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Haven't reviewed an album for a long time,and tonight is another no-sleeper. (and I've gone on about Clutch for long enough, give them a rest for a bit).
So, Tool.
They are a rare thing, an intelligent and verbal rock band.
In an age where 30yr old men wear baseball caps and shout about "Give me something to break", Tool prefer to stand in the shadows and whisper threats at you whilst smiling and pretending they like you.
The manner in which the band are listed on the 1st album's inlay gives you an idea about where they come from:
Danny Carey - membranophones (drummer)
Paul D'Amour - bottom feeder (bassist)
Adam Jones - bastardometer (guitarist)
Maynard James Keenan - mostresticator (singer)
They are deliberately vague and obscure with their music. No lyrics are re-printed and Keenan's vocals are buried deep in the mix, with inflection designed to make it hard to understand what he's saying.
Tool's power comes from just as much what they don't do as to what they do.
The bass is treated like a lead-instrument whilst the guitar is happy to pick out the odd line or noise. The drums never, ever stick an obvious time-signature (Carey is a trained jazz-drummer)
But it's Maynard James Keenan that gives Tool it's edge.
His voice is gently and soft. 1st time I heard him, I thought he was a little kid or an effeminate guy.
But he has the ability to go from a lulling voice singing "You lie cheat and steal how can I tolerate you?" to screaming "Our guilt, our blood, our blame, I've been far too sympathetic" in the same breath.
He can be calming and whispering, to outright rage and fear with what appears to be little effort.
They deal with subject matter that most bands would never be able to approach.
Child abuse by parents (Prison Sex), expressing the desire to murder an ex-girlfriend (Crawl Away), the fear of repeating the cycle of abuse towards your own child (h) or the realisation that a friend/loved one can treat you like a fool and you refuse to see it.
Tool aren't easy listening, but that's their appeal.
You want to go shout along and grin inanely, go buy Limp Bizkit.
You want to be challenged? You want to hear and feel emotions that are probably best left buried sometimes? Then check out Tool.
Tool treats it's music like art, everything they do is geared toward emotion and a feeling evoked by them.
Their CDs are art, not just packaging.
Guitarist Adam Jones did special effect work on films like T2, Jurassic Park and The Fly, he takes the main creative duties with paintings and directing the videos.
But even if it's just the CD artwork, no band takes as much time as Tool does.
Check out Lateralus for the most original design you'll see in a long time.
Undertow - their 1st album.
Dark, dense and willfully...well...dirty. Not in a porno way, but in a grimy, seedy and plain unsavoury way.
The artwork has a pig on forks (Jones' own pet pig), band-members in painful poses..all goes to create a feel of unease and unsettling discomfort.
Songs about child abuse, distrust, fear, loathing and self-disgust. They confront things you'd like to ignore and put a soundtrack to them.
An awesome journey through the dark sides of your mind.
Aenima - 2nd album.
Once more we are amongst the more sinister and unpleasent aspects of life.
Songs about wishing to see LA get drowned in a flood, the fear of repeating abuse patterns towards your own children and so on. But there are also songs about transcending human boundaries and attaining a higher level of being, the possibilities of mind-expanding drugs and a song about Bill Hicks.
Lateralus - 3rd and latest album.
An album of hope, over-coming previous trauma, moving forward and evolving to the next plane of existance..a departure from previous Tool efforts, but still unmistakabely Tool.
And they utilise sound betwen songs to create an atmosphere.
Be it electrical storms, barely audible tribal chants or baby cries over distorted rumblings.
Every single little detail of their albums work toward making you a part of the music.
Think Radiohead crossed with H R Geiger, throw in The Doors and Jacob's Ladder and you might be close to understanding just why Tool are one of the few rock bands that matter.
I'll leave you with the final section from "Disgustipated", the last track from Undertow. A 17 minute song with no music. There is a long monologue done in the style of a Southern Baptist Preacher, then 7 mins of cricket noise (nothing else), before this is heard. It sounds like someone on a phone from the middle of nowhere, just a disembodied voice, speaking slowly, lowly and quietly.
"It was daylight when you woke up in your ditch. You looked up at your sky then.
That made blue be your color.
You had your knife there with you too.
When you stood up there was goo all over your clothes. Your hands were sticky.
You wiped them on your grass, so now your color was green. Oh Lord, why did everything always have to keep changing like this?
You were already getting nervous again.
Your head hurt and it rang when you stood up.
Your head was almost empty. It always hurt you when you woke up like this.
You crawled up out of your ditch onto your gravel road and began to walk, waiting for the rest of your mind to come back to you. You can see the car parked far down the road and you walked toward it.
"If God is our Father," you thought, "then Satan must be our cousin." Why didn't anyone else understand these important things?
You got to your car and tried all the doors. They were locked. It was a red car and it was new. There was an expensive leather camera case laying on the seat.
Out across your field, you could see two tiny people walking by your woods. You began to walk towards them.
Now red was your color and, of course, those little people out there were yours too."
So, Tool.
They are a rare thing, an intelligent and verbal rock band.
In an age where 30yr old men wear baseball caps and shout about "Give me something to break", Tool prefer to stand in the shadows and whisper threats at you whilst smiling and pretending they like you.
The manner in which the band are listed on the 1st album's inlay gives you an idea about where they come from:
Danny Carey - membranophones (drummer)
Paul D'Amour - bottom feeder (bassist)
Adam Jones - bastardometer (guitarist)
Maynard James Keenan - mostresticator (singer)
They are deliberately vague and obscure with their music. No lyrics are re-printed and Keenan's vocals are buried deep in the mix, with inflection designed to make it hard to understand what he's saying.
Tool's power comes from just as much what they don't do as to what they do.
The bass is treated like a lead-instrument whilst the guitar is happy to pick out the odd line or noise. The drums never, ever stick an obvious time-signature (Carey is a trained jazz-drummer)
But it's Maynard James Keenan that gives Tool it's edge.
His voice is gently and soft. 1st time I heard him, I thought he was a little kid or an effeminate guy.
But he has the ability to go from a lulling voice singing "You lie cheat and steal how can I tolerate you?" to screaming "Our guilt, our blood, our blame, I've been far too sympathetic" in the same breath.
He can be calming and whispering, to outright rage and fear with what appears to be little effort.
They deal with subject matter that most bands would never be able to approach.
Child abuse by parents (Prison Sex), expressing the desire to murder an ex-girlfriend (Crawl Away), the fear of repeating the cycle of abuse towards your own child (h) or the realisation that a friend/loved one can treat you like a fool and you refuse to see it.
Tool aren't easy listening, but that's their appeal.
You want to go shout along and grin inanely, go buy Limp Bizkit.
You want to be challenged? You want to hear and feel emotions that are probably best left buried sometimes? Then check out Tool.
Tool treats it's music like art, everything they do is geared toward emotion and a feeling evoked by them.
Their CDs are art, not just packaging.
Guitarist Adam Jones did special effect work on films like T2, Jurassic Park and The Fly, he takes the main creative duties with paintings and directing the videos.
But even if it's just the CD artwork, no band takes as much time as Tool does.
Check out Lateralus for the most original design you'll see in a long time.
Undertow - their 1st album.
Dark, dense and willfully...well...dirty. Not in a porno way, but in a grimy, seedy and plain unsavoury way.
The artwork has a pig on forks (Jones' own pet pig), band-members in painful poses..all goes to create a feel of unease and unsettling discomfort.
Songs about child abuse, distrust, fear, loathing and self-disgust. They confront things you'd like to ignore and put a soundtrack to them.
An awesome journey through the dark sides of your mind.
Aenima - 2nd album.
Once more we are amongst the more sinister and unpleasent aspects of life.
Songs about wishing to see LA get drowned in a flood, the fear of repeating abuse patterns towards your own children and so on. But there are also songs about transcending human boundaries and attaining a higher level of being, the possibilities of mind-expanding drugs and a song about Bill Hicks.
Lateralus - 3rd and latest album.
An album of hope, over-coming previous trauma, moving forward and evolving to the next plane of existance..a departure from previous Tool efforts, but still unmistakabely Tool.
And they utilise sound betwen songs to create an atmosphere.
Be it electrical storms, barely audible tribal chants or baby cries over distorted rumblings.
Every single little detail of their albums work toward making you a part of the music.
Think Radiohead crossed with H R Geiger, throw in The Doors and Jacob's Ladder and you might be close to understanding just why Tool are one of the few rock bands that matter.
I'll leave you with the final section from "Disgustipated", the last track from Undertow. A 17 minute song with no music. There is a long monologue done in the style of a Southern Baptist Preacher, then 7 mins of cricket noise (nothing else), before this is heard. It sounds like someone on a phone from the middle of nowhere, just a disembodied voice, speaking slowly, lowly and quietly.
"It was daylight when you woke up in your ditch. You looked up at your sky then.
That made blue be your color.
You had your knife there with you too.
When you stood up there was goo all over your clothes. Your hands were sticky.
You wiped them on your grass, so now your color was green. Oh Lord, why did everything always have to keep changing like this?
You were already getting nervous again.
Your head hurt and it rang when you stood up.
Your head was almost empty. It always hurt you when you woke up like this.
You crawled up out of your ditch onto your gravel road and began to walk, waiting for the rest of your mind to come back to you. You can see the car parked far down the road and you walked toward it.
"If God is our Father," you thought, "then Satan must be our cousin." Why didn't anyone else understand these important things?
You got to your car and tried all the doors. They were locked. It was a red car and it was new. There was an expensive leather camera case laying on the seat.
Out across your field, you could see two tiny people walking by your woods. You began to walk towards them.
Now red was your color and, of course, those little people out there were yours too."
Haven't reviewed an album for a long time,and tonight is another no-sleeper. (and I've gone on about Clutch for long enough, give them a rest for a bit).
So, Tool.
They are a rare thing, an intelligent and verbal rock band.
In an age where 30yr old men wear baseball caps and shout about "Give me something to break", Tool prefer to stand in the shadows and whisper threats at you whilst smiling and pretending they like you.
The manner in which the band are listed on the 1st album's inlay gives you an idea about where they come from:
Danny Carey - membranophones (drummer)
Paul D'Amour - bottom feeder (bassist)
Adam Jones - bastardometer (guitarist)
Maynard James Keenan - mostresticator (singer)
They are deliberately vague and obscure with their music. No lyrics are re-printed and Keenan's vocals are buried deep in the mix, with inflection designed to make it hard to understand what he's saying.
Tool's power comes from just as much what they don't do as to what they do.
The bass is treated like a lead-instrument whilst the guitar is happy to pick out the odd line or noise. The drums never, ever stick an obvious time-signature (Carey is a trained jazz-drummer)
But it's Maynard James Keenan that gives Tool it's edge.
His voice is gently and soft. 1st time I heard him, I thought he was a little kid or an effeminate guy.
But he has the ability to go from a lulling voice singing "You lie cheat and steal how can I tolerate you?" to screaming "Our guilt, our blood, our blame, I've been far too sympathetic" in the same breath.
He can be calming and whispering, to outright rage and fear with what appears to be little effort.
They deal with subject matter that most bands would never be able to approach.
Child abuse by parents (Prison Sex), expressing the desire to murder an ex-girlfriend (Crawl Away), the fear of repeating the cycle of abuse towards your own child (h) or the realisation that a friend/loved one can treat you like a fool and you refuse to see it.
Tool aren't easy listening, but that's their appeal.
You want to go shout along and grin inanely, go buy Limp Bizkit.
You want to be challenged? You want to hear and feel emotions that are probably best left buried sometimes? Then check out Tool.
Tool treats it's music like art, everything they do is geared toward emotion and a feeling evoked by them.
Their CDs are art, not just packaging.
Guitarist Adam Jones did special effect work on films like T2, Jurassic Park and The Fly, he takes the main creative duties with paintings and directing the videos.
But even if it's just the CD artwork, no band takes as much time as Tool does.
Check out Lateralus for the most original design you'll see in a long time.
Undertow - their 1st album.
Dark, dense and willfully...well...dirty. Not in a porno way, but in a grimy, seedy and plain unsavoury way.
The artwork has a pig on forks (Jones' own pet pig), band-members in painful poses..all goes to create a feel of unease and unsettling discomfort.
Songs about child abuse, distrust, fear, loathing and self-disgust. They confront things you'd like to ignore and put a soundtrack to them.
An awesome journey through the dark sides of your mind.
Aenima - 2nd album.
Once more we are amongst the more sinister and unpleasent aspects of life.
Songs about wishing to see LA get drowned in a flood, the fear of repeating abuse patterns towards your own children and so on. But there are also songs about transcending human boundaries and attaining a higher level of being, the possibilities of mind-expanding drugs and a song about Bill Hicks.
Lateralus - 3rd and latest album.
An album of hope, over-coming previous trauma, moving forward and evolving to the next plane of existance..a departure from previous Tool efforts, but still unmistakabely Tool.
And they utilise sound betwen songs to create an atmosphere.
Be it electrical storms, barely audible tribal chants or baby cries over distorted rumblings.
Every single little detail of their albums work toward making you a part of the music.
Think Radiohead crossed with H R Geiger, throw in The Doors and Jacob's Ladder and you might be close to understanding just why Tool are one of the few rock bands that matter.
I'll leave you with the final section from "Disgustipated", the last track from Undertow. A 17 minute song with no music. There is a long monologue done in the style of a Southern Baptist Preacher, then 7 mins of cricket noise (nothing else), before this is heard. It sounds like someone on a phone from the middle of nowhere, just a disembodied voice, speaking slowly, lowly and quietly.
"It was daylight when you woke up in your ditch. You looked up at your sky then.
That made blue be your color.
You had your knife there with you too.
When you stood up there was goo all over your clothes. Your hands were sticky.
You wiped them on your grass, so now your color was green. Oh Lord, why did everything always have to keep changing like this?
You were already getting nervous again.
Your head hurt and it rang when you stood up.
Your head was almost empty. It always hurt you when you woke up like this.
You crawled up out of your ditch onto your gravel road and began to walk, waiting for the rest of your mind to come back to you. You can see the car parked far down the road and you walked toward it.
"If God is our Father," you thought, "then Satan must be our cousin." Why didn't anyone else understand these important things?
You got to your car and tried all the doors. They were locked. It was a red car and it was new. There was an expensive leather camera case laying on the seat.
Out across your field, you could see two tiny people walking by your woods. You began to walk towards them.
Now red was your color and, of course, those little people out there were yours too."
So, Tool.
They are a rare thing, an intelligent and verbal rock band.
In an age where 30yr old men wear baseball caps and shout about "Give me something to break", Tool prefer to stand in the shadows and whisper threats at you whilst smiling and pretending they like you.
The manner in which the band are listed on the 1st album's inlay gives you an idea about where they come from:
Danny Carey - membranophones (drummer)
Paul D'Amour - bottom feeder (bassist)
Adam Jones - bastardometer (guitarist)
Maynard James Keenan - mostresticator (singer)
They are deliberately vague and obscure with their music. No lyrics are re-printed and Keenan's vocals are buried deep in the mix, with inflection designed to make it hard to understand what he's saying.
Tool's power comes from just as much what they don't do as to what they do.
The bass is treated like a lead-instrument whilst the guitar is happy to pick out the odd line or noise. The drums never, ever stick an obvious time-signature (Carey is a trained jazz-drummer)
But it's Maynard James Keenan that gives Tool it's edge.
His voice is gently and soft. 1st time I heard him, I thought he was a little kid or an effeminate guy.
But he has the ability to go from a lulling voice singing "You lie cheat and steal how can I tolerate you?" to screaming "Our guilt, our blood, our blame, I've been far too sympathetic" in the same breath.
He can be calming and whispering, to outright rage and fear with what appears to be little effort.
They deal with subject matter that most bands would never be able to approach.
Child abuse by parents (Prison Sex), expressing the desire to murder an ex-girlfriend (Crawl Away), the fear of repeating the cycle of abuse towards your own child (h) or the realisation that a friend/loved one can treat you like a fool and you refuse to see it.
Tool aren't easy listening, but that's their appeal.
You want to go shout along and grin inanely, go buy Limp Bizkit.
You want to be challenged? You want to hear and feel emotions that are probably best left buried sometimes? Then check out Tool.
Tool treats it's music like art, everything they do is geared toward emotion and a feeling evoked by them.
Their CDs are art, not just packaging.
Guitarist Adam Jones did special effect work on films like T2, Jurassic Park and The Fly, he takes the main creative duties with paintings and directing the videos.
But even if it's just the CD artwork, no band takes as much time as Tool does.
Check out Lateralus for the most original design you'll see in a long time.
Undertow - their 1st album.
Dark, dense and willfully...well...dirty. Not in a porno way, but in a grimy, seedy and plain unsavoury way.
The artwork has a pig on forks (Jones' own pet pig), band-members in painful poses..all goes to create a feel of unease and unsettling discomfort.
Songs about child abuse, distrust, fear, loathing and self-disgust. They confront things you'd like to ignore and put a soundtrack to them.
An awesome journey through the dark sides of your mind.
Aenima - 2nd album.
Once more we are amongst the more sinister and unpleasent aspects of life.
Songs about wishing to see LA get drowned in a flood, the fear of repeating abuse patterns towards your own children and so on. But there are also songs about transcending human boundaries and attaining a higher level of being, the possibilities of mind-expanding drugs and a song about Bill Hicks.
Lateralus - 3rd and latest album.
An album of hope, over-coming previous trauma, moving forward and evolving to the next plane of existance..a departure from previous Tool efforts, but still unmistakabely Tool.
And they utilise sound betwen songs to create an atmosphere.
Be it electrical storms, barely audible tribal chants or baby cries over distorted rumblings.
Every single little detail of their albums work toward making you a part of the music.
Think Radiohead crossed with H R Geiger, throw in The Doors and Jacob's Ladder and you might be close to understanding just why Tool are one of the few rock bands that matter.
I'll leave you with the final section from "Disgustipated", the last track from Undertow. A 17 minute song with no music. There is a long monologue done in the style of a Southern Baptist Preacher, then 7 mins of cricket noise (nothing else), before this is heard. It sounds like someone on a phone from the middle of nowhere, just a disembodied voice, speaking slowly, lowly and quietly.
"It was daylight when you woke up in your ditch. You looked up at your sky then.
That made blue be your color.
You had your knife there with you too.
When you stood up there was goo all over your clothes. Your hands were sticky.
You wiped them on your grass, so now your color was green. Oh Lord, why did everything always have to keep changing like this?
You were already getting nervous again.
Your head hurt and it rang when you stood up.
Your head was almost empty. It always hurt you when you woke up like this.
You crawled up out of your ditch onto your gravel road and began to walk, waiting for the rest of your mind to come back to you. You can see the car parked far down the road and you walked toward it.
"If God is our Father," you thought, "then Satan must be our cousin." Why didn't anyone else understand these important things?
You got to your car and tried all the doors. They were locked. It was a red car and it was new. There was an expensive leather camera case laying on the seat.
Out across your field, you could see two tiny people walking by your woods. You began to walk towards them.
Now red was your color and, of course, those little people out there were yours too."
Funny, I was listening to Aenima on the way to work this morning.
What an album.
What an album.
PARABOLA
We barely remember who or what came before this precious moment,
We are choosing to be here right now. Hold on, stay inside
This holy reality, this holy experience.
Choosing to be here in
This body. This body holding me. Be my reminder here that I am not alone in
This body, this body holding me, feeling eternal
All this pain is an illusion.
Alive, I
In this holy reality, in this holy experience. Choosing to be here in
This body. This body holding me. Be my reminder here that I am not alone in
This body, this body holding me, feeling eternal
All this pain is an illusion.
Twirling round with this familiar parable.
Spinning, weaving round each new experience.
Recognize this as a holy gift and celebrate this chance to be alive and breathing.
This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality.
Embrace this moment. Remember. We are eternal.
All this pain is an illusion.
We barely remember who or what came before this precious moment,
We are choosing to be here right now. Hold on, stay inside
This holy reality, this holy experience.
Choosing to be here in
This body. This body holding me. Be my reminder here that I am not alone in
This body, this body holding me, feeling eternal
All this pain is an illusion.
Alive, I
In this holy reality, in this holy experience. Choosing to be here in
This body. This body holding me. Be my reminder here that I am not alone in
This body, this body holding me, feeling eternal
All this pain is an illusion.
Twirling round with this familiar parable.
Spinning, weaving round each new experience.
Recognize this as a holy gift and celebrate this chance to be alive and breathing.
This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality.
Embrace this moment. Remember. We are eternal.
All this pain is an illusion.