{"id":39725,"date":"2006-04-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-04-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/mer-de-noms\/"},"modified":"2006-04-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-04-20T00:00:00","slug":"mer-de-noms","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/mer-de-noms\/","title":{"rendered":"Mer De Noms"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

If Lateralus<\/i> was Maynard Keenan’s full descent
\ninto progressive metal, Mer De Noms<\/i> was his tentative first
\nstep, albeit one year prior and with a different band.<\/p>\n

Now perhaps I’m missing something here, since most
\nserious music fans are convinced Tool is the greatest modern metal
\nband since Metallica went the way of the commercial. By extension,
\nKeenan’s side project A Perfect Circle should be just as good,
\nsince it’s like Tool but with shorter songs.<\/p>\n

But I can’t really tell the difference. Keenan sings
\nthe same. The songs are all dark and edgy and deal with religious
\nthemes, disappointment, etc. The usual Tool sludge, and I’m
\nconvinced anything from Aenima<\/i> could have gone on here
\nwithout the casual fan noticing. A side project is supposed to be a
\ndeparture, right? Maynard has two copies of the same band.<\/p>\n

Upon its release, this record was hailed as one of
\nthe best of the new millenium’s rock movement, and I guess I can
\nsee that. Given where rock was at the time — somewhere between
\n“Nookie” and “How You Remind Me” a dark and progressive band that
\ncould still write catchy music was necessary. Though they lack the
\nsense of humor, musically Tool picks up where Soundgarden left off
\nand throws in a bit of the early Metallica progressive feel.<\/p>\n

But I prefer this record to Lateralus, because it is
\nmore approachable and not as pretentious. Sure, the song titles are
\nelite — “Brena”? “Orestes”? “3 Libras”? “Renholder”? “Mer de
\nNoms”? — but the music is foreboding, 12 blasts of noise at around
\nfour minutes apiece, with Keenan singing his heart out about
\nsomething or another.<\/p>\n

“Judith” tackles religious hypocrisy against some
\nguitar pyrotechnics and perhaps Keenan’s best vocal performance of
\nhis career, while “Magdalena” has an early grunge feel with a sense
\nof darkness. The best track is “3 Libras,” with a gorgeous acoustic
\nopening, some light strings and a restrained vocal, at least until
\nthe end explodes with Keenan wailing “You don’t see me!” over and
\nover.<\/p>\n

But that’s about it for the highlights. The rest of
\nthis is dark sludge that is hard to tell apart, and only the
\noccasional flashes of brilliance — the eerie “Renholder,” some
\ngood bass work in “Thinking of You” and “The Hollow” — make this
\ninteresting to the casual fan.<\/p>\n

If dark Gothic rock is your thing, and\/or you like
\nTool, then you’ll probably enjoy this. And certainly Keenan and his
\nsecond band are just as talented as his first, but where Tool has a
\nsense of majesty to back up its pretension, A Perfect Circle is all
\ndarkness and little redemption, not only for his soul but for the
\nlistener, who may need some Prozac to get through this.<\/p>\n<\/review><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":28297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6931],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-39725","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-a-perfect-circle","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39725","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39725"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}