I was a really big fan of Tool when Undertow first came out. I picked up a copy of Opiate soon after that and listened to them both for a few years and liked them a lot.
Not long before Aenima came out, I was getting a little worn out on the first two albums. It’s not that I didn’t like them anymore, I was just taking a break from having them in my regular rotatation and listening to different things. So when the new album came out, I didn’t buy it right away. Sure, I heard most of it because everyone besides me in the free world owned it, but I never got super intimate with it.
Then the rabid fans started multiplying like March hares and I couldn’t handle people screaming at me to go buy the album “NOW!” every time they found out I didn’t have it. The fans of this band, while loyal, seem to be just about the most annoying (not to mention clueless) people on the planet. Just as all this rage was starting to die down and I was about to buy Aenima, they went and released Lateralus and Maynard did an album (or was it two albums?) with another group and it started all over again.
Now it’s been a couple of years and the waters are calming down again. I found my old Opiate cd and borrowed a copy of Undertow from a friend and I’m really getting into Tool again. I’m pretty familiar with Aenima but I still haven’t bought it to this day. I think I’ve only heard one song from Lateralus and maybe two A Perfect Circle songs.
So, after…(has it been a decade since Undertow :eek:?)…ahem, all this time, I think I’m going to try to rediscover this band whose fans have kept me away for the last several years.
I liked “undertow”, but always thought “opiate” was a bit boring and typical. The reason I like Tool is that they’re artier, more intelligent and more conceptually and sonically creative than other bands in their genre.
“Aenima” was brilliant, and really sold me on them. What an album! But “lateralus” was really a mess - the band’s proggish tendencies took over, rather than being a nice garnish. The songs were overlong, pretentious, chorus-less, overconsciously “epic”, and one song in paritcular (i can’t remember the title) actually had a chorus of “suck it!”- the type of mindless, testosterone date-rape metal that Tool were so great for not being.
Since then (and especially the fans’ indiscriminate acceptance of that turd of an album), I’ve been soured on them.
I’m listening to Tool right now - ‘Eulogy’ off Aenima. iTunes random selecta rather than conscious choice, but hey.
I only have Aenima. I’ve heard all the others, but its the only one I can listen to still with any enjoyment. I agree with Freejooky, Lateralus is a fairly boring mess. I must have listened to it about 8 times and always thought 'meh, it’s not kicking arse like say ‘Hooker with a Penis’ or ‘Aenima’ (the song) does, it just seems to endlessy amble on wthout focus. I prefer the Perfect Circle albums to be honest - I listen to those far more than Aenima these days anyway.
I like them, but not in the rabid ‘everything they do is godlike sense’. They seemed to have lost the sense of humour bit too.
I’ll come in defense of Lateralus. Admittedly, it’s a bit overlong and the band does get long-winded, but I think it’s really a great album. Basically, what they did was take the really prog-rock tendencies found on their earlier albums and played them up. Sometimes it really works, sometimes it doesn’t work as well. The album is worth the price of admission for “Disposition” and “Reflection” alone, in my opinion.
Also, about the “suck it” chorus … well … in the context of the song, it’s not as bad as it sounds. The song itself is called “Ticks and Leeches”, so that tells you right off what the sucking refers to (not sexual). Not one of my favorite tracks, but it’s okay.
“Ticks And Leeches” is a song comparing someone to a bloodsucking parasite. That’s immediately obvious from the lyrics. It’s certainly not “mindless date-rape metal”, whatever that is. And even though it’s missing a lot of the vitriol and bloodlust that marked their earlier albums, I’d say it’s the most typical Tool song on Lateralus.
Speaking of Lateralus: I don’ think it’s that bad an album, and it’s certainly not the worst progged-out mess I’ve ever heard (Spiral Architect, here’s looking at you), but I wish it had been Tool’s fourth full-length rather than their third–there should’ve been an album between Aenima and Lateralus to make the transition a little smoother.
Opiate certainly wasn’t great, although the title track had hints of what was to come, but as first EPs go, it’s not bad at all.
I’m a late comer to the game… *Lateralus *was actually what got me into Tool – *Schism *specifically. I heard it on the radio, fell in love immediately, bought Lateralus, and haven’t looked back since. Now they’re my favorite band with A Perfect Circle, Maynard’s other band, a close second. They’re both great bands and while I admit I can be a little enthusiastic in my praise of them, it’s just a gag. People that seriously consider Keenan to be a messiah (and there do seem to be a few) scare the hell out of me.
My favorite albums (both bands) are, in order: *Aenima *and Undertow; Mer De Noms; Lateralus; and Opiate. I’ve not got Salival, Tool’s live album, or APC’s The Thirteenth Step yet.
I’ve been meaning to and even asked for it for Christmas every year since it came out (two years? three?) but have yet to get around to getting it. Every time I have the money to get it, I’m never thinking about it and when I am, I never have the money.
What I really need to do is join BGM and take advantage of their “Buy one CD and get a hundred thousand more for a penny” deals since my CD collection as a whole is really lacking. I sold most of them to finance a move across the country and now only have about two dozen albums.
Bought Aenima and then went to see them a couple of times in concert. Aenima is about the only album that isn’t a ‘greatest hits’ album that I can listen to front to back without wanting to skip a song. Extremely creative, awsome drums,- mind numbing. Especially if your mind is halfway numb already. Rates up there with PinkFloyd’s ‘The Wall’ for enjoyability. I’ve probably listened to the cd a hundred times over the years and I still love it.
Buy it.
APC is pretty good too, 'cept the live show kind of sucked. I can get into any projects that involve Tool. Their sound is unique.
Agreed, but I see that as a bad thing. I liked Opiate and bits of Undertow, but after that they just got too turgid, proggy and pretentious for me - like you say, a heavy metal Pink Floyd. I got about half-way through Aenima and then sold it the next morning. Give me Ministry any day - or better still, Lard: The Last Temptation Of Reid is still the best neighbour-freaking album ever recorded. Which gives me an idea for a thread…
Also, a little off-topic, but the new single from A Perfect Circle’s Nov 2nd’s new covers/alternate versions album eMotive is available for listening on their webpage if you are interested. It’s a cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” - a different take on the track and I actually really like it. I’m now excited about the album’s release.