I remember the first time I ever heard Tool – I was in the
\nChicago office of Zoo Entertainment visiting a friend I worked with
\nin radio. He pulled out Tool’s demo, and put it on the stereo for
\nme. Stunned is the word closest to describing how I felt listening
\nto this glorious noise – afterwards, I felt cleansed.<\/p>\n
Maynard James Keenan and crew have been cleansing people with
\ntheir brand of alternative metal now for four years, and while
\ntheir latest studio release,
\n\u00c6nima<\/i>, isn’t their best work, it features some of
\ntheir most exciting product since their debut mini-album.<\/p>\n
The debut single, “Stinkfist”, picks up where Tool left off on
\ntheir last album, the disappointing
\nUndertow<\/i>. “Stinkfist” has a groove which grabs the listener
\nand refuses to let go. Like their previous singles “Sober” and
\n“Prison Sex”, “Stinkfist” mixes Keenan’s vocals with Adam Jones’s
\nguitar perfectly, and the vocal effects used add to the song’s
\nmystique.<\/p>\n
For most of the first half of the disc,
\n\u00c6nima<\/i> takes the listener for probably one of the most
\nintense musical rides they’ve ever been on. Cuts like “Eulogy”,
\n“Forty Six & 2” and “Hooker With A Penis” show the true
\npotential of Tool.<\/p>\n
\n\u00c6nima<\/i> would almost be the best Tool release were it
\nnot for some of the band’s dives into total weirdness. “Message To
\nHarry Manback” is basically a threatening phone message with a
\nhaunting backing track, and is disturbing on the first few listens.
\nOther cuts that could have easily been cut include “Intermission”,
\n“Die Eier Von Satan” (featuring German ramblings from Marko Fox),
\nand “Ions”. (One word of advice, guys: just because you have 78
\nminutes of space on a CD doesn’t mean you have to fill it up.)<\/p>\n
Tool’s one strength is the ability to write long songs that seem
\nto go by in an instant; two songs clock in at over nine minutes,
\nthe longest being almost 14 minutes. However, the musical abilities
\nof Keenan, Jones, and fellow bandmates Danny Carey and Justin
\nChancellor, justify the length of the tracks.<\/p>\n
While I don’t usually recommend buying an album for its artwork,
\nthe CD of
\n\u00c6nima<\/i> features the most innovative packaging I’ve ever
\nseen, and makes the decision to buy the tape or CD easier. (One of
\nthe moving pictures features the band, two of whom seem to be
\nnaked, watching a contortionist apparently blowing himself. And to
\nthink I believed that could only be done with a Craftmatic
\nadjustable bed.)<\/p>\n
While Tool has never been able to produce an album that matched
\nthe power and strength of their debut disc
\nOpiate<\/i>, they have come close with
\n\u00c6nima<\/i> – and had they been a little less cautious with
\nthe razor blade and the master tapes, they could have carved this
\none into their best release ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5654],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-35530","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tool","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35530"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35530"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}