jeromium

Well said. 

He's fine nothing happened please keep the thread on topic.

Never was huge into Swans but I've been slowly checking out the highly-rated stuff recently. Slowly because they require time. I had The Great Annihilator when that was their newest record, liked it ok, but not enough to stay interested in them. Having revisited that one lately it's pretty great. 

It's hard for me to fathom ranking Undertow anywhere less than 2nd place, personally. That's when I started listening to Tool and it blew my brains. Then Ænima blew my brains too. Lateralus was more of a slow burn when it came out and, although that album definitely differs from the previous two, at the time I felt that's when they plateaued a bit and were settling into trademark sound. Familiar-sounding riffs, etc. It didn't seem as fresh and mind-blowing as the other two had been. And yes, it's amazing, but it didn't have the same impact on me of sounding really unique. I've only played Fear Inoculum twice at this point but I'm comfortable with this ranking. Leaving out Opiate because it's not an album.
 
1. Ænima
2. Undertow
3. Lateralus
4. Fear Inoculum
5. 10,000 Days

How exactly do the interval from the last album release and the dozens of thread pages of you trolling people who like Tool make any prophecy or guaranteed informative statement about the literal quantitative limitation of the physical product inside physical stores? Please effectively make this case for me.
 
There has never been a scarceness of a brand new Tool CD inside stores on release date until this one right here. I foolishly banked on that.

Anyone remember that old "just don't look" Simpsons episode where they ignored the evil advertisers and they became powerless and shut down? Consider the same approach to jerkwad internet trolls. Block, let a mod know if you want, and move on. Homeboy gets no attention anywhere else in life and decides to try for it here, that sucks for those of us who are here for vinyl news and discussion, it's pretty easy to starve the troll and he'll go elsewhere. Typing this is already more of my time than I want to spend on the matter.
Looking forward to the PO when it happens. I signed up for Tool Army months ago hoping it'd prove fruitful, and that clearly isn't happening. Wonder if I can get a refund.

Here’s the best part, for me: the stem of the problem is so obvious.  The culprit is so obvious.  The solution is so obvious.  So why is it being handled so poorly?  On several occasions I’ve read posts where the staff self-deprecates themselves, stating that moderating is a thankless job and how everyone else just shits on them.  While I completely agree with the first half of that sentiment, the second part is tough to sympathize with.  Shitty decisions (or lack of decisions) will warrant a negative reaction from the community.  Smoke, fire, etc.
 
If a toxic troll is very obviously bent on derailing a thread and abusing the feedback / trade system on a forum, that should be an instant ban.  Not a timeout.  Not a slap on the wrist.  That should be a straight-up boot.  But far be it from me to voice how I think the mods should do their jobs – the “timeout” system is used at their discretion, so that’s fine.
 
My qualm comes from this same offender diving straight back into the same shitty behavior the moment they’re able to do so, and nothing being done about it.  Despite tagging appropriate moderators to the issue, myself and others still have negative feedback that hasn’t been amended.  I know that natural disasters – or the threat of them – have impacted some of the staff on the boards over the last few days.  So, yeah; seeking shelter or preparing for the worst definitely takes priority over sorting out VC hooligans.  But it seems like things have mostly subsided and as far as I can tell, we’re still stuck in the same boat?  Correct me if I’m wrong.
 
When the obvious bad apple is threatening to spoil the whole barrel, it makes sense to reach in there and chuck it out.  Not seal the barrel and deprive the rest of the community from participating in a discussion.  This is where the “lol mods suck” memes sprout from, and will probably continue to do so until less questionable decisions are made.

bumping the old thread since the new thread got locked instead of just permabanning the obvious one single user who is the problem.

Won’t happen until the mods take out the trash for good, but I like your ambition.

So who wants to make a 3rd Tool thread so I can actually follow one that might be helpful when the LP  gets released?

yawn

Coming from the guy who just took time to leave me negative feedback twice over, that’s pretty good.
 
Hey @jhulud – why isn’t this shit bird permabanned yet?  They’ve wasted no time reinforcing the fact that they have nothing to contribute to the boards other than trite trolling and exploitation of forum features.  If you’re going to allow this behavior to run rampant, can I at least get my feedback restored?  Thanks.

To me it is really about what you are personally getting out of the music, and how you comprehend what you are listening to. And that is going to be completely different between someone who is 8 vs teenage years >.  So I don't question that anyone was technically listening to anything at a certain age (My kid had heard plenty of Throbbing Gristle by the time he was 5). But it is not like and 8 year old is hearing any of those bands and understands at all what they or their music are about. Nor are they walking into their local mall cd store and grabbing the latest RATM or NIN's TDS off the shelf themselves with their hard earned cash. At that age most of what people hear is really either parental/sibling based, or just what gets played on the radio and is readily accessible. I can see how someone who has a connection to a band or a certain song for a million happy/sad/angry or other emotional reasons based on personal experiences could get frustrated at a person saying that "I loved tool when I was 8".  Yes you did love Tool at 8. I totally believe that. But it's an 8 year old way of loving it. Which is fine and perfectly normal.
 
 
 

I do like the idea of a catch-all shitshow for album impressions, redundant jokes, and general tomfuckery... but I’m all for keeping this thread clean and relevant with actual PO info, since a lot of folks are probably looking for just that while trudging through the other thread and regretting the use of their free time as a result.

I rarely pre-order records anymore, and I do most of my record buying in person at record stores or from bands at gigs — that's one way you can limit your environmental impact.

Solid advice. 
 
There really is no need to quit enjoying music and records. You can leave the hobby part behind and just listen to records. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2tmmkrfj3xov5wq/TOOL Fear Inoculum Unboxing Deluxe CD Opening.mp4?dl=0

That’s what I’m doing. 

I waited 14 years for this, I think I can manage another 5 days.

This statement...very 90s/00s hahah

This statement...very 90s/00s hahah

I'm not planning to give up, but I've definitely cut back this year. The primary factors were:
Limited space Moved in April and didn't set up my stereo for several months so I fell out of the habit of looking & buying I work from home a lot and before moving, I was in a 1BR apartment with desk in same room as stereo. Now in a house, stereo is in living room and while it's close to my office I would just have to turn it up louder, and it's more of a distraction to go in the other room to flip records and shit. My g/f and I combined our collections when we moved in together, and now when I browse it's just weird having so much stuff in there I don't recognize...I give up more quickly when I can't decide and just play digital. Heh. There are other things I'd rather spend my money on for the most part, like home improvement. I mostly put on records while making & eating dinner nowadays. But still find that I play them a lot less often than I used to. So I'm buying a lot less, but I'm not trying to sell it off or anything. Everything's sitting comfortably behind me as I type. It's sitting comfortably under the bluetooth speaker I'm currently listening to.

I just turned 40. There was a time (around 2011) that I almost quit. A lot of the same reasons. Burn out, cost, moving, portability.  Glad I didn't. I would honestly miss it and would probably be buying it all back now that money is not as tight.
I did make a few changes though:
1. No variants - I only need one copy of a record
2. Sell the items I don't listen to 
3. Only buy new releases I have already heard and believe they belong in my collection long term
4. No 7"s, singles, novelty items, etc. Just download that stuff.
5. Record player is in between my kitchen/dining room. Not sure of your layout but I would remove the player out of a small "listening: room if that is where you keep it. I play it while cooking meals, friends over, etc. I use a portable bluetooth speaker outside with phone, digital in the car. 

For the versions up on CF, it looks like the two colored variants are /1500 each.  Black is out of /6000.

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