Tool (2) – Fear Inoculum

Hello Brian,

I can confirm that RCA/Sony participated in a listening/promotional programming opportunity with AIMS (Alliance of Independent Media Stores).
To receive in-store play consideration on in-store PA systems, a full length promotional disc was provided by Sony.
Thirty participating stores would have received the in-store play disc, though I imagine there'd be other in-store play copies out there, I can't
provide any information other than that.

Best of luck in your collecting.

Eric Levin

Okay. I stand corrected. This appears to be a LEGITIMATE release. I have ed several stores in the AIMS hip, and whenever I was able to reach an owner or manager, I received confirmation that they did, in fact, receive these.

So, here are the facts:

A "promo" was sent to AIMS member stores in the USA that consisted of the standard issue EU disc inside a standard USA RCA sleeve with a white sticker on the back (same size as Avery "name badge" stickers), as pictured in this listing.

So, NOTHING is "unique," and this can VERY EASILY be forged, which I have already done successfully. (Fonts used are Ariel for track-list & Trebuchet MS for copyright info)

So, be VERY careful if buying this. But, ultimately, this IS a legitimate Promo that WAS sent to select stores.

I will include another update after I talk with the president of AIMS. (I'm waiting to hear back from him now.)

Just did some looking............. You can buy those RCA sleeves for a couple dollars very easily and 99% of the have NO STICKER on the back, because tracks are traditionally printed on the WHITE FACED CD Promo disc. Thus, producing this would be as easy as having a Fear Inoculum disc, a $5-10 blank promo sleeve, and an ink jet printer to print on a sticker. Hell, even if this IS legit (which it is not), I could EXACTLY mimic this for the cost of getting the disc, plus less than $10!!!!!

This is fake. A lot of sources reported that Tool didn't do any promos for the whole album, just the title track. If Tool did do any promos, the cd wouldn't be identical to the cd in the actual release and they wouldn't use an old generic sleeve.

the word "promotional use - not for sale" should also be written on the CD.
Without this test, the item would be considered a fake, and should be removed from the marketplace.
we need further proof and photos to establish that it is authentic.

My opinion.....:
A standard cd in a generic RCA promo sleeve...and a self-made sticker with tracklist...this is simply my opinion...

"(c) 2011 RCA Records" on the bottom of cardboard sleeve?

I was pretty convinced they did not make any of these and any promo was digitally watermarked ones, nice.