Read the Lyrics for Every Song on Tool’s Fear Inoculum

HOLY SHIT-TICKLING CHRIST!!! It’s almost here. It’s actually almost here! Tomorrow, after 13+ years, Tool will FINALLY release a new album, Fear Inoculum. Will it live up to the hype? Can it live up to the hype? You’ll know in less than 24 hours!

(For whatever it’s worth, these are our initial thoughts after hearing the record once.)

While you brace for impact, you can get a head start on reading and interpreting Maynard James Keenan’s lyrics for the entire album. Do so below. Then head to the comments section to engage in a surely-intelligent discussion of their meaning.

“Fear Inoculum”

Immunity, long Overdue. Contagion, I exhale you
Naïve, I opened up to you, venom and mania.
Now Contagion, I exhale you.

The Deceiver says, “You belong to me. You don’t wanna breath the light of the others.
Fear the light. Fear the breath. Fear the others for eternity.”
But I hear them now. Inhale the clarity. I hear the venom in what you say.

Inoculated.
Bless this immunity.

Exhale. Expel. Recast my tale. Weave my allegorical elegy.

Enumerate all that I’m to do. Calculating steps away from you.
My own mitosis, growing through division from mania.

Exhale. Expel. Recast my tale. Weave my allegorical elegy.

Forfeit all control, you Poison, you Spectacle.
Exorcise the Spectacle. Exorcise the malady.
Exorcize the disparate poison for eternity.

Purge me and Evacuate the Venom & the Fear that binds me.
Your veil now, lift away.

I see you running.

Deceiver, chased away. A Long time coming.

“Pneuma”

We are Spirit bound to this flesh.
(We) go round one foot nailed down.
(But) Bound to reach out and beyond this flesh, become Pneuma.
We are will and wonder, bound to recall – remember
We are Born of One Breath, One Word.
We are all One Spark, Sun becoming.

Child, wake up.
Child, release the light.
Wake up now, child.
Spirit…
Spirit bound to this flesh, this guise, this mask, this dream.
Wake up, remember –
We are born of One Breath, One Word.
We are all One Spark, Sun becoming.

Pneuma.
Reach out and beyond.
Wake up, remember.
We are born of One Breath, One Word.
We are all One Spark, eyes full of wonder.

“Descending”

Free fall through our midnight, this epilogue of our own fable.
Heedless in our slumber.
Floating nescient we free fall through this boundlessness,
This madness of our own making.
Falling isn’t flying. Floating isn’t infinite…
Come, Our end, suddenly. All hail our lethargy. Concede Suddenly.
To the quickened dissolution.
Pray we Mitigate the ruin, calling all to arms and order.
Drifting through this boundlessness, this madness of our own making.
Sound our dire reveille. Rouse all from our apathy, lest we cease to be.
Stir us from our wanton slumber.
Mitigate our ruin.
Call us all to arms and order.
Sound the dread Alarm through our primal body.
Sound the reveille to be or not to be.
Rise. Stay the grand finale.
Stay the reading of our swan song & epilogue.
One Drive; To stay alive.
It’s Elementary. Muster every fiber. Mobilize. Stay Alive
Stir us from our wanton slumber. Mitigate our ruin.
Call us all to arms and order.

“Invincible”

Long in tooth and soul. Longing for another win.
Lurch into the fray. Weapon out and belly in.
Warrior struggling to remain consequential.

Bellow aloud, bold and proud, of where I’ve been. But here I am.
Beating chest and drums. Beating tired bones again.

Age old battle, mine. Weapon out and belly in.
Tales told of battles won, of things we’ve done, Caligula would grin.
Beating tired bones. Tripping through remember when.
Once invincible. Now the armor’s wearing thin.
Heavy shield down. Warrior struggling to remain relevant.
Warrior struggling to remain consequential.

Bellow aloud, bold and proud, of where I’ve been.
But here I am, where I end.

Tears in my eyes chasing Ponce de Leon’s phantoms.
So filled with hope I can taste mythical fountains.
False hope, perhaps,
But the truth never got in my way before now.
Feel the sting. Feeling time bearing down.

“Culling Voices”

Disembodied voices deepen my suspicious tendencies.
(Hearing) Conversations we’ve never had.
Imagined interplay.
Psychopathy. Don’t You dare point that at me.

Heated altercations we’ve never had, (or) so I’m told
Yet guided by them all.
Every single one.

Psychopathy.
Misleading me over and over

Judge, Condemn, and banish any and everyone
Without evidence.
Only the whispers from within.

Psychopathy.
Misleading me over and over.

Imagined interplay
Psychopathy. Don’t You dare point that at me.

“7empest”

(keep calm. Keepin it calm. Keep calm. FUCK. Here we go again)
Heat lightning flash, but don’t blink. Misleading. Tranquility ruse.
You’re gonna happen again. That’s what I think.
Follow the evidence. Look it dead in the eye. You are darkness.
Trying to Lull us in, before the havoc begins, into a dubious state of serenity.
Acting all surprised when you’re caught in the lie.

We know better. It’s not unlike you.
It’s not unlike you.
We know your nature.

Blame it all on the bastards when you’re blowin out.
Shame on you. Shame on you, now
No amount of wind could begin to cover up your petulant stench and demeanor.
Calm as cookies and cream, so it seems.
We’re not buying your dubious state of serenity.
Acting all surprised when you’re caught in the lie.
We know better. It’s not unlike you
It’s not unlike you. We know your nature.

Calm before the torrent comes.
Calm before the 7empest comes to reign all over.
Disputing intentions invites devastation.
A 7empest must be true to its nature.
A 7empest will be just that.

Control, your delusion. Insane and striking at random.
Victim of your uncertainty, and therefore your doubt’s not an option.
Blameless, the 7empest must/will be just that.
So try as you may, feeble, your attempt to atone.
Your words to erase all the damage cannot.

A 7empest will be just that.

[via Loudwire]