Lateralus (play /lætərˈælɪs/)[2] is the third studio album by American rock band Tool. The album was released on May 15, 2001, and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. On August 5, 2003, Lateralus was certified double platinum by the RIAA. On August 30, 2004 the album was certified Silver by the BPI for sales of 60,000 in the UK. On August 23, 2005, Lateralus was released as a limited edition two-picture-disc vinyl LP in a holographic gatefold package. Lateralus was ranked #123 on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “Definitive 200” list.

Background

Lateralus emerged after a five-year legal dispute with Tool’s label, Volcano Entertainment.[4] In January 2001, the band announced that their new album’s title would be Systema Encéphale and provided a 12-song tracklist with titles such as “Riverchrist”, “Numbereft”, “Encephatalis”, “Musick”, and “Coeliacus”. File-sharing networks such as Napster were flooded with bogus files bearing the titles’ names.[5] At the time, Tool members were outspokenly critical of file-sharing networks in general due to the negative impact on artists that are dependent on success in record sales to continue their career. Keenan had this to say during an interview with NY Rock in 2000, “I think there are a lot of other industries out there that might deserve being destroyed. The ones who get hurt by MP3s are not so much companies or the business, but the artists, people who are trying to write songs.”[6] A month later, the band revealed that the new album was actually titled Lateralus (supposedly named in combination with the words “Vastus lateralis”, a human leg muscle and lateral thinking)[7] and that the name Systema Encéphale and the tracklist had been a ruse.[8]

Lateralus and the corresponding tours would take Tool a step further toward art-rock,[9][10][11] math rock, and progressive rock[12][13][14] territory. Rolling Stone wrote in an attempt to summarize the album that “Drums, bass and guitars move in jarring cycles of hyperhowl and near-silent death march… The prolonged running times of most of Lateralus’ thirteen tracks are misleading; the entire album rolls and stomps with suitelike purpose.”[13] Joshua Klein of The A.V. Club in turn expressed his opinion that Lateralus, with its 79-minute running time and relatively complex and long songs — topped by the ten-and-a-half minute music video for “Parabola” — posed a challenge to fans and music programming alike.[15] Drummer Danny Carey said, “The manufacturer would only guarantee us up to 79 minutes… We thought we’d give them two seconds of breathing room.”[16] Carey aspired to create longer songs like those by artists he grew up listening to. The band had segues to place between songs, but had to cut out a lot during the mastering phase.[16] The CD itself was mastered using HDCD technology.

Just as Salival was initially released with several errors on the track listing, early pressings of Lateralus had the ninth track incorrectly spelled as “Lateralis”.[4] The original title of “Reflection” was “Resolution” before being changed three months prior to the album’s release.[5]

The track listing is altered on the vinyl edition, with “Disposition” appearing at track 8. Because of the long running time, the double vinyl edition could not be released like the disc since the songs would not fit on each disc side in that order. By moving “Disposition” to an earlier point, the sides were balanced and could fit the material. However, this edit breaks the segue that occurs between “Disposition” and “Reflection” which, along with “Triad”, are often grouped together.

Two of the singles from the album, “Parabola” and “Schism”, are featured in the video game Guitar Hero World Tour.
Reception

The album was a commercial success in the United States, reaching number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart in its debut week.[17] Well-received by both fans and most critics, it was named Kerrang!’s album of the year in 2001, and the band received the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for the song “Schism”.[18] During the band’s acceptance speech, drummer Carey stated that he would like to thank his parents “for putting up with [him]”, and bassist Justin Chancellor concluded, “I want to thank my dad for doing my mom.”[19]
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 4/5 stars[20]
Drowned in Sound (10/10)[21]
Entertainment Weekly B− May 25, 2001[22]
Kerrang! 5/5 stars May 9, 2001 (p. 44)
NME (7/10) May 25, 2001
Pitchfork Media (1.9/10) link
PopMatters (favorable)[23]
Q 4/5 stars December 2001
Robert Christgau (C)[24]
Rolling Stone 4/5 stars[25]
Sputnik Music 5/5 stars[26]

NutSie.com ranks the drumming performance by Danny Carey on the song “Ticks & Leeches” number three on their list of Top 100 Rock Drum Performances.[27]

Overall, Lateralus was critically well received and its complexity provoked many responses akin to what Ryan Rayhil of Spin magazine had to say about the album, calling it a “monolithic puzzlebox”.[28]

Special editions
A vinyl edition and two DVD singles from the album were released later. The “double vinyl four-picture disc” edition of Lateralus was first released as a limited autographed edition exclusively available to fan club members and publicly released on August 23, 2005. Two music videos were produced; one for “Schism” (with the short ambient segue “Mantra” at the beginning) and one for “Parabol/Parabola”. These were subsequently released as two separate DVD singles on December 20, 2005, featuring remixes of the tracks by Lustmord.

Composition and content

Drummer Danny Carey sampled himself breathing through a tube to simulate the chanting of Buddhist monks for “Parabola”,[29] and banged piano strings for samples on “Reflection”.[29] “Faaip de Oiad” samples a recording of a 1997 call on Art Bell’s radio program Coast to Coast AM.[30] “Faaip de Oiad” is Enochian for The Voice of God.

“Disposition”, “Reflection”, and “Triad” form a sequence[1] that has been performed in succession live with occasional help from various tourmates such as Mike Patton, Buzz Osborne, Tricky, and members of Isis, Meshuggah, and King Crimson.[31]

The title track, “Lateralus”, incorporates the Fibonacci sequence.[32] The theme of the song describes the desire of humans to explore and to expand for more knowledge and a deeper understanding of everything. The lyrics “spiral out”, refers to this desire and also to the Fibonacci spiral, which is formed by creating and arranging squares for each number in the sequence’s 1,1,2,3,5,8,… pattern, and drawing a curve that connects to two corners of each square. This would, allowed to continue onwards, theoretically create a never-ending and infinitely-expanding spiral. Related to this, the song’s main theme features successive time signatures 9/8, 8/8, and 7/8.[33] The number 987 is the sixteenth integer of the Fibonacci sequence.[34]. When the song is listened to backwards, it sounds similar to the forwards version.

“Eon Blue Apocalypse” is about Adam Jones’ Great Dane named Eon, who had died from bone cancer.[35]

The track “Mantra” is the slowed-down sound of Maynard James Keenan gently squeezing one of his cats.[36]

Album art

The insert is translucent and flips open to reveal the different layers of the human body. Disguised in the brain matter on the final layer is the word “God”. The artwork was done by artist Alex Grey, who would later design the 3D edition cover for their fourth album 10,000 Days.

Track listing

All songs written and performed by Tool.
No. Title Length
1. “The Grudge” 8:36
2. “Eon Blue Apocalypse” 1:04
3. “The Patient” 7:13
4. “Mantra” 1:12
5. “Schism” 6:47
6. “Parabol” 3:04
7. “Parabola” 6:03
8. “Ticks & Leeches” 8:10
9. “Lateralus” 9:24
10. “Disposition” 4:46
11. “Reflection” 11:07
12. “Triad” 8:46
13. “Faaip de Oiad” 2:39
Total length: 78:51

Personnel

Tool
Danny Carey – drums
Justin Chancellor – bass guitar
Maynard James Keenan – vocals
Adam Jones – guitar, art direction

Production
David Bottrill – producer, engineering, mixing
Vince DeFranco – neurocistance, engineer
Alex Grey – illustrations
Statik (Collide) – machines on “Triad”

Chart positions

Lateralus sold 555,000 copies in its first week, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200.[37] As of July, 7, 2010, Lateralus has sold 2,609,000 copies in the US. It is ranked number 123 on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “Definitive 200” list.[38]

Album
Chart Peak position
Billboard 200 1
Billboard Top Internet Albums 1
Australian Albums Chart 1
Austrian Albums Chart 9
Canadian Albums Chart 1
Dutch Albums Chart 7
Finnish Albums Chart 11
French Albums Chart 21
New Zealand Albums Chart 2
Polish Albums Chart 1
Swiss Albums Chart 31
UK Albums Chart 16