Lateralus is the third studio album by the rock band Tool. It was released on May 15, 2001, through Volcano Entertainment. The album was recorded at Cello Studios in Hollywood and The Hook, Big Empty Space, and The Lodge, in North Hollywood, between October 2000 and January 2001.
Tool released 3 singles in support of their album Lateralus: Schism, released on January 15, 2001, Parabola, released on 2002, and Lateralus, released on February 2002. David Bottrill, who had produced the band’s two previous releases Ænima and Salival, produced the album along with the band, and became the last Tool album produced by Bottrill to date.
On August 23, 2005, Lateralus was released as a limited edition two-picture-disc vinyl LP in a holographic gatefold package. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling more than 555,200 copies in its first week of release.
It was certified double platinum by the RIAA on August 5, 2003. On February 13, 2015, the album was certified Gold by the BPI. It was also certified platinum in Australia, and double platinum in Canada.
The band won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for the song Schism in 2002.Lateralus was ranked No. 123 on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame‘s Definitive 200 list. This also being the only album of Tool‘s catalogue which didn’t featured the Parental Advisory sticker.
The title track, Lateralus, incorporates the Fibonacci sequence. 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” refer 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. The number 987 is the sixteenth integer of the Fibonacci sequence.
“Eon Blue Apocalypse” is an instrumental piece in-between “The Grudge” and “The Patient“. The track “Mantra” is the slowed-down sound of Maynard James Keenan gently squeezing one of his cats.
In an interview with producer David Bottrill, he revealed that the lyrics for ‘Schism‘ were changed last minute because of Adam Jones thinking they were too close to home. The first version of the lyrics were, according to Bottrill, very explicitly about the building tensions between Maynard and Adam, and the band as a whole. Maynard changed them after a lengthy band meeting, to be more broadly applicable to relationships falling apart.
Tracklist:
- The Grudge
- Eon Blue Apocalypse (instrumental)
- The Patient
- Mantra (instrumental)
- Schism
- Parabol
- Parabola
- Ticks & Leeches
- Lateralus
- Disposition
- Reflection
- Triad (instrumental – song ends at 6:32, before 2:14 of silence)
- Faaip de Oiad
Tool
Maynard James Keenan: vocals
Adam Jones: guitars, art director
Justin Chancellor: bass
Danny Carey: drums, percussion, samples
Additional personnel
Statik (Collide): machines on Triad
Production
David Bottrill: production, engineering, mixing
Vince DeFranco: neurocistance, engineering
Alex Grey: illustrations
