Lateralus

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Lore & Background

Lateralus emerged after a four-year legal dispute with Tool's label, Volcano Entertainment, during which the band avoided writing new material. In January 2001, the band announced the album's title would be Systema Encéphale with a 12-song track list including titles like "Riverchrist" and "Numbereft", flooding file-sharing networks with bogus files. A month later, they revealed the actual title was Lateralus, supposedly a portmanteau of the leg muscle Vastus lateralis and the term lateral thinking. The album's title track incorporates the Fibonacci sequence, with successive time signatures 9/8, 8/8, and 7/8—the number 987 being the sixteenth integer of the sequence. The lyrics "spiral out" refer to the Fibonacci spiral. The track "Faaip de Oiad" samples a 1997 call on Art Bell's radio program Coast to Coast AM, and its title is Enochian for "The Voice of God." The album's insert is translucent and flips open to reveal different layers of the human body, with the word "God" disguised in the brain matter on the final layer, artwork done by Alex Grey.

In Their Own Story

The band's drummer Danny Carey sampled himself breathing through a tube to simulate the chanting of Buddhist monks for "Parabol", and banged piano strings for samples on "Reflection". The track "Mantra" is the slowed-down sound of Maynard James Keenan gently squeezing one of his cats. The album's producer David Bottrill revealed that the lyrics for "Schism" were changed last minute because Adam Jones thought they were too close to home—the first version was very explicitly about building tensions between Maynard and Adam, which Maynard changed after a lengthy band meeting to be more broadly applicable to relationships falling apart. The vinyl edition alters the track listing, moving "Disposition" to track 8 to balance the sides, which breaks the segue between "Disposition" and "Reflection" that, along with "Triad", are linked together on the tracklist. Early pressings of Lateralus had the ninth track incorrectly spelled as "Lateralis", and the original title of "Reflection" was "Resolution" before being changed three months prior to release.

Reader's Guide

Lateralus was recorded at Cello Studios in Hollywood and The Hook, Big Empty Space, and The Lodge in North Hollywood between October 2000 and January 2001. David Bottrill produced the album along with the band, and it became the last Tool album produced by Bottrill to date. On August 23, 2005, Lateralus was released as a limited edition two-picture-disc vinyl LP in a holographic gatefold package. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling more than 555,200 copies in its first week. It was certified triple platinum by the RIAA on April 15, 2021, and gold by the BPI on February 13, 2015. It was also certified double platinum in both Australia and Canada. The band won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for "Schism" in 2002. Lateralus was ranked No. 123 on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "Definitive 200" list. The album has a 79-minute running time, with drummer Danny Carey noting, "The manufacturer would only guarantee us up to 79 minutes ... We thought we'd give them two seconds of breathing room." The CD was mastered using HDCD technology. Two singles from the album, "Parabola" and "Schism", are featured in the video game Guitar Hero World Tour. The album's artwork was done by artist Alex Grey, who would later design the 3D edition cover for the followup to Lateralus, 10,000 Days, and a major part of the artwork for Tool's fifth studio album Fear Inoculum.

Did You Know?

• The album's original announced title was Systema Encéphale with a fake track list including songs like 'Riverchrist' and 'Numbereft', which flooded Napster with bogus files.
• The title track 'Lateralus' incorporates the Fibonacci sequence, with time signatures 9/8, 8/8, and 7/8—the number 987 is the sixteenth integer of the sequence.
• The track 'Faaip de Oiad' samples a 1997 call on Art Bell's radio program Coast to Coast AM, and its title is Enochian for 'The Voice of God'.
• Early pressings of Lateralus had the ninth track incorrectly spelled as 'Lateralis', and the original title of 'Reflection' was 'Resolution' before being changed three months prior to release.
• The album's insert is translucent and flips open to reveal different layers of the human body, with the word 'God' disguised in the brain matter on the final layer.