There’s no joke there, just a bit of self-reflective honesty, which is the one thing that helps keeps this hulking record afloat. Reading about how Keenan worked on the album around his wine making, it feels like that half focused effort bled through onto the song writing. So I have already commented on this in the past and I stand by that the sound quality of it is great but I have a question about the lyrics on the last disk. The package contains 5 discs of industry best 180g vinyl, with audio tracks on one side and etched art on the reverse of each side of the disc. Forged in the mad-at-my-dad fires of ’90s post-grunge and nu-metal, the progressive metal quartet has sustained a decades-long career on equal parts technical precision and psychedelic bullshit.

TOOL-Fear Inoculum-Vinyl Box Sets|Acoustic Sounds TOOL-Fear Inoculum-Vinyl Box Sets|Acoustic Sounds

Above all, Fear Inoculum pays homage to Tool itself, a long-delayed encore that has fans racing back to the arena. You get what is expected of an album over a decade in the making: a more mature, sometimes exciting collection that feels both overworked and undercooked. On headphones especially, it’s not too bassy and mids stand out, which is important to me because I listen to music pretty often on my headphones.I like 'Pneuma' just over 'Fear Inoculum' and on most recent listens, 'Invincible' got my attention. My previoulsy purchased copies of Undertow and Opiate were underwhelming, particularly given that I generally have appreciated early punk rock tool more than later prog rock Tool. I just want to play the record and having to open the big heavy book and take a new disc out after every side feels like more effort than it’s worth. Records housed inside a full-colour, mirror-board printed, hardcover book featuring alternate front cover artwork, extra artwork, lyrics and credits all within a full-colour, mirror-board printed hardcover slide-out box, although not advertised as a box-set.

TOOL - Fear Inoculum Vinyl at Juno Records. TOOL - Fear Inoculum Vinyl at Juno Records.

on Billboard's Top 200 and earned heaps of critical praise with NPR saying, " Fear Inoculum was worth the 13-year wait," Revolver proclaiming the album "a masterpiece to be dissected for years to come" and Consequence Of Sound saying the release finds "TOOL in peak performance. Fear Incoculum was originally released as a CD package featuring a 4" HD rechargeable video screen, a USB charging cable, a 2 watt speaker and a 36 page book. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. There is an EU release that credits Sony Music as a label and other differences of distribution listed on the small print of the sticker.

If there’s one thing that the 86 minutes of Fear Inoculum provides, it is the sound of four people making long, complicated songs together. I realise there are Tool fans from back in the day who prefer other works but this is a fully-formed musical masterwork that fully justifies the extreme artistic presentation. It plays quiet, every instrument is represented well in the mix and the heavy sections rip on a good system. They're still masters of odd time signatures and 10+ minute songs but other than that, it was tough to find anything that really stood out to me while listening. And yet there’s still that Morrissey-level smugness when looking back at his glory years: “The things we’ve done/Caligula would grin.