This may be controversial, but: I don't hear any Tool influence on ToT or 6DoIT. I wish I did though.
And I was just listening to SC. It's really not as 'not good' as I often hear said. There is some really awesome heavy riffage. The Dark Eternal Night is pretty kickass. But only at first, because it eventually falls into the wankery trap of so many DT songs. I mean seriously, why do they feel the need to do that so often? TDET is just one of many songs that could have been career highlights if they had just decided to not masturbate with their keyboards and guitars after performing awesomeness in the first few minutes.
So I don't think SC is amazing. I don't think any of their last 3 or 4 albums even came close to amazing. 8VM had a few amazing songs: These Walls, IWBS, Panic Attack. Title track was good though, I love the way it builts to the ending climiax; I do think the idea of doing that may have come from the song Lateralus, of course it sounds nothing like it though.
And FIF is not as terrible as people think. When I first got it I really enjoyed a lot of it. But that was before I got into 6DoIT, 8VM, Awake. Now when I listen to the album it just lack depth. But it's not terrible.