I still remember being blown away the first time I ever heard
\nthe band Tool. A former colleague of mine (Anthony, whom I’ve
\nwritten about before on these pages) played part of their demo for
\nme, and I was immediately hooked. The freshness of the music, the
\npure aggression – I loved it!<\/p>\n
Their 1992 debut effort, an EP named
\nOpiate<\/i>, gave the world their first taste of Maynard James
\nKeenan and crew – and from then on, there was no looking back. This
\nseven-song wonder shows off more power in less than 30 minutes than
\nsome bands try to cram onto double albums. Filled with irreverance,
\nanger and questioning God, Tool pulls no punches, and leaves you
\nwanting to be smacked around for another 12 rounds.<\/p>\n
If the collage on the CD artwork scares you, then you might as
\nwell trade this disc in for Celine Dion, ’cause Tool isn’t out to
\nsatisfy the masses. From the declarations of hatred in the
\nfunk-laced “Hush” and the live powerhouse “Jerk-Off” to the more
\nintrospective exclamation point against God on the title track
\n(“Jesus Christ, why don’t you come save my life now?”), Keenan,
\nguitarist Adam Jones, bassist Paul D’Amour and drummer Danny Carey
\ncapture the angst and the drama succinctly, all the while making
\nsongs that grab your eardrums and don’t let go.<\/p>\n
The only stumbling block is the cut “Part Of Me,” which doesn’t
\nseem to ever find its direction, no matter how hard it tries.
\nHowever, this one minor drawback is quickly eased by other numbers
\nsuch as “Cold And Ugly,” one of two live songs on
\nOpiate<\/i>. (With the power of these live performances, one
\nwonders why Tool didn’t include more on this disc – for that
\nmatter, why they haven’t put out a live album, recent problems with
\nthe former Zoo Entertainment notwithstanding.)<\/p>\n
The surprise on this album is the hidden seventh track, a song
\nwhich should get the religious right’s undies in a knot real quick.
\nLighten up, gang, this song is a definite joke! How else do you
\nexplain lyrics like: “I had a friend once, he took some acid \/ Now
\nhe thinks he’s a fire engine”? So Keenan chants “Satan” in the
\nbackground – so what? Something tells me that both sides got a
\nlaugh out of this one.<\/p>\n
The only real qualm about
\nOpiate<\/i>? Easy: it’s too damned short. If these seven songs
\nwet your appetite now, you have two other albums to choose from.
\nBack when I first heard this, I had to wait two years for
\nUndertow<\/i> to come out to cure my hunger for more Tool.<\/p>\n
\nOpiate<\/i> is undoubtedly the first stop you should make on your
\nroad to discovering all things Tool – it helps put into focus the
\nremainder of their work. Six years after its release, this is still
\na disc I enjoy thoroughly and repeatedly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5654],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39344","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tool","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39344","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=39344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39344"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39344"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}