2001 Silverbullit - Citizen Bird
2020 Paradise Lost - Obsidian
A decade filled with rumors about release dates doesn't leave many people hopeful that a new album will ever actually see the light of day. Those who have followed Tool over the years are more or less familiar with the band members' challenging creative processes and how these have often contributed to vocalist Maynard James Keenan in particular feeling compelled to seek alternative musical and artistic expressions during the often drawn-out composition and recording sessions. When legal tangles with record labels and other collaborators are added, it should probably be understandable that it took a full 13 years before their fifth studio album Fear Inoculum finally found its way out of the studio.
Despite the long time span between 10,000 Days (2006) and Fear Inoculum, there are no direct surprises. On the other hand, all the sub-components feel refined and with this album Tool probably reaches its culmination in both composition, execution and production. Drummer Danny Carey rarely limits his expression to a traditional drum kit, but now the African rhythm instruments are included more than ever. Guitarist Adam Jones and bassist Justin Cancellor now further deepen their ability to convey a rarely heard combination. A typical example of opposites attracting each other. Tool has always found brilliant angles in compiling all the units to complement and sometimes contrast each other into a unique whole. An example is the title track on the album Lateralus, where the lyrics describe the human need to explore reality in order to achieve a deeper understanding. The lyric line "spiral out" is ingeniously complemented on several levels with a musical map of the Fibonacci sequence. As far as I know, something directly equivalent has not yet been discovered on any of the subsequent albums, but the trend to reflect text and music is still at least as clear as ever.
Tool is still categorized as progressive rock or metal. Like all genre descriptions, this is at best a guide, at worst something that leads an uninitiated listener into preconceived notions about what they will experience. So my recommendation is to use the description only as a technical map of the arrangements. The real experience is so much deeper than time changes and polyrhythms.