Tool.

[Guest Fire and Knives]

Discuss.

 

K.

[Guest JRE]

Overrated. Their songs get old quick for me, doesn't seem to be a lot of variety, and Lateralus has always seemed over produced to me. But then again- I'm not too in to them...so I simply presented my reasons why.

[Guest Choken One]

I personally like APC more...Tool usually sounds over produced while APC has this nice blend and I like the vocals more on APC, while TOOL tends to distort it.

[Black Lushus 0]

I personally like APC more...Tool usually sounds over produced while APC has this nice blend and I like the vocals more on APC, while TOOL tends to distort it.

Choken, my old friend...I agree with you completely...3 Libras is one of my all time favorite songs...Mer De Noms is an awesome album...

[The Ill One 0]

I was actually playing "Schism" while I read this. Which isn't my favorite or the best song of theirs, but overall for me- Tool's a pretty good band. Not anywhere close to obsessive over them or A Perfect Circle but I really enjoy the few times I play all of Aenima or Lateralus. I don't mind the distortion, I don't listen too in depth for most my music, so a good ole' session of Tool for me is always real nice.

[Guest MissMattitude]

I like them but I prefer A Perfect Circle.

[Red Baron 0]

They are amazing.

 

The perfect blend of timing, break-down tempo's, vocals.

 

Its music...thats what it is

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

Meh.

 

Older stuff was great but I'm not feeling it from them the last album or so.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Wow this is a pretty even poll for once.

 

Of course I had to be the oddball, since Tool is one of my absolute favorites...

[justsoyouknow 0]

I personally like APC more...Tool usually sounds over produced while APC has this nice blend and I like the vocals more on APC, while TOOL tends to distort it.

Choken, my old friend...I agree with you completely...3 Libras is one of my all time favorite songs...Mer De Noms is an awesome album...

I wasn't aware that you could compare an entire back catalogue's worth of material to one song.

 

Tool does nothing for me. Their fans ruin the music.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Overrated. Their songs get old quick for me, doesn't seem to be a lot of variety

 

Dumbest thing ever. All four of their studio albums are COMPLETELY autonomous and differ vastly from one another.

 

I avoided the Maynard is God selection only because he's just one part of that amazing band. I do however think they're one of the best bands on the planet.

 

Overproduced? You're nuts. Their first two albums are grimy as hell. Opiate is half raw live tracks, and aggressive studio songs. There isn't a single glossy moment on Undertow, which is dark, subtle, and brilliant. It lurks in a person's cd collection in a sinister manner.

 

I've gone off the deep end about how wonderful I think they are in a couple other threads, and how they embody my favorite things about King Crimson, Pink Floyd, and some heavier fare.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Tool does nothing for me. Their fans ruin the music.

What does this actually mean, and why should it have any effect on the material itself?

 

I went with "Awesome" for the same reasons AoO stated. "Maynard is God" sounds a little too creepy. For me, Tool are the perfect blend of expert musicianship and expert songwriting. Virtuosity without too much wankery, and a sense of atmosphere that most heavier bands would kill to have. They manage to merge the epic and the intimate in almost every song, and each of their pieces is loaded with movements and shifts. They can do verse-chorus-verse stuff wonderfully, weird shifting stuff like "Eulogy" or "Aenema," or incredible suites like the three-part "Disposition/Reflection/Triad" that closes Lateralus.

 

Tool is one of the rare groups that, in my opinion, have never put out a bad piece of music. Some of it's better than others, but it's always good.

[Henry Spencer 0]

I went with "Eh, Alright".

 

I really do enjoy Tool, but only when I'm in a certain mood.

[Mecha Mummy 0]

I heard a Tool song go its full length on the radio once. It led to multiple minutes of a HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE BASS LINE. I can't enjoy them after that, though I used to hate them with a raging passion and now I just don't care for them.

[Guest Rob Edwards]

I've always thought they're stupid, over pretentious art house wank myself. I never sense any passion from them, just an over abiding sense of "This might sound clever"

 

Yeah

[Guest OctoberBlood]

I like both APC and Tool. Good stuff.

[Red Baron 0]

I heard a Tool song go its full length on the radio once. It led to multiple minutes of a HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE BASS LINE. I can't enjoy them after that, though I used to hate them with a raging passion and now I just don't care for them.

Horrible bass line?

 

 

And what song would that be?

[Internet Warfare 0]

Eh. Alright.

[mister foozel 0]

Tool is awesome. Probably one of the best bands in terms of raw musical talent out there.

[Vyce 0]

Overrated. Their songs get old quick for me, doesn't seem to be a lot of variety

 

Dumbest thing ever. All four of their studio albums are COMPLETELY autonomous and differ vastly from one another.

 

I avoided the Maynard is God selection only because he's just one part of that amazing band. I do however think they're one of the best bands on the planet.

 

Overproduced? You're nuts. Their first two albums are grimy as hell. Opiate is half raw live tracks, and aggressive studio songs. There isn't a single glossy moment on Undertow, which is dark, subtle, and brilliant. It lurks in a person's cd collection in a sinister manner.

 

I've gone off the deep end about how wonderful I think they are in a couple other threads, and how they embody my favorite things about King Crimson, Pink Floyd, and some heavier fare.

I would have to agree only about 1000%.

 

Tool's a better band that we deserve.

 

And, frankly, "Lateralus" was a fucking brilliant album.

 

I can sort of see where some people enjoy APC more, as they're essentially a lighter version of Tool - I believe that Maynard at one point said that APC was the "feminine" side of the music while Tool was the harder, more "masculine" side. Both great bands, but I'd give the edge to Tool, probably because in my mind APC will always be Maynard side project.

 

I'd love to see Tapeworm once it finally ever gets done (if it ever gets done - but Trent needs to get off his lazy ass and stop doing shit like taking time to produce tracks for Zach from RATM).

[Guest Fire and Knives]

I voted for "useless sludge wankery", myself. Tool bores the living bejesus out of me and has ever since I heard Lateralus. The music fails to convey anything more interesting than "look here, we're very heavy and upset about a number of things" after a while, and Maynard has got to be the most overrated lyricist on the face of planet Earth. You've been picking your scabs again, huh? That's very cute. I heard better shit in seventh grade. Fuck his "I will include references to obscure nonsense and show my lighter side with funny answering machine messages" approach to writing.

 

Lameosity.

 

K.

[B. Brian Brunzell 0]

I went with "Awesome" for the same reasons AoO stated.

Well, that makes three of us.

 

My only beef with Tool is that sometimes, their segueway tracks don't really segue into anything. "Intermission" is a perfect example. It follows the barrel-full of awesome that is "Hooker with a Penis" and leads into "Jimmy" with no real sense of flow. It seems to me like they added it because they were shooting for a certain time-ength for the album. "Die ere von Satan" (sp? on the entire title) isn't as bad, especially if you know what the track means, just because it's funny.

 

They seemed to stray away from the off-beat filler on Lateralus, and it really adds to the flow and continuity of the opus.

 

Speaking of Lateralus, I think the title track is the perfect blend of the old and new styles of Tool's music, as I think I've stated before. Maynard switches nicely from the slightly higher pitch that he's been using on the last two albums to the older, more raw vocal style of Opiate and Undertow for the chorus. The music itself is also a nice hybrid. The opening melancholy riff sound like something from Aenima, but once you hit the full-on opeing and the chorus, you get the heavier, edgier side, complete with bottom-feeding bass that was so prominent on te early albums. Simply fucking AWESOME.

[PLAGIARISM! 0]

Another 'awesome' here. I've never understood any critique I've heard of them. As mentioned in the 'long albums' thread, I normally don't listen to the kinds of bands that put out 80 minute albums, but Lateralus is one of the few I will always make time for.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I heard a Tool song go its full length on the radio once. It led to multiple minutes of a HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE BASS LINE. I can't enjoy them after that, though I used to hate them with a raging passion and now I just don't care for them.

Horrible bass line?

 

 

And what song would that be?

He's either thinking of Sober or probably Schism, both of which are great. Pay no attention to this riffraff.

[DCMaximo 0]

I went for the APC vote- I like Lateralus and Aenima, but I prefer Mer de Noms to both of them, it just seems to be a tighter, more focused album than those Tool have produced.

[EricMM 0]

Awsome

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

My only beef with Tool is that sometimes, their segueway tracks don't really segue into anything. "Intermission" is a perfect example. It follows the barrel-full of awesome that is "Hooker with a Penis" and leads into "Jimmy" with no real sense of flow. It seems to me like they added it because they were shooting for a certain time-ength for the album.

I thought that about "Intermission" too, until I listened a little more closely. The melody on that tiny track is one of the core melodies from "Jimmy," sped up and played on a silly-sounding organ. It's still a bit perfunctory, but I sort of like how it acts as an overture to the really great song that follows it.

 

And I'm so with you on "Lateralus" the song. Since Lateralus came out, they've ended every concert with it, and it's a perfect fit. Really sums up their career thus far, and what they do best. Anyone who's seen them live knows how great they are in that setting; anyone who's a fan and hasn't seen them live really ought to the next chance he gets. I've been twice, and when they busted out "Opiate" at the second show, I just about peed myself. Superb setlists.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I saw them once, but it was right after Aenima came out. I'm going to jump on the first chance I get to hear the Lateralus material live.

 

They closed with Opiate when I saw them.

[B. Brian Brunzell 0]

I saw them once, but it was right after Aenima came out. I'm going to jump on the first chance I get to hear the Lateralus material live.

 

They closed with Opiate when I saw them.

I saw them at OzzFest '98 and they were easily the best band on the bill. They opened with a slower, heavier vesion of "Stinkfist" and went right into "Sweat", and colsed with "opiate", which was one of the best things I've ever seen live.

 

I tried to get tickets back in '02 for their show at the Meto in Chicago, but it sold out in literally 30 seconds.

 

I'm hoping that the new album will be out by Christmas like Danny Carey said it should be.

[Guest The Winter Of My Discontent]

I picked option 5. Maybe if I was shitting myself and had bullies rub it in my face (literally) would I get into a mindset to listen to Tool. I just ain't havin' it, hommie.