I was a tad underwhelmed with this album. I'm not sure what I expected, but this wasn't it. It has some great moments. I really like Intension and Right In Two and Wings/10KD, and Jambi is decent. I wasn't thrilled with the single because it sounded like a Lateralus-era song. I LOVE Lateralus. It's the album that got me into Tool, but I've noticed that each Tool album had familiar yet new elements that made me go, wow. This album did not. Maybe five years was too long to wait, I don't know.
It could be the quality of the leak. My biggest complaint about it is the vocal mix, which seems painfully low. I know Adam Jones mentioned in the Guitar World interview that the vocals on many songs would be more in the background, intentionally. I'm not happy with that change, I guess. I love Maynard's voice, the way he conveys emotion, but the dang vocals are so low, I have to turn it up really loud, which makes the guitar parts WAY too loud. It's almost as if this is Adam's time to shine or something. The drumming also didn't do much for me and that's saying a lot because I love Danny's drumming. It was such a force on previous albums and I just don't feel it the way I did on Lateralus, for example, or Aenima. Songs like Eulogy and 46&2.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents
