UNDERTOW

Metal is a genre I am fairly familiar with. Hard basses, slamming drums, shredding and hard guitars. However Metal and Rock co-exist together. One can balance itself onto another if so desired. Hard Rock - Hard Metal, Post Rock - Post Metal, Jazz Rock - Jazz Metal, the list goes on and on. This also applies to Prog Rock. There is Prog Rock bands and so there will be Prog Metal bands. One of the most inspiring and interesting of these Prog Metal bands is TOOL. Most people at least know TOOL for their albums 'Ænima' and 'Lateralus' but their first LP is also fairly well know and beloved, and for good reasons.

Undertow, released in 1993 is an album that I feel can be best described as a living, breathing, nightmare. The first track, Intolerance, showcases the band's sound. A sort of mix of No Wave, Metal, and Prog. It holds a lot of merits and details and textures within themselves. It's slow, rising, patient, but it is dark, horrifying, and grim. I think the best track on this album has to be Sober. It is the best track to introduce someone who hasn't heard this band. That guitar riff at the beginning of the song that goes around for most of the song. It's almost like it's own beat. It is incredibly calming but nightmare fuel, especially with the guitars, almost sounding like screams. This album keeps these nightmarish sounds until the last song, Disgustipated. This song is way different from anything else. It is more experimental, and kinda difficult too get through. It uses less guitars and more drums and has a sort of war song feeling, especially with the radio at the beginning sounding like a news caster talking about a war that is about too go down. Until the song devolves into this drone pitch that goes on for like 7 or 8 minutes. It's weird, it's creepy, it's almost like you are in the bottom of Hell kinda?and I think that is a big reason why this album is so beloved for me.

It's awesome how nightmarish and hellish these songs sound with their abrasive guitars and vocals and their complexities. It is like listening to those paintings of what the deadly sins represent. It's Satan on earth, and if Satan sounds this good, I am not complaining. I really really like this album.