Music

It is dense, it is long, it is complicated. It is also a magnificent triumph of artistry over blind anger.

Wall of Sound

A 79-minute sonic sojourn of hard rock delivered with an arty, fusion-conscious sensibility rooted most obviously from the likes of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Jane's Addiction.

E! Online

Lateralus takes the L.A. band over the edge with elongated musical movements that simmer under heavy-duty distortion, Middle Eastern percussion and freakish guitar-and-drum time signatures that will make musical mathematicians (i.e., prog-rock dorks) as excited as the kids in the mosh pit.

Q Magazine

Ultimately, it's Tool's experimental, borderline progressive, edge that proves most rewarding. [Aug 2001, p.141]

Rolling Stone

So much of Tool's third full-length studio album makes so little sense at first. But that is one of Lateralus' most endearing qualities: It rolls out its pleasures and coherence slowly, even stubbornly.

CDNow

Tool has made an album that's undeniably its own, yet one which adds layers of subtlety, texture, and meaning that move its sound forward into complex new territory.

Sonicnet

The band continues to rock in the Rush/Metallica eight-minute flexathon tradition: it may impress you with individual lines, but in the end, it excels mainly at musical gymnastics.

Spin Cycle

"Lateralus" is primarily a collection of puzzling time changes, haunting vocals and beyond-intricate percussive patterns that create a theme rooted more in Eastern philosophy than in rock and roll.

New Musical Express

They're the metal Radiohead. Though it's definitely a million times more metal than anything the Oxford miserablists have recorded, 'Lateralus' still easily contains the same amount of misery and self-obsessed navel-gazing.

Alternative Press

Lateralus could have been released four years ago, for all the sonic progression that's contained (or not contained) within its 79 minutes. [Jul 2001, p.57]

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Tool's songs are long because the band takes its time, resisting show-offy displays of speed in favor of texture and minimalist mood, borrowing key elements from Far Eastern music and industrial rock along the way.

Neumu.net

Research has led me to conclude that the correct, and possibly only, way to fully appreciate this album is at extremely high volume on a decent hi-fi whilst massively stoned out of your gourd.

Entertainment Weekly

The music has a clean, fluid flow but sounds thin-blooded and far less visceral -- freeze-dried -- next to newer, younger Ozzfest regulars, like Staind, who have followed in Tool's wake. [25 May 2001, p.77]

Blender

Lateralus sounds like Black Sabbath jamming with Genesis at the bottom of a coal shaft. [Jun/Jul 2001, p.115]

Pitchfork

Now, with the early new century demanding "opuses," Tool follows suit. The problem is, Tool defines "opus" as taking their "defining element" (wanking sludge) and stretching it out to the maximum digital capacity of a compact disc.

The average user rating for this album is 9.4 (out of 10) based on 382 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Bryan gave it a10:
Great album..... I have no idea how pitchfork does there reviews (some are good, some are wayyyy off). This is one of the greatest albums I've heard.

Adam L. gave it a10:
Far and above the greatest drumming album ever, one of the greatest concept albums ever

Amey D. gave it a9:
Absolute genius of an album! Lateralus pushes the boundaries of music and the person listening to it. I bought the album couple of months after its release in India, coz of its unavailibility, and still end up listening to tracks such as lateralus and reflection over and over again.

Wiwicko wiwick gave it a10:
Musical complexity at its best Lateralus is a mathematical experience.

Dario S. gave it a10:
Absolutly, positively the best album i've ever heard!

Nic H. gave it a10:
This is one of the most creative and influential albums that has been written in our lifetime. Tool grows and expands with each piece they give birth to. This album in terms of "Their Creativeness" has only been matched by "10,000 days".

Pitchfork Blows gave it a10:
Never read pitchfork reviews. They HATE progressive rock/prog metal. In fact, they HATE everything that isn't horribly mainstream or pop. Look at the reviews for any prog album on meta critic, 90% of the time pitchfork will give it the lowest review while others give it 90-100's.

Lateralus by Tool

Lateralus
by Tool