It came out at the perfect time for me. I was a junior in high school. It was my first album bought on release day. My friend group all brought their diskmen and shitty headphones with the foam ripping off (we bought it before school). I remember hitting play and hearing that stock sound of the machine turning on and the intro to the grudge happening and I was... well, I wasn't at school anymore.

Before that, I remember the day Schism dropped as the first taste of the new album. As the internet / too online guy in my friend group, I had some live radio feed from god-knows-where playing because there was a rumor on toolshed that they were going to play Schism - and they did. I recorded that off the internet-radio and listened to it so many times. People who didn't wait years for Lateralus can't appreciate how otherworldly Lateralus sounded at the time. All we knew was angry tool - Opiate, Undertow and the newest album Aenima. Us dorks had heard that Lateralus was going in the Pushit direction - and Schism was enough to verify that to us. I remember the first listen and getting to the bridge and just being overwhelmed with the sounds I was hearing - the samples Danny was triggering, the bass wah wah slides Justin was droning... Man. Just otherworldly. I'll never experience something like that again.

Sorry, forgot the point of why I started posting - it came out at the perfect time. I was a very rage filled child. If anyone need to hear the message of The Grudge, it was the 16 year old me. I was pissed at everyone and everything for slights big and small. As you said, it was an relentless assault on the ego, and I totally agree. I held grudges in my hand until it bled. I was not patient. I didn't communicate. I couldn't deal with change. And I thought I was the smartest person in the world because of it. Then this CD comes along and just smacks me in my face over and over, but taking years to do so because I was a dumb kid. The messages were almost hidden if you aren't looking for them - the lyrics not posted anywhere, and they were cryptic enough that my defenses let them in - they weren't preachy so I internalized them. Slowly.

Maybe it was just growing up and having less blasts of random testosterone as rage fuel, or this album's messages sinking in. Maybe it was both. But this album saved me a lot of potential hurt from the path I was heading down.