Hey I am new to the board. I am a huge Tool fan and have been waiting like everyone else patiently for 5+ years for this album. When I heard the CD leaked I was curious to read up on it. Low and behold a lot of people were claiming it to be a hoax. Normally, when an album leaks NO ONE argues or comes up with theories that it is fake. If they are songs that have never been heard before and include lyrics/content that fit the track titles there is usually no argument. My question is who said "This is a hoax" and started this whole theory, and why? As of now I have yet to hear the whole leak (I have heard Vicarious, Jambi and The Pot) so I really don't know where I stand. I am just going to wait and see on May 2nd.

I don't think it was instigated by one person, it was more a collective effort. Some people decided they didn't like the album, that it was not good enough and not up to their standards. They figured that tool in their unfalterable omnipitant godlyness could not possibly put out a sub-par album so they concluded it was a hoax.

Others like to me who haven't heard the album either don't care or keep an open mind to the possibility that the leaked songs we've recieved are not the real/whole picture.

Well, first of all... you're in for a real ride when you listen to the rest of the album. If you've heard those three songs, however, that's mainly as heavy as the CD gets. The rest of the songs are softer and there the two Part song has brought many to tears on the board.

EDIT: I don't mean brought to tears in a bad way, I mean that the material is very moving.

That being said, I think the biggest thing that started this two CD theory was a statement in a TOOL newsletter. Blaire wrote out a ridiculous Thanksgiving story that referred to two turkeys, or a turkey with two hearts, or something (I forget exactly now.) Then, the portion of the story was removed from the newsletter, but remained in the html source code. The story also referred to the fact that Blaire couldn't talk about certain aspects of the project, which is understandable, but does conjure up all types of thinking.

Then, Blaire specifically said in a more recent newsletter that the CD was ONE CD, not TWO. This is a bit odd in itself for Blaire to come out and surrender info without veiling it in stupid puzzles. Take the statement as a red herring or at face value, no one knows yet.

Then, there is the point made by some that this CD seems like a frankenstein of some old material with some very great parts, but overall lacking in the revelational lyrics and innovative music. I don't particularly agree, other than the fact that Rosetta Stoned certainly has near exact guitar riffs to Third Eye, but that works in the context of the two songs, which honestly seems cool to me.

Another point that people have made after the fact is that the leaks of the single and the album seem a bit odd, one aspect being the file format. I'm not sure how valid this is because no one would question this stuff if the two cd theory hadn't been brought about, like you said.


SOOOO anyway, that's my take on the origin of the theory. I have to admit that in the back of my head I'm hoping to get even more material because I can never get enough TOOL music. But, I'm not getting my hopes up.

I totally said the Vicarious radio sample was fake first on the 16th :P but then others started posting threads in more detail about the whole thing being fake and loads of people backed them up and it's like two groups now O.o

I see...Well thank you for your responses. This is all a lot clearer. Either way, I look forward to hearing the album on the 2nd.

Here is a theory i will give a 20% probability of being true.

1.Vicarious hits the radio/vicarious is leaked.

2.Then someone leaks the leak we have/or tool themselves leaked the leak we have.

3.I am willing to give a 90% probability that the leak is an unreleased bsides comp

4. After the leak was posted for the first bit of time everyone was so thrilled to hear new tool that few people noticed that it sounded like a mish mash of old tracks put togather.

What struck me as odd about how this "conspiracy" moved was the absurd speed the information travelled. I didnt even think about it until getting up 2 days ago and over night this idea was on 4 different boards i check out regularly, 3 of which are not tool specific.

It strikes me as top down information and not bottom up. Information like this coming from the bottom up would need time to sit in peoples minds and be contemplated, then more and more people would start to agree and then it would start to snowball. This was one day, boom...instant conspiracy. The idea came from the top down because the authority of the intitial information had weight to carry it down to the bottom.

In easier language for the stoners here....tool leaked the album, no one got it intially that it was a fake(bsides) so they threw out the idea it was a fake(bsides) and here we are now.

Like i said i give that 20% probability of being true because of so many leaps in rational that need to be made but i give a 90% probability to the leak being bsides only because i think there is a 10% chance the leak is premaster on all songs but vicarious but even that is being generious.

I think it's all some nice fun and games... Who cares at this point, I'm going to buy the album and then we shall all shut the fuck up :D

The idea for the hoax was around before the cd leaked.

It just didn't die when the cd leaked, so the theories had to become more outrageous to keep up with the amount of proof that the cd is real.

I fully agree some of the theories are absurdly ridiculous, but there is some fair questions amongst them. I'm so fully underwhelmed with this album I lean towards the hoax idea OR that it could be to fullfill their contractual obligations - and there will be further material released not too far down the track. Who knows. Fun speculating though