TOOL

I was a Tool fan long before I became a prog nut, before even AENIMA hit the shelves. My band banged along to two-chord "Sober" for hours on end, and I learn a lot about jamming based simply on rhythm and your own muse. AENIMA was exactly what we young metalheads expected: a twisted, strange ball of angst with some of the most simultaneously literate and nasty lyrics in existence. Then the band was apparently gone (contract disputes) and one day I stumbled upon the first Perfect Circle album. I thought I'd found heaven. Textural goth metal, but without the minimalism (especially on guitar) that was my biggest beef with Tool. MER DE NOMS filled my eardrums over and over. So it was that when I heard that Tool was coming back with another album, I had extremely high expectations. I expected that Maynard's vocals would take a huge step forward due to the increased melodicism of APC, that we'd get more texture in the guitars, more fullness in the sound.

I heard the first single "Schism" played on the radio before I got the album. It was not what I expected. The riff was prototypical Tool but more intricate. Maynard's voice was no longer buried in the mix, but still within his Tool style. The lyrics displayed emotion and intelligence without simply being intentionally deviant. I was encouraged and I bought the album. I was almost entirely disappointed. The disc sat in my car CD player for a long time, but nothing on it grabbed me by the seat of my pants and threw me against the wall as AENIMA and MER DE NOMS had. Tool were no longer dangerous. Worse, they were starting to get boring. Though "Ticks and Leeches" drew on some of the anger that was the Maynard and Tool trademark, the band just didn't have the emotional impact without the depravity of "Stinkfist" or "Magdalena." Personally, after hearing Maynard sing against Billy Howerdel's guitar textures on APC, Adam Jones' playing (though better than previous albums) just seemed bland. I actually lost the album during a move, or maybe I sold it. I can't even remember. Some years later, 10,000 DAYS came out and I loved it. But that's another review.

When I discovered ProgArchives, I was shocked to find LATERALUS at #1 in the Post-Metal genre and ranked in the top 100 prog albums of all time. This made me think maybe I'd missed something, that I needed to give the album another chance. I borrowed my brother's copy (who knows, maybe it was actually mine) and after a few listens liked it quite a bit better than I had initially. At the same time, there was so much new music to explore that I really didn't immerse myself in the album until now.

LATERALUS, after multiple listens, is drummer Danny Carey's album. That is decidedly a good thing. He is the most talented player of his instrument in the band, and his interest in numerology and sacred geometry permeates the group's music. The progressiveness that Tool displays is almost all derived from the complex time signatures and polyrhythms Carey loves. Bassist Justin Chancellor has developed a genre-defining style to accompany this style, first seen on AENIMA but reaching its zenith on LATERALUS. Early in the 21st century, prowess as a bass player was often displayed by playing Chancellor's riffs, most frequently "Schism." While Tool has often been placed in the grunge camp, this rhythmic style (the entire basis for their sound) really has very little to do with grunge. The precision and complexity of the rhythm section is completely at odds with the garage ethos of the Seattle crew. The mathematical nature of this sound is at least half of the key to whether a listener likes Tool or not. If the strange counting of "Schism" makes your spine start to twist in a helical sway, you're likely a fan. If you find the repetitive figures boring, it's unlikely that Tool is going to be your band.

There is a middle ground, however, and I find it common among musicians. Most everyone agrees that Tool's rhythm section is superb, at minimum Carey. But it is with the founding leaders of the band that opinions begin to diverge. Maynard James Keenan is one of the pre-eminent frontmen in the last 20 years. When one thinks of a lead singer as a theatric performer rather than just a sound-maker, it is easy to understand Maynard and the band's popularity. His costumes, cagey demeanor, simultaneous inward and exhibitionist artistic style, are all classic characteristics of rock's greatest dating back to at least Jim Morrison. But like Morrison, Keenan's actual vocal abilities are limited. While he carries a tune without problem, he draws repeatedly on the same melodic ideas. Further, those ideas are often not that evocative. He is able to find interesting rhythmic places to sing above Carey's foundation, and his emotive capacity is good. But as a pure vocalist, he's simply limited. LATERALUS shows him more in the forefront without the annoying mix problems of the previous albums, but there are no great hooks here besides perhaps the "I know the pieces fit, cause I watched them fall away."

This brings me to guitarist Adam Jones. Perhaps no prominent metal band has had a less intersting guitarist than Jones. His role early in the band's career seemed limited to mild embellishments of the grooves set up by Carey and Chancellor. While most bands are criticized because the bass player simply follows the guitars, in Tool, it's the other way around. Jones does add sustained notes of various tonalities (wah, feedback, slide) that serve the function of pads (ambient sounds) but there are essentially no leads. To say it a little more clearly, his guitars serve no melodic or rhythmic purpose, and their harmonic role is only limited. To be fair, his role has improved with every album and I think it's actually best on 10,000 DAYS (probably why I like it most, being a guitarist.) On LATERALUS, he finally takes an independent role in some places, vastly improving from AENIMA. Again, the contrast between his minimalism and the experimental textures of Billy Howerdel (previously his guitar tech) of MER DE NOMS is like comparing a black and white sketch to a color painting. While black and white can be powerful in certain artistic situations, it limits the artist severely. In Jones and Tool's case, some color would have helped.

My favorite parts of LATERALUS are rhythmic: Carey's drum break in "Ticks and Leeches," the tribalistic toms of "Reflection," and the intertwining pieces of "Schism." The album is more complete and consistent by far than any of the previous albums. Unlike AENIMA, I can listen to it straight through and turn around and do it again. The members seem to be drawing on their own artistic creativity rather than shock value, which is certainly something to be admired. In addition, the band is pushing their personal ideals (regarding mathematical concepts) on this album more than any other. I appreciate the album much more after the additional listens I've given it for this review.

But there is still something a little cold about the album. Too much brain, not enough heart. An admirable effort and an important piece of metal history. 3-4 stars out of 5, rounded toward to the center.

It took me a couple of months to really understand this album. There were a one or two stand out tracks, but over a period of time all the songs seemed to just get better. Parts of the songs (and even whole songs) that were originally meaningless (and unheard) seemed to open before me as if I were on a journey, and certain knowledge would only present itself when I was ready to understand it. It was a strange experience and one that has been totally unique in my musical explorations. Now I should explain why I only gave It 4 stars.

As a whole the album is pretty perfect. there are however, when listening, a few tracks I skip through. Mainly all the 'filler' tracks, eon blue apocalypse, mantra et al (they were irritating on aenima although they arent as intrusive on lateralus) also ticks and leeches, disposition and reflection (as a drummer I know ticks... is a good song, but it irritates me) disposition and relection are sleepy time songs and when I listen to Tool I don't want to sleep! The other songs however are outstanding. The title track is to my mind one of only a few 'perfect' songs that I have ever heard (acres wild by Jethro Tull being one that springs to mind). The other songs on the album are pretty faultless though. In short I gave it 4 stars because while most of the album is indeed perfect, there are parts that I can't say I like all that much. This is however the best album that Tool have made, they seem to have taken a retrograde step with 10,000 days (a fact that has been stated by the band in interviews) and I can only hope that their next album will be building on Lateralus rather than their other material.

Personally I could listen to the title track every day for the rest of my life and never get bored, and that is a privilege reserved for very few songs indeed. A truly great album, but flawed in a very small way. 5 stars would be a perfect album, this is as close to perfect as I ever hope to find. ENJOY!

As a foot note, there were rumours of an 'alternate' track listing to the one on the album. Called the 'holy gift' it was a tracklisting based on the fibonacci sequence. Just Google 'the depth of lateralus' to find the explanation....

The alternate track listing is 6,7,5,8,4,13,1,12,2,11,3,10. I burned this off as a cd, and the music did seem to flow in a more 'continous' manner. The only problem is, is that the band are known for their disinformation and hoaxes, so was this just a product of an overactive imagination? You decide......

So what are the three Tool tricks? The first is obvious: continuous quiet-loud dynamics. My guess is somebody told them it's a proggy thing to do so they started applying it all over the place. I'm not sure though if they really understood the essence of it. On a real prog album there are like 99 levels of volume and intensity inbetween loud and quiet. Not here, what Tool does is mostly an all or nothing attack, either deafening or hushed. This wouldn't have been a bad thing as such, hadn't the raucous moments been as pointless and annoying as the gentle moments are tedious.

The second trick is those short looping bass lines. Songs have little development and next to no melody. Not that that is a necessary feature for me but Tool fails to complement that absence with elements that could replace it, basic musical ingredients such as rhythm, emotion and sound. On emotion we can be very short, there is not much of it, mainly due to Maynard's lifeless vocals, the playing is generally adequate and focussed though. On sound there is little interesting to say, it's the basic drum-bass-guitar rock sound with little experimentation. Regarding rhythm, a more elaborate argument might be appropriate. Rhythm is an important aspect in Tool's music and they aren't too bad at it. This is a band for lovers of bass guitar and drums and this album might deliver for those people. I even find myself enjoying some of it here.

The third typical Tool feature is their lack of talent to come up with anything memorable, and if they do, to keep repeating it for intolerable lengths. I can play each song here 10 times in a row and still not remember one thing about it, except for the fact that it sounded exactly like all the previous ones.

Now, all this criticism doesn't apply to all songs. I just thought it might be interesting to have some Tool fans registering here especially to bash me. The first track The Grudge for example easily surpasses all their shortcomings and is an entirely convincing piece with acceptable dynamics, some catchy riffing, enough ideas for 8.30 minutes and even some real excitement at the end of it. Also Parabola is an acceptable piece of grunge rock and Reflection has always moved me with its brooding dark atmosphere and Eastern flavours. Most other tracks, The Patience and Schism to name just two prove all points I wanted to make: repetitive riffs, inadequate vocals, uninspired melodies and anonymous compositions.

The album has enough moments to push it towards 2 stars, but this is not great prog, nor great metal or rock, maybe it's adequate alternative rock but essentially it isn't much of anything really. Its main value is that it testifies of Tool's defiance to do what they want to do, not to follow trends but to create them. It's something I can always appreciate in an artist and it makes me add - a bit begrudgingly admitted - an extra flattering star.

TOOL's first album is somewhat different from the typical TOOL album: it's still progressive metal, but with a great deal of weirdness. Undertow is their most ''straightforward'' album to date. There is more emphasis on a metal sound, (hey they got Henry Rollins of BLACK FLAG fame doing guest vocals on ''Bottom''), although the spirit of experimentalism is present in this album, in the form of the ultimately disappointing 15-minute epic ''Disgustipated''. Apparently the industrial sounds from this track are the result of the band using shotguns to destroy a couple of pianos in a parking garage. On the other hand, a couple of the band's best known songs ''Prison Sex'' and ''Sober'' are enjoyable to listen to, but are not on the same level as future releases.

Not really for this album though. After the festival, I systematically foraged record stores till this debut was finally available. I couldn't be more disappointed. None of the live energy of this band had been captured in the recording of this album. All songs sound like each others clone and the performance is so lifeless that things rarely get off the ground. Apart from the opener, only Sober and Swamp Song rise out above the unremarkable murk that surrounds them. Sober especially manages to build up quite a tension. Other material like Prison Sex may have become a hit but around the time of its release this had been done 100 times before by bands like Soundgarden and especially Mindfunk.

It always amazed me how Tool managed to become so popular. Not that they are not welcome to it, they are sincere musicians who always followed their heart. But I always thought them not really catchy enough for mainstream and not original and innovative enough for prog crowds. But as it turned out I'm very glad they introduced many youngsters to more challenging music and won many over to prog rock. But it would take Tool a few more years till they managed to record an album that sounded really convincing to me.

Eulogy goes further in experimenting and expanding the grunge format, adding weird sounds and effects. Despite this disguise, the music is still fairly straightforward grunge/stoner riffing known from acts like Soundgarden, Kyuss or Rage Against The Machine, who were actually a lot more innovative years before Aenima. But the biggest disappointment comes from the vocals again, both the soft musings of Maynard James Keenan and his hysteric outbursts leave me completely untouched. He's not bad but his vocal melodies are average and his delivery inexpressive and characterless. After the average H, Forty Six & 2 starts out better with an appealing bass loop and pensive vocals and moody effects. The heavier sections are predictable but the rhythmic qualities keep this song going.

Another grudge I have with this album is the monotony of the material. Hooker with a Penis applies exactly the same approach as all other songs: rhythmic percussion, nicely circling bass, unremarkable grunge guitars and vocals alternating between quiet and loud as if by prescription. I usually don't get any further in this album then Jimmy, an ok song but I'm long worn out by the time it comes along. I'm actually worn out reviewing as well now so the remainder will be for your own discovery.

Be not mistaken, Tool is an interesting and important band that might work just fine for you. For me, their first two albums offer nothing that the previous generation of grunge bands hadn't done much better years before. So I was most pleasantly surprised when Tool's next albums finally evolved towards stunning and challenging music.

Still this album has so far received a lot more time in my CD-player than Lateralus and I'm still excited every time I listen to it!

***** star songs: Vicarious (7:08) Wings For Marie (Pt 1) (6:13) 10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2) (11:15)

**** star songs: Jambi (7:30) The Pot (6:24) Rosetta Stoned (11:13) Right In Two (8:57)

*** star songs: Lipan Conjuring (1:13) Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann) (3:48) Intension (7:23) Viginti Tres (5:02)

Yes, there are a few forgetting compositions but when this album is good it's really good. The Grudge is a real killer of an opening track. Parabol/Parabola with it's great video is a true gem in Tool's discography and Lateralus almost reaches the level of the title track off Ænima.

Overall it a mixed bag that still manages to get a spin or two every year so my grade is good, but non-essential.

***** star songs: The Grudge (8:36) Parabol (3:04) Parabola (6:03)

**** star songs: Eon Blue Apocalypse (1:04) Schism (6:47) Ticks & Leeches (8:10) Lateralus (9:24) Disposition (4:46) Reflection (11:07)

*** star songs: The Patient (7:14) Mantra (1:12) Triad (8:46)

** star songs: Faaip De Oiad (2:05)

I think that the cover of No Quarter is very appropriate here since this whole album is basically the live album we weren't expecting, just like Led Zeppelin album The Song Remains The Same.

**** star songs: Third Eye (14:05) Pu[&*!#] (13:56) Merkaba (9:49) L.A.M.C / Maynard's Dick (10:53)

*** star songs: Part Of Me (3:32) Message To Harry Manback II (1:14) You Lied (9:47) No Quarter (11:12)

This was the first time Tool introduced small interludes between their compositions. All of these fillers that will become somewhat unnecessary on their later releases actually work magnificently here since they create transitions and set the mood for the upcoming compositions.

There are many highlights starting with the tour de force of the first three tracks and ending with the wonderful Third Eye. Yes, I have always had a soft spot for the great final track Third Eye, unfortunately listening to it today didn't really hit the note for me. Still it by no means lowers the overall quality of Ænima, an album that everyone should hear.

***** star songs: Stinkfist (5:11) Eulogy (8:28) H. (6:07) Forty Six & 2 (6:04) Intermission (0:56) Pu[&*!#] (9:55) Ænema (6:39)

**** star songs: Useful Idiot (0:38) Message To Harry Manback (1:53) Hooker With A Penis (4:33) Jimmy (5:24) Die Eier Von Satan (2:17) Cesaro Summability (1:26) (-) Ions (4:00) Third Eye (13:47)