Tool - Fear Inoculum

Long-time listeners know my dislike of Amatuer Internet Interpretation Hour, and Tool's last album is a tragic favorite. It's about Trump, it's about vaccines, it's about mainlining fear... it's about whatever the words "fear inoculum" mean when placed together consecutively. It is an abstraction from their collective experience. Structuralism, ya jackasses, protagonist/antagonist in a never ending battle to see who can devolve the fastest. That's Tool, we pick up a wrench and idiotically bash someone's head in instead of using it to tighten the nuts and bolts that hold us together. And, we don't give pause until the blood is flowing. 

We're back to calling out the abuser. Deciever means anyone who's lying. Also remember, we're trying to bring the two sides back together into one consciousness. How do you get through an argument? Well, you can focus on all the ways we disagree with each other and never solve it, just turn on the dopamine machine and love being a lab rat addicted to cocaine (a real life interview answer straight from Maynard's brain into Joe Rogan's microphone), or you can look for any tiny shred of agreement and build on that collective progressivity without compromising your personal ideals in the process. Plus, releasing your last old school album and wondering how people will respond after 13 years is a frightening prospect. All of everything goes into it, because this is honest art from thinking individuals trying to connect with the larger society. Bowie did that, Devo, Green Day, Throbbing Gristle, every other band along this adventure did that. That is the goal. Finding a way to inoculate yourself to the fear, and moving forward. That's all i'm doing. I'm certainly not done yet, but i'm light years away from where i was as a teenager watching the facade of reality falling away to reveal what's in the shadows. I rage at the blinders that everyone tries to put over their third eye because i won't tolerate it anymore. There's no mental anguish you can put me through that i haven't already sought out and grappled with for myself. I'm not afraid of the fight, i think the fight is stupid, and i'm getting impatient waiting here at the meet me half way point. I'm ready to get on with the moving forward, everyone's invited, hurry up and get here already. And bring your big-boy attention span, this one's 86 and a half minutes long.

Conclusion

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