The lone official vinyl issue of 2001's Lateralus was pressed as a picture disc, a record format known to prioritize visual appeal over audio fidelity. Original pressings of '90s outings like Undertow and Ænima have come to command hundreds or even thousands of dollars on the secondary market. Until the arrival of Fear Inoculum's 5LP package this month, the band's apparent avoidance of the vinyl record format has left analog-minded Tool lovers in the lurch.
TOOL RECUSANT AD INFINITUM DOWNLOAD
Upon the latter album's initial release in 2019, three different variants of its CD edition arrived packaged in a brochure-style digipak that came with a rechargeable four-inch HD screen (with internal two-watt speaker) playing exclusive video "Recusant Ad Infinitum," a 36-page booklet and download card - the kind of trifold you might be handed by someone asking, "Do you have a moment to talk about our Lord and Saviour, Maynard James Keenan?" An "expanded book edition" of the CD package soon followed, doing away with the rechargeable screen in favour of five exclusive 3D lenticular graphic cards, an expanded 56-page booklet with additional art, and a download of the "Recusant Ad Infinitum" visuals. It's a creative tenet that clearly did not weaken all those years between 10,000 Days and Fear Inoculum. This disc design would go on to win guitarist Adam Jones the 2007 Grammy for Best Recording Package, and through delving into their catalogue later on, I would learn just how much Tool value the form and function of their physical releases. The packaging of Tool's fourth full-length - a foldout laminated sleeve with built-in stereoscopic viewing lenses dominating its detailed cover art - was unlike that of any CD I had seen before. quartet's deep grooves, Fibonacci sequence explainers and the bassline from "Schism," I remember coming across the CD release of 2006's 10,000 Days in a small-town Ontario pawn shop. The initial sticker shock of Tool's ultra-deluxe vinyl version of 2019's Fear Inoculum was warranted, but for the patient many who waited over a decade on the band's fifth studio album, its various elaborate, engaging and expensive physical forms should come as no surprise.