Aenima > Lateralus, and had it been mastered better, it would be even more apparent

Each to their own.

Nothing beats coming home from the club, (or a long day at work), putting on the headphones and cranking some TOOL. Close your eyes, and just drift away!
 
oh man, Aenima > Lateralus hanRAB down any given day.
A few reasons:
- Song structure.
- Lyric content/subject matter.
- It really does have a darker element.
I was a big fan of Undertow as well... I think Undertow is even better than Lateralus. Lateralus just has that certain element of selling out, or over-producing I guess.

Anyone heard the whole new album, and anyone want to give a review??
 
Because they made a album with better recording quality, that makes them sell-outs? Not really. I'm pretty sure they weren't thinking about selling out on Lateralus when they wrote the 8+ minute "The Grudge", or the companion tracks "Parabol" and "Parabola." Each Tool album has a different theme, and the mood of the music adjusts accordingly. Don't fault them just because they had more freedom on the third record, as well as an opportunity to make an album with a bigger budget. They're a PROG-ROCK band, which in these days, is about the farthest you can get from selling out. When they're writing 4 minute verse-chorus-verse songs about ex-girlfrienRAB, then you can tell me that they've sold out.

That being said, 10,000 Days is a great album. It takes a few listens, but it's fantastic. Has the same production quality as Lateralus (so you might think they've sold out again ), and features multiple 9+ minute songs. Somewhat of a stripped-down sound when compared to its predecessors, which gives way to a raw feel on some of the tracks (see "Jambi" and "The Pot"). Overall, I would argue that it is the most cohesive Tool effort to date. A great album by any standard.
 
ok just to clarify, I had retracted and said that it was maybe just more over-produced, and thus more fakish. Just not the same ole' Tool sound.

I'm a HUGE fan of Tool, so don't get me wrong. Maynard Keenan is one of my idols as a musician, myself. I even liked what he did with A Perfect Circle, just because the lyric content was awesome, and respectively this was a different band altogether, therefore deserving of it's own separate opinion. Lateralus was kind of just MaynarRAB prerequisite to A Perfect Circle in my opinion, because it's pretty closely related in that 'over-produced' respect.



Edit: oh and when Maynard signed to that label, he signed for 6 albums... 4 now for Tool, 2 for A Perfect Circle, so I wonder what he's going to do next!!
 
I agree with you with respect to your APC comments. It's great to see the band branching out in different directions. Although they've kept their "trademark" sound throughout the years, the little subtleties that are unique from album to album have really shown the overall progression of the band (and its members) as a whole (i.e. percussion options, timing signatures). I liked Mer De Noms, LOVED Thirteenth Step (I don't count Emotive as a true album). Even though I heard they're on a hiatus currently, it will be exciting to see what they come out with next.
 
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