Yeah I can see how if it was your first introduction to the band or you hadn't listened to their other work much you might miss some of it.

I'd suggest listening to another album (any of them), then listening to FI to see if you pick up some of the musical references. It hit me like a brick wall on the first playthrough, but I've been listening to them since the release of Undertow. I'm not a huge Tool devotee but they've been in my rotation enough in the past... what 25 years or so that it was hard to miss.

It's still great music on its own, but maybe not as strong on its own as some of their others, or on a track-by-track basis (dang millennials treating albums like they're a collection of tracks to be put on shuffle in their iWhatsits... get off my lawn... bla bla)