It was released on 22 September 1978 on Atlantic Records, and is their last album with singer Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman before their departure from the group in 1980.

In December 1977, the Yes line-up of Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Alan White and Rick Wakeman wrapped their 1977 tour of North America and Europe in support of their eighth album, Going for the One (1977).

[4] The majority of the songs on Tormato were written during soundchecks and rehearsals on the 1977 tour, as the group decided to develop fresh ideas rather than using older material.

[8][9] The early studio sessions saw the return of Eddy Offord working with the band as their engineer and producer since Relayer (1974), but his involvement came to an end soon after.

[12] In one incident, the band laid a prank on Wakeman while he was on a break by replacing the Birotron cartridges with a tape of Seals and Crofts.

[13] Squire felt as if Wakeman and Howe tried to play more notes than the other in a single bar, which was caused after Anderson would put down basic chords on an acoustic guitar and then take it out of the mix, leaving gaps in the music.

He confirmed this in his 2021 memoir, All My Yesterdays, noting that Yes has not performed much from Tormato since the ensuing tour, and even then some songs from the album proved unworkable.

[17] "Don't Kill the Whale" originated from a bass line and a passage on an acoustic guitar that Squire had devised which he presented to Anderson, who proceeded to write lyrical ideas off of it using a poem that he had written on the subject as a basis.

[23] The song was also inspired by the band's friendship with Terry Doran, who had invited Yes to perform at a benefit concert for the whale movement, but they were too busy working in the studio.

[28] The instrumental section includes a crowd cheering with the guitar and drum solo, which Wakeman reasoned was added because it "sounded a bit dry" on its own.

[28] "Arriving UFO" is based on a tune that Anderson had developed, inspired to write a science-fiction song having seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) twice.

[17] "Onward" is solely credited to Squire, who had produced a demo version of the song on vocals and piano and presented it to the band.

It is not known whether the inclusion of "Richard" as a hidden track was intentional or an oversight, though the latter is more likely as later UK pressings and international cassette and 8-track releases of the album also omit it.

[35] Wakeman claimed to have thrown a tomato at the pictures taken for the album as he recalled the band were disappointed with the initial artwork which had cost a lot of money.

[35] According to White, the band was unable to decide on a cover and the tomato was thrown by Hipgnosis designer Aubrey Powell: "I think Po ... put a picture of a guy with divining sticks on the front.

[23] The sleeve includes a photograph of the band that was taken in Regent's Park, London, with each member wearing a bomber jacket and sunglasses and looking in a different direction.

[42][43] Yes donated money for every copy of the single that was sold to Greenpeace, a charity helping to end large scale whale slaughter.

[46] Record World summarised that Tormato brings "the Yes stamp of intriguing music" and recognised "Don't Kill the Whale" as a potential hit single.

[51] Cashbox thought with Tormato, "Yes reaffirms its strong artistic and popular stature" and, like Going for the One, "is a welcome away from Yes' extended jamming and massive concept works of the mid '70s".

[53] Steve Pond gave a mixed review in the Los Angeles Times, noting a lack of distinctive melodies and more experimental and extended instrumental sections similar to that of Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973) and Relayer (1974), which made them "distant and unappetizing".

However, Pond continues to note that "eventually, it emerges as one of Yes' strongest and most important albums" with its balance of songs that display the band's traditional sound along with the contemporary progressive rock approach.

He picked up on the album's "raw energy and forcefulness" which made Going for the One such a success, with "Future Times/Rejoice" as a good example of the band's new approach and praised White and Squire as a rhythm section.

Pond was critical of "Arriving UFO" and "Circus of Heaven", which he considered are overwhelmed by "studio trickery and sound effects".

[54] Yes biographer Chris Welch said the weakest thing about the album is the production quality, typified by a compressed and dull sound.

The tour featured the band performing in-the-round with a six-ton circular revolving stage placed in the middle of the arena that cost £50,000 to build, with a 360-degree lighting and sound system fitted above it.

[61] Yes entered the stage to different pieces, including The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky, The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten, and an excerpt from the soundtrack to Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

[62] The tour marked the group's tenth anniversary, and the band performed a 30-minute medley that included excerpts from as far back as their debut album, Yes (1969).