announced Systema Encéphale

In January 2001, Tool announced a new album, Systema Encéphale , along with a 12-song track list containing titles such as “Riverchrist”, “Numbereft”, “Encephatalis”, “Musick”, and “Coeliacus”. File-sharing networks such as Napster were flooded with bogus files bearing the titles’ names. A month later, the band revealed that the new album was actually titled Lateralus ; the name Systema Encéphale and the track list had been a ruse. Lateralus and the corresponding tours would take Tool a step further toward art rock and progressive rock territory. Rolling Stone wrote in an attempt to summarize the album that “Drums, bass and guitars move in jarring cycles of hyperhowl and near-silent death march … The prolonged running times of most of Lateralus ‘ thirteen tracks are misleading; the entire album rolls and stomps with suitelike purpose.” Joshua Klein of The A.V. Club expressed his opinion that Lateralus , with its 79 minutes and relatively complex and long songs—topped by the ten-and-a-half-minute music video for ” Parabola “—posed a challenge to fans and music programming alike.