Scratch's Review of Vicarious

[Scratch]

i first heard this song on the radio monday. i had just turned the radio on, hoping to hear tool. and tool is what i heard. but it was the end of the song. OH NO! but no worries, as the dj was apparently swamped with requests to hear the new tool song. so he played it again, back-to-back. awesome

my first impression of this song was how similar it sounded to lateralus. i was half excited, and half dissapointed. this is what we have waited five years for? it seemed like tool would have progressed more than this

but the more i have listened to it, the more it has drawn me in. it still seems very similar to lateralus, however there is something more to this track. its like tool took what they were trying to do musically with the lateralus album, and confined it into one seven minute juggernaut

the thing that i really like about this song is maynards vocals. they really seem to take a backseat to the music. at first it was hard to make out what he was singing. certain words and phrases stuck out to me, such as "vampire", "zombie", and "watch things die". this really set the tone perfectly. i wasnt able to get the whole picture maynard was trying to paint until i listened several more times

this is a very good track, and a great song to kick off the new album with. as usuall, tool does not dissapoint

[Thanat0s]

The thing I really despise about the track is that Maynard's vocals take a backseat. In the history of Tool it seems the first track ALWAYS seems to have screaming and awesome vocals (The Grudge, Stinkfist, Sweat) and this one was quiet and distorted. It was a good song, don't get me wrong, and like you I need to be drawn in a bit further. But it was NOT what I was expecting.