Though Taylor Swift currently holds the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart, many of her loyal fans are worried that she’s about to lose that position.
Thanks to her latest album, Lover, which was released on Aug. 23, the star earned her sixth No. 1 album on Monday.
It seems the Wildest Dreams singer may have a bit of competition now, though, as the American progressive rock band Tool just released their latest album, Fear Inoculum, last Friday.
Because Fear Inoculum is Tool’s first album in more than 13 years, it’s been doing very well in streaming numbers and both digital and physical sales.
According to Loudwire, and numerous other outlets, the album is expected to have sold between 240,000 to 260,000 copies by Monday, Sept. 9, whereas Lover is expected to have sold just 185,000 to 200,000.
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While Lover raked in an impressive 885,000-plus sales in its first week, the singer also offered a variety of different album bundles, both digital and physical.
These included vinyl variants, t-shirts and various other merchandise bundles. Not only that, but Swift released four different Target-exclusive CDs, effectively prompting many of her dedicated fans to purchase Lover more than once.
Tool, on the other hand, has not yet released a vinyl variant of Fear Inoculum. Their website does not offer t-shirt bundles or any varying exclusives, either. Only the CD package itself, which, before selling out, cost fans $45.
Now that the album is sold out worldwide, it’s going for upwards of $250 on websites like eBay and Amazon.
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The reason the album is so expensive is because, it was previously revealed in an official statement shared to Tool’s website, the CD version of Fear Inoculum features a four-inch HD rechargeable screen, which shows exclusive video footage from the band.
It was also packaged with a small two-watt speaker, a charging cable and a massive 36-page booklet.
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Upon seeing a variety of reported U.S. album chart predictions, an abundance of Swift fans took to Twitter to unleash their upset thoughts about the possibility of Fear Inoculum dethroning Lover from the No. 1 spot.
Many enraged Swifties further questioned the existence of the 29-year-old rock band, with many asking, “who is Tool?” Coincidentally, the pop star is also 29.
Another user shared their experience listening to a Tool song for the very first time.
“I like poppy repetitive music that gets stuck in my head,” they claimed, “I’m also not a fan of drum solos and electric guitars.”
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While a majority of Swift’s supporters were left in anger regarding the success of Tool, the Tool Army was, for the most part, quite calm in response.
Rather than defending themselves against the Swifties, Tool fans seemed to take pride in the fact that the success of Fear Inoculum was stressing their new-found rivals out.
Many later suggested that the 13 years of waiting for a new Tool album had paid off.
One individual called out Swift’s passionate fans for being “ageist.” “This @Tool/@taylorswift13 album ‘beef’ is so revealing regarding her fanbase,” they tweeted.
“They are so #ageist, it’s disgusting,” they added. “They don’t know how to handle ideas with which they don’t agree, and they are so closed off to other forms of artisttic expression… So very sad,” concluded the user.
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While the supposed “beef” resulted in a massive social media divide, a small number of users admitted that they enjoyed and respected both artists.
“It’s possible to love both Tool and Taylor Swift; I don’t even know why I’m saying that out loud,” tweeted one outlier of the feud.
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Lover is now available through all major streaming platforms, as is Fear Inoculum.
As of this writing, Swift has not scheduled any upcoming concerts, however, Tool will be embarking on a 25-date North American tour with Killing Joke this fall.
Tickets go on sale, this Friday, Sept. 6 at 10 a.m. ET. Additional updates and ticket information can be found through the official Tool website.
Tool’s Canadian 2019 tour dates
Nov. 11 — Toronto, Ont. @ Scotiabank Arena
Nov. 12 — Toronto, Ont. @ Scotiabank Arena
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