Tool - Fear Inoculum

The Guardian 80

(Music For Nations/Sony Music)
Every track is an epic on this almighty fifth album from a band intent on securing their status as masters of metal

It says something about the power of Tool that, even after 13 years, four blokes who like weird time signatures and lyrics about purging, fear and flesh can nearly knock a pop star off the global top spot. At the start of August, the enigmatic prog-metallers finally made their entire back catalogue available on streaming services for the first time: every one of their albums went Top 10 on iTunes, while Sober became the highest charting song after Ariana Grande’s Boyfriend. The band realised that they had to “roll with the times”, guitarist Adam Jones said recently – although pleasingly they are still flogging such ancient-sounding artefacts as “a tri-fold Soft Pack Video Brochure” with their new album (£79.99, in the deluxe version).

Pitchfork 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.