I'm mostly digging the new songs. I hear the re-use of riffs here and there. But I don't mind it. For years now, the most satisfying experience for me creatively is taking old ass riffs/jams of my own and trying to add some new spice to them. It gets to the point where im like... damn, this is something completely different, emotionally speaking. If the result is something that grooves differently, feels familiar and releases new emotion and passion - it's good in my book.
That said. I'm mostly latching on the the music with these new tunes. Maynard's doing okay. I'm having a hard time hearing most of the lyrics, but what I am able to hear doesn't sound too heavy handed socially or politically which was my biggest fear. But he also sounds restrained. No really big vocal moments, melodically or just big notes/screams. Also fairly minimalistic.... he left a lot of empty space. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet. It's understandable.
Take this part from Invincible
https://youtu.be/8s5J3HzZUlw?t=552
That groove that starts up feels so... fresh, in terms of Tool. Maynard stopped singing 30sec before that and this whole part goes without a note from him. It feels like a missed opportunity for him to play with the style of his voice a little and just.... join in.
IDK. That and I feel like maynards word choice is a little clunky at times. Sounds like he's forcing "big" words in there some times.
"War-ri-or" 3
"Strug-gl-ing" 3
"To Re-main" 3
"Con-sequ-en---tial" 4 <------ rhythmically that fourth syllable feels... off. But when he changes it to "Rel-e-vant" with 3 syllables, it feels fine to me.
TL:DR; Music good. Maynard okay. 7/10