Track by Track Analysis - Fear Inoculum by Tool

I have chosen the album “Fear Inoculum” by the progressive rock band Tool, as it is an album by them I have yet to listen too. I believe that my initial hearing of this album will be much truer to my feelings since it will be my initial thoughts. This album has been a long awaited one for myself, as I have been listening to Tool since I was a child and had been given a few CDs by my older brother. Since I was about five years old, I can remember Tool being blared through my brother's bedroom door, and I really liked it. I wouldn’t have been able to coherently tell you why I liked it back then, but now I believe that it was due to the heavy base quality that a great deal of Tool songs hold, plus full range of instruments and types of sounds the band utilizes. Before even starting the album, I can say that an hour and twenty-six minutes of music can be quite hard for most to get through. However, from having experience listening to Tool albums that are just as long, the way they progress through their music can often lead you listening to the whole thing without even realizing it. Firstly, I want to analyze the title of the album, “Fear Inoculum.” The word Inoculum is the Latin word for a substance that is used to inoculate, or a vaccination. The title can be understood as the fear of vaccination, which at this moment is unclear as to how it coincides with the songs it holds.

Fear Inoculum: 

To start with we have the song, “Fear Inoculum.” Many bands will often take the first song in the lineup and use that as their album name, but for Tool this is a first. Upon first hearing the song, there is a slow build up that begins to be built upon it by various sound effects and instruments. Tool has always combined both more traditional instruments such as drums, or even wooden flutes and didgeridoo, making for interesting combinations. The first set of lyrics “Immunity, Long Overdue. Contagion, I exhale you.” lets us know this song is indeed about, at least the concept of vaccination. The song might not be on actual vaccination, but vaccination as a concept in life. “Forfeit all control, you Poison, you Spectacle,” these words give the impression that the singer is attempting to rid themselves of the person in their life who is controlling them or poisoning them. The feeling I get from this song is quite a heavy one, telling me that their journey through this album may be their attempt at escaping an abusive relationship or pulling themselves out of their own toxic or abusive behaviors. As with many Tool songs, both the beginning and the ending after the lyrics have been sung, tend to have a long instrumental lead off, extending whatever feeling was being produced by the lyrics.  

Pneuma: 

“Pneuma” doesn’t necessarily corelate to the album name at this point, however it’s meaning is the Greek word for breath, or even spirit, soul and breath of life in a religious context. The beginning of the song is prefaced with a slow build guitar solo, followed by various non-electric instruments, and electric instruments combined. Once the lyrics have begun, we can see that this song is more closely related to the definition of spirit, as “We are Spirit bound to this flesh.” is the first line of the song. It appears this song, in my opinion, is talking about the religious thought that we as humans, in a spiritual sense, are all the same soul. “We are Born of One Breath, One Word.” The way the lyrics are to me, is as if the singer is asking the child in us, the “spark” to wake up inside of ourselves. The overall feeling of this song strikes me as an “awakening” moment, looking into one’s self to find the light, or the child in your mind and release yourself from the “mask” of who you have become, who you present yourself in the world or “dream”. This song might not closely relate to the first song before it, however it still goes along the lines of a removal of toxicity from your life. First to “inoculate” yourself against those who might hurt you, and second to rid the aspects of yourself that pull you into the dark and take away your child like spark.  Litanie contre la Peur: 

“Litanie contre la Peur” Is the third track on the album and is the second to last shortest track on the album, the title French for “litany against fear.” However, this song does not have any lyrics to it. A litany is a series of repetitious petitions spoken back and forth from a religious leader and responded by the worshipers. The instrumental song is using what seems to be using an electric guitar with a distortion setting to sound close to, but not quite similarly to an organ. Organs are often used in churches or places of worship, and the chosen sound would make sense to combine with the song title. I wouldn’t say that I particularly like this instrumental, as Tool has quite the handful of them in their various albums, but there can still be a story gleamed from it. With the knowledge that it is supposed to represent a religious setting in which you are repeating a petition, it could represent the creator of this albums own call to religion, to repeatedly call on something in hopes of self-betterment.  

Invincible: 

The beginning of "Invincible” starts out with a soft electric guitar solo, repetitious cords with minor changes as it progresses. Once again, the combination of electric and traditional instruments is placed in this song. “Long in tooth and soul, longing for another win, lurch into the fray, weapon out and belly in, warrior struggling to remain consequential.” The song begins with a voice of strength, the urge to battle and live as they fight through the fray. “Age old battle, mine.” “Once invincible. Now the armor’s wearing thin.” The warrior has begun to weaken, now weary and aged. “Warrior struggling to remain consequential.” “But here I am, where I end.” The warrior has been trying to keep their lives relevant, to not fall to the wayside and be taken over by those more powerful. “Tears in my eyes chasing Ponce de Leon’s phantoms.” The warrior is looking for the so-called fountain of youth, the false hope that they can remain as they did before, powerful and young. I feel as though this song is one large metaphor for ageing. The battle of youth, the struggle of staying above the times and relevant with the younger crowd as you age, the search for anything that keeps you young as you have passed the point where aging is a slipping slope as you grasp desperately for your youth, then finally the “sting” of time bearing down on you.   

Legion Inoculant: 

The title of this song seems to directly correlate to the album title as an inoculant is a substance suitable for inoculation, or vaccination. A legion of inoculation, or an army of vaccines. This track has no lyrics, staring off with a momentary silence before a synthetic sound starts up. I can only describe the beginning of this as almost alien in nature, many different types of sounds and waves of tone coming in and out, as well as distorted voices for effect. I do not think that this track adds much of anything to the album, but the title eludes to there being a purpose closely related to the overall topic of the album.  

Descending: 

To descend is to move or fall. The beginning of the track starts with what sounds like the ocean waves washing up onto the shores of a beach, setting an almost somber tone to the song. A soft melodic electric guitar follows up, starting simple and slow. “Floating nescient we free fall through this boundlessness.” It is suggested that we are floating through ignorance, free falling through a boundless world. “One drive; To stay alive.” The feeling I get from this song is one of someone pleading or begging the world to wake up from the ignorance that pervades society. We ignore or disbelieve that which does not directly affect us, making us complacent and ignorant of the rest of the world around us. This song is calling for us to wake up and to fall back to our original drive as animals. To stay alive. 

Culling Voices:  

To cull, is to pull a large grouping of something and separate it, or to remove something in a selective manor. Without having listened to the song, the title gives me the impression that the singer wants to remove certain thoughts from their mind, or certain influences all together. The slow build of the song starts with electronic sounds, soft and high pitched. It makes me feel almost as if I am anxious and nervous as to what is coming next. “Psychopathy. Misleading me over and over.” As the song progresses, it is more and more evident that the singer is trying to separate themselves from the voices and thoughts they hear. The damage that comes from the actions taken on such thoughts, only to realize they were misled by their own head. I see this as a struggle of one’s self, the thoughts we must ignore and fight so as not to ruin our waking world.  

Chocolate Chip Trip: 

This is another instrumental track with no lyrics; however, I am unable to even begin to comprehend how this track relates to the others, or the album itself. The instrumental track is fill with various sounds and effects, some not sounding as if they go together at all. However, the title of the track could lead the listener to one thing, that the song is a “trip” a high, or something to be listened to with no preconceived notions of meaning. I don’t feel like this track has added or subtracted to the album so far.  

7empest: 

As the longest track on the album, I feel as though there will be some significance to this one. To start with the title, which is referring to the word “Tempest”, or a raging windy storm. As far as the title having a 7 in place of the T, I can only think of the Seven Deadly Sins. The feeling I am getting from this song is almost as if they are talking about a disease, something that strikes quickly, even with periods of down time. Nature is a tempest, ever changing and unpredictable. I don’t feel as though this song fits in with the album as much as some of the others, but it does maintain a theme of nature and naturally occurring events.  

Mockingbeat: 

As the last track on the album, I feel it was an odd choice to choose an instrumental. When the song starts, there is a shrill sound of a bird, leading me to believe that the title is connected to the mockingbird. There are random sounds that it seems to mimic at first, then going off on a tangent that doesn’t even seem to sound animal like at all. I do not feel like this song fits in with the rest of the album.  

As I had said in the beginning, I had never heard the songs on this album until this review. Now that I have heard every track, I can say that I have a generally good impression of this album. I decided to pick an unheard album for the fact that I wanted this review to be my honest first impression, no bias to having heard certain songs before or preformed thoughts on them. As I went through each track, it was like a picture was unfurrowing as I continued. At first, I only had one part of the picture and I was trying to make a organized though on what I thought of the entire picture before I had seen the whole thing. However, once I reached the end of the album, all the thoughts I had collected on the separate tracks seemed to merge into something new. My impression from this album is one of both pleading of humanity to open their minds, and regret of the singer's own faults.