Sorta.

I like all the openers differently.

It's either Sweat or Intolerence though.

Grudge, hands down.
For almost a year I listened to that song every day in the morning.

Vicarious... hmm, we'll see.

grudge marked the opening of a great album....viarious marked the opening of a shitty, commercial, recycled, inspiration-lacking, ''we had tu put out an album couse it was in our contract ''-album...'

The Grudge

go whine somewhere else

Both brilliant songs.

The grudge was amazing live.

Im going wait to hear vicarious live before passing judgement.

Two of my favourite songs of tool's though.

All of them are great, in my opinion.

But to me, I prefer Intolerance. Either that, or the live version of Third Eye.

But all are good.

Dan

The grudge by far. If you've ever seen them live, hearing that chainsaw crank up at the begging just lets you know that it's time to rock. I haven't had a more euphoric moment in my entire life. The grudge is not only their greatest CD opener, it's their greatest concert opener. I cant think of anything better to open a Tool show with.

The Grudge, like the whole album of Lateralus is overrated.

Vicarious.

Vicarious is not the song I like most on the album, for the moment anyway, as I often get to like songs better with time.
So for now, I'd say I prefer The Grudge, but it can change...

Vicarious sounds a bit too much like a single to me... :s

I'm going to go with Vicarious for now. The Grudge was fantastic live and when I saw Vicarious on Sunday it was fucking awesome but the crowd wasn't rocking it like an all-Tool crowd would have been. Still, I'm sure both songs will leave you gasping for air at at a real Tool show. You can't go wrong with either.

The washing machine drew me in.

The grudge by a long shot. Vicarious is just not comparable in my honest opinion.

The Grudge. Easy. Very unpredictable, exiting song, that builds up tension like no other. Great lyrics.

I have to go with Vicarious, I think. Right off the bat, I loved that song. The Grudge took me too long to get in to. Actually, when I first bought Lateralus, I would just skip over the Grudge because I didn't really dig the song all that much. I would get about 45 seconds in to it, and found it annoying. Little did I know that if I had just waited another 30 seconds or so, it was going to own! But...Vicarious drew me in and I stayed there.

Now, granted The Grudge is one of my all-time favorite songs by TOOL, but it took me a little while to figure that out. I wish I hadn't waited so long to hear one of the best, most intense endings to song i've ever heard.

like said in a different way, feltch with another group, not us. I'm surprised many of you are giving a solid, articulate answer. Right now I can't compare the two. Although The Grudge is one of my favorite songs without a doubt, I never like comparing Tool songs. Vicarious is up high on my list (although most Tool songs are at the pinnacle of my list), and I really love the song. I will not give an answer to this question, but I will say that all of the album openers are mesmerizing.

The Grudge

I'm gonna have to go with the best opener I've ever heard...

"THINK FOR YOURSELF..."

The Grudge owns Vicarious big time.

two votes for the grudge!! vicarious has nothin on it but great song tho

The grudge is better opener but the songs both rock equally

I love Vicarious but the grudge, for me, is the best tool song, and nothing is going to ever beat it for me.

This is incredibly hard, I love the grudge and it was what introduced me to tool (well, after parabola)...but in terms of first song, vicarious wins. It just grabs you, and that amazing off time drum beat gets stuck in my head, especially when the snare kicks in =)

"Vicarious" over "The Grudge" any day. I think "The Grudge" is one of their weakest efforts. But "Stinkfist" > all other Tool openers.

hmmm... reminds me of the "real track order for lateralus" theory.

as an opener, id say The Grudge. both are outstanding songs, but whenever i hear The Grudge on my playlist in any order, it says "opener". I wouldve sided with an earlier post that id wait until ive heard Vicarious live, but it wont be an opener :P. when The Grudge starts live, you know no other band COULD be in the building.

I decided that The Grudge is definately better, but Vicarious still kicks titanium ass.

Easy, The Grudge.

The Grudge, although the comparison is justified

I agree!!! Finally, someone feels the same about Lateralus!
The Grudge is a good start to a good album, but Vicarious is a GREAT start to a GREAT album!!!
Now I'll go a step further and Stinkfist is the BEST start to the BEST album.

The Grudge is better on so many levels. It contains so much more primal power than anything they've done since Aenema. Plus the Grudge is talking about something a lot more positive than Vicarious.

10,000 Days suffers from a general lack of primal power. But don't get me wrong, it's still the best new album to hit the shelves in years.

One of the few people who agree it would seem. I don't know what it is, but I really don't think the grudge is that great a song. Vicarious is MUCH better. Didn't like the opening riff of Vicarious though. Sounded too much like schism. The one thing I did like about The Grudge was the ending. Danny Carey on top form! The Grudge probably is my least favorite opening track that Tool has done. It's still not THAT bad. I mean it is Tool after all. It has it's good bits. I still love lateralus but 10,000 Days is rather good! Sorry I'm rambling.

really now? i just cannot understand how anyone can actually believe that vicarious is even competitively compared to the grudge. mindboggling!!!!!!!!!!

i think in their own respect they both set the mood for each album. That mood is vastly different so its hard to compare them.

i love them both.

The more i listen to vicarious the more i see how deep it is and the really powerful emotions behind the message

i perfer the grudge but maybe because ive listened to it so many times more then vicarious. there both really great songs

The Grudge is the better first song. Vicarious is great, and it fits well where it does in opening the CD, but I think The Grudge is an amazing opening song. With the whirr of the machine starting up, and the feel of the song, it just seemed a perfect opener to the album.

I think probably I think Vicarious is a little bit better song overall, but The Grudge is the ultimate Tool album opener.

the grudge

Hmmm Vicarious has definitely become one of my favourite tool songs over the past few weeks.. (bein released down under on Apr 29- HAZAAAHH!!). The Grudge is an awesome song but definitely not as tightly written as Vicarious.. Hmmm too me Vicarious is short n sweet- like a well delivered hook to da noggin.. which is funny coz Tool are great at makin long windy fantastic songs... which shows these geniuses can do anything.. ha!

The Grudge by far. It destroys me. Vicarious is good but The Grudge is killer.