Tool

Still stellar and still listen to it like it was the first time. When you get hooked by the first listening on albums such as Fear Inoculum or Lateralus it can't be about the catchy effect merely because the structure, duration and even pace of the songs are the absolute opposite of catchy. It means you reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally like it. I'll go even further: the more I listen to the album the more I like it and the less I pay attention to Culling Voices which in my opinion is the only song that is merely "good" from the lot. Of course I don't listen to Chocolate either :P. But the rest is simply as good as it gets.
 
Still stellar and still listen to it like it was the first time. When you get hooked by the first listening on albums such as Fear Inoculum or Lateralus it can't be about the catchy effect merely because the structure, duration and even pace of the songs are the absolute opposite of catchy. It means you reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally like it. I'll go even further: the more I listen to the album the more I like it and the less I pay attention to Culling Voices which in my opinion is the only song that is merely "good" from the lot. Of course I don't listen to Chocolate either :p. But the rest is simply as good as it gets.
Honestly, the best use of Fear Inoculum and Lateralus is for background music while studying.
Chocolate Chip Trip is the only one of their instrumentals I actually like.
 
Still stellar and still listen to it like it was the first time. When you get hooked by the first listening on albums such as Fear Inoculum or Lateralus it can't be about the catchy effect merely because the structure, duration and even pace of the songs are the absolute opposite of catchy.

I don't know, I got hooked on Lateralus pretty quickly and although I skip some track these days, those songs that I've like on first are still my highlights.
 
I've been hardcore listening to Tool since last summer and finally got around to discussing and rating the albums and songs in the Random Album Reviews thread. For this run through I tried to use @Jer 's rating system and I really liked it. It compartmentalizes things better in my head and separates the awesome from the REALLY fucking awesome a little better.

10 - Flawless
9 - Excellent
8 - Great
7 - Good
6 - OK
5 - Eh
4 - Poor
3 - Bad
2 - Horrible
1 - Worthless

*Some slots reworded from Jer's original breakdown to better apply to my view.

Due to the nature of the system, it can actually end up lowballing my actual enjoyment of the albums while at the same time working better for the songs. The averages of most of these albums are lower than I'd give them off the top of my head, so that has to be adjusted. But this depends on how I adapt the system to work going forward, so consider my 'actual' ratings potentially temporary compared to the averages.

Opiate >
Sweat - 9
Hush - 7
Part of Me - 4
Cold and Ugly (live) - 7
Jerk-Off (live) - 6
Opiate - 7
The Gaping Lotus Experience (hidden) - 4
A pretty good start to the band's discography, if inconsistent (with a couple of their worst songs).
Average: 63%
Actual: Decent 7.

Undertow
>
Intolerance - 9
Prison Sex - 9
Sober - 10
Bottom - 8
Crawl Away - 7
Swamp Song - 9
Undertow - 7
4° - 6
Flood - 7
Disgustipated - 8
A great first album with some killer songs, more direct and punchy than the band will be in future if slightly less memorable at the same time.
Average: 80%
Actual: Solid 8.

Ænima
>
Stinkfist - 10
Eulogy - 10
H. - 9
Forty Six & 2 - 10
Hooker with a Penis - 9
jimmy - 9
Pushit - 8
Ænema - 10
Third Eye - 8
The band's best album, filled with nothing but great songs (and interludes which generally work pretty well within the context of the record).
Average: 93%
Actual: High 9.

Lateralus
>
The Grudge - 10
The Patient - 9
Schism - 9
Parabol / Parabola - 10
Ticks & Leeches - 8
Lateralus - 10
Disposition - 8
Reflection - 9
Triad - 7
A masterful and complex record with a streamlined sound and more genre-pushing music.
Average: 88%
Actual: High 9.

10,000 Days
>
Vicarious - 10
Jambi - 10
Wings for Marie (Pt 1) - 7
10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2) - 8
The Pot - 9
Lost Keys / Rosetta Stoned - 10
Intension - 6
Right in Two - 9
Slightly less consistent than the two preceding albums, yet with its own unique style and some great songs.
Average: 86%
Actual: Light 9.

Fear Inoculum
>
Fear Inoculum - 10
Pneuma - 9
Invincible - 8
Descending - 10
Culling Voices - 7
Chocolate Chip Trip - 7
7empest - 10
A wonderfully consistent comeback for the band, with every song being stretched to its furthest extent and most of them succeeding with flying colors.
Average: 87%
Actual: Strong 9.

So my Tool album rating is as follows:
  1. Ænima (1996)
  2. Lateralus (2001)
  3. Fear Inoculum (2019)
  4. 10,000 Days (2006)
  5. Undertow (1993)
  6. Opiate (1992)

And I've also ranked all of the band's songs as well:
1. Forty Six & 2
2. Lateralus
3. Parabol / Parabola

4. Eulogy
5. Lost Keys / Rosetta Stoned
6. The Grudge
7. Descending
8. Stinkfist
9. Ænema

10. 7empest
11. Jambi
12. Sober
13. Vicarious
14. Fear Inoculum
15. H.
16. jimmy

17. Prison Sex
18. The Pot
19. Pneuma
20. Reflection
21. Schism

22. Right in Two
23. Intolerance
24. Hooker with a Penis
25. The Patient
26. Swamp Song
27. Sweat
28. Invincible
29. Pushit
30. Ticks & Leeches
31. Third Eye
32. 10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)
33. Bottom
34. Disposition
35. Disgustipated
36. Wings for Marie (Pt 1)
37. Undertow
38. Flood

39. Opiate
40. Opiate²
41. Culling Voices
42. Crawl Away
43. Cold and Ugly
44. Hush

45. Chocolate Chip Trip
46. Maynard's Dick
47. Triad
48. Jerk-Off
49. Intension
50. 4°
51. Merkaba
52. The Gaping Lotus Experience
53. Part of Me
 
I am loving the setlist this tour!
The focus on new material with the inclusion of less-obvious classics (Rosetta, Swamp Song, Intolerance, The Pot, The Grudge) reminds me of Future Past! Plus, at the gig I went to, there very few "overplayed" classics- no Aenema, Stinkfist, 46&2, or Schism. Really cool.

One unexpected highlight was Culling Voices- it never really clicked for me until seeing it live. Having the whole band come out and sit downstage for the first half of the song was really special.
[/ISPOILER]
 
They were amazing. I’m planning on doing a song-by-song breakdown of it for @Collin and I can post it here (in spoilers) if you’re interested!

I am definitely interested. I will be seeing the band in London next year, so it will be great to know what a fellow Maidenfan thought of the show. :)

Thanks in advance!
 
I listen to Tool all of the time. The only album that didn't click with me on first listen was 10,000 Days. I stuck with it and once I got into the lyrics it has become my favorite Tool album. I can listen to Rosetta Stoned on repeat for a long time. It is also in my top ten songs of all time.
 
I am definitely interested. I will be seeing the band in London next year, so it will be great to know what a fellow Maidenfan thought of the show. :)

Thanks in advance!
Lol, I've been so busy with work that I completely forgot to do the breakdown I intended. Same thing happened last year with Maiden, and LC closed the thread before I could fully give my thoughts. :P

Here's my in-depth thoughts, within spoilers, although they'll probably change the set again next year.

So firstly, I managed to do the same damn shit I did when my partner and I saw Maiden last year - book the highest seats in the house. Fuck me I guess. Luckily once Tool properly began all height fears went away, and I was entranced from that point on.

But we started off the show with an opening act called Steel Beans. Now, I really had to do a double-take with this one. From the distance I was at, it looked like there were three people on stage, but for some reason the drummer was also playing guitar and singing (and making fucked up jokes). Then I looked closer. There were two people on stage: the multi-instrumentalist and another dude filming him. THIS MAN. PLAYED GUITAR. AND DRUMS. AND SANG. ALL AT THE SAME TIME. And it would be one thing if he was doing simple stuff. NO. He's doing drum fills galore. Intricate guitar solos. And he's not a bad singer either! Really interesting. Can't say the music he played was my thing but shit, that was a basket of talent right there.

Stage change, yadda yadda. Suddenly the lights go out. Then, slowly but surely, you hear Danny Carey begin the intro to "Fear Inoculum". Now, all that @Collin had told me was that the setlist had some main staples and a few tracks that changed depending on the night. I went into the show expecting them to have moved away from Fear Inoculum and instead done more of a history tour. So it's interesting to start off the night with the opening track from their last album. But Jesus Christ, I did not expect them to have such an intricate grip on the way they use their screens. A lot of bands seem kinda lazy with it, but Tool. The screen is part of the experience, the light show is insane, and the band members are just locked into the grooves as they play. Awesome first song.

Maynard addresses the audience in the absolute calmest voice ever. He's not breaking a sweat for this. "Philly," he coos softly. The crowd response with passion. "Man, you guys are sounding like Pittsburgh." Booing. "...Philly :)" he coos again. And the whole stadium roars. Then he gives his spiel about "We're gonna go on a little trip tonight" as though he's a trip sitter and frankly, I may have already been high at this point from the second hand smoke. But after telling us to "put your fucking phones away" Adam Jones starts rattling off the intro to Rush's "A Passage to Bangkok" and I'm like, a cover song?

And then the intro to "Jambi" kicks in and I have ascended to another plateau entirely.

I won't lie, I completely let go of myself at this point. My body was channeling the music. Vibing. Moving. The lights were incredible. "Shine on forever, shine on, benevolent sun," sang Maynard, and beams of yellow rays illuminated us as we were spellbound by the display. And if that wasn't good enough, they almost immediately launched right into "Rosetta Stoned" thereafter. The screens beamed photos of aliens and UFOs while Maynard recounted his troubles outside Area 51. Danny was a fucking beast on that drumkit while Adam and Justin were being electrically charged as the rhythms stepped in and out of line with each other. Fuck me. That was amazing.

So at this point I'm thinking to myself, so are they gonna open the show with a Fear Inoculum track and work backwards, doing two songs from each album before wrapping up again with a final Fear Inoculum track? Well, "Pneuma" proved me wrong, and was my first glimpse into realizing that I was seeing a different show than I expected. The song was great, the lights were again amazing. But then they dropped "Intolerance" and I was once again blown the fuck away. A bath of red glow and industrial images set the background for what was, frankly, far better than the album version, and I like the album version. But I loved this. "YOU LIE. CHEAT AND STEAL. HOW CAN I TOLERAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE!" Goddamn. So cool.

Also some dude yelled out "'SWEAT'!" right before the song came on and for half a second I thought they were playing that before my brain accurately put together what riff it was.

When "Descending" came on I finally pieced together that this was yet another album tour for Fear Inoculum. In hindsight, I wish I'd known that upfront because my expectations would've been tampered a bit. "Descending" is one of my favorite songs on the album, but I don't think it translated quite so well live, especially with the extended instrumental. I also think it's a very vivid song, I see all sorts of pictures on a dark, stormy sea when I listen to it, so having a red pyramid on the screen did not fit the vibes that I had in my head. But it was still cool.

"The Grudge"! Once again, I have lost myself. The whole song was amazing. Maynard did the scream, let's fucking go. And then a 12-minute timer counts down our intermission. What are we gonna experience next?

Well, it's Danny's turn in the spotlight as he gives a fantastic performance of "Chocolate Chip Trip". At this point, two dudes in front of my stand up and block my view for the entire rest of the show. Nice. But they play "Culling Voices", which worked better live than on the record, and "Invincible", which was also great. Finally Maynard says we're gonna get one last song and we can film it this time - but only if we turn off the flash. If we use flash, he'll be forced to "come down there and take a shit right in your mouth". Message received. It's "Forty Six & 2". My partner is hyped as fuck and damn was that a perfect closer. It's my favorite Tool song, too, but after witnessing "Jambi", "Rosetta Stoned", "Intolerance", and "The Grudge", this is more like a cherry on top rather than a highlight.

Amazing way to close out the concert, then the band says their goodbyes. Maynard fist-bumps his bandmates, Justin's kids run up on stage, and finally once the stage is empty, ABBA's "Dancing Queen" begins to play. So cool.

My partner was in the driver's seat so I went on setlist.fm to see what other cities had gotten. Honestly, we got the perfect setlist possible. For 10,000 Days they swapped between "Jambi" and "The Pot". For Undertow they swapped between "Intolerance" and "Swamp Song". For Ænima they swapped between "Forty Six & 2" and "Ænema", and occasionally "Stinkfist". For my money, our show got the best possible combination of songs that they played.

Such an awesome experience all-around. Enjoyed the whole experience and I definitely wanna see them again next year.
 
Lol, I've been so busy with work that I completely forgot to do the breakdown I intended. Same thing happened last year with Maiden, and LC closed the thread before I could fully give my thoughts. :p

Here's my in-depth thoughts, within spoilers, although they'll probably change the set again next year.

So firstly, I managed to do the same damn shit I did when my partner and I saw Maiden last year - book the highest seats in the house. Fuck me I guess. Luckily once Tool properly began all height fears went away, and I was entranced from that point on.

But we started off the show with an opening act called Steel Beans. Now, I really had to do a double-take with this one. From the distance I was at, it looked like there were three people on stage, but for some reason the drummer was also playing guitar and singing (and making fucked up jokes). Then I looked closer. There were two people on stage: the multi-instrumentalist and another dude filming him. THIS MAN. PLAYED GUITAR. AND DRUMS. AND SANG. ALL AT THE SAME TIME. And it would be one thing if he was doing simple stuff. NO. He's doing drum fills galore. Intricate guitar solos. And he's not a bad singer either! Really interesting. Can't say the music he played was my thing but shit, that was a basket of talent right there.

Stage change, yadda yadda. Suddenly the lights go out. Then, slowly but surely, you hear Danny Carey begin the intro to "Fear Inoculum". Now, all that @Collin had told me was that the setlist had some main staples and a few tracks that changed depending on the night. I went into the show expecting them to have moved away from Fear Inoculum and instead done more of a history tour. So it's interesting to start off the night with the opening track from their last album. But Jesus Christ, I did not expect them to have such an intricate grip on the way they use their screens. A lot of bands seem kinda lazy with it, but Tool. The screen is part of the experience, the light show is insane, and the band members are just locked into the grooves as they play. Awesome first song.

Maynard addresses the audience in the absolute calmest voice ever. He's not breaking a sweat for this. "Philly," he coos softly. The crowd response with passion. "Man, you guys are sounding like Pittsburgh." Booing. "...Philly :)" he coos again. And the whole stadium roars. Then he gives his spiel about "We're gonna go on a little trip tonight" as though he's a trip sitter and frankly, I may have already been high at this point from the second hand smoke. But after telling us to "put your fucking phones away" Adam Jones starts rattling off the intro to Rush's "A Passage to Bangkok" and I'm like, a cover song?

And then the intro to "Jambi" kicks in and I have ascended to another plateau entirely.

I won't lie, I completely let go of myself at this point. My body was channeling the music. Vibing. Moving. The lights were incredible. "Shine on forever, shine on, benevolent sun," sang Maynard, and beams of yellow rays illuminated us as we were spellbound by the display. And if that wasn't good enough, they almost immediately launched right into "Rosetta Stoned" thereafter. The screens beamed photos of aliens and UFOs while Maynard recounted his troubles outside Area 51. Danny was a fucking beast on that drumkit while Adam and Justin were being electrically charged as the rhythms stepped in and out of line with each other. Fuck me. That was amazing.

So at this point I'm thinking to myself, so are they gonna open the show with a Fear Inoculum track and work backwards, doing two songs from each album before wrapping up again with a final Fear Inoculum track? Well, "Pneuma" proved me wrong, and was my first glimpse into realizing that I was seeing a different show than I expected. The song was great, the lights were again amazing. But then they dropped "Intolerance" and I was once again blown the fuck away. A bath of red glow and industrial images set the background for what was, frankly, far better than the album version, and I like the album version. But I loved this. "YOU LIE. CHEAT AND STEAL. HOW CAN I TOLERAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE!" Goddamn. So cool.

Also some dude yelled out "'SWEAT'!" right before the song came on and for half a second I thought they were playing that before my brain accurately put together what riff it was.

When "Descending" came on I finally pieced together that this was yet another album tour for Fear Inoculum. In hindsight, I wish I'd known that upfront because my expectations would've been tampered a bit. "Descending" is one of my favorite songs on the album, but I don't think it translated quite so well live, especially with the extended instrumental. I also think it's a very vivid song, I see all sorts of pictures on a dark, stormy sea when I listen to it, so having a red pyramid on the screen did not fit the vibes that I had in my head. But it was still cool.

"The Grudge"! Once again, I have lost myself. The whole song was amazing. Maynard did the scream, let's fucking go. And then a 12-minute timer counts down our intermission. What are we gonna experience next?

Well, it's Danny's turn in the spotlight as he gives a fantastic performance of "Chocolate Chip Trip". At this point, two dudes in front of my stand up and block my view for the entire rest of the show. Nice. But they play "Culling Voices", which worked better live than on the record, and "Invincible", which was also great. Finally Maynard says we're gonna get one last song and we can film it this time - but only if we turn off the flash. If we use flash, he'll be forced to "come down there and take a shit right in your mouth". Message received. It's "Forty Six & 2". My partner is hyped as fuck and damn was that a perfect closer. It's my favorite Tool song, too, but after witnessing "Jambi", "Rosetta Stoned", "Intolerance", and "The Grudge", this is more like a cherry on top rather than a highlight.

Amazing way to close out the concert, then the band says their goodbyes. Maynard fist-bumps his bandmates, Justin's kids run up on stage, and finally once the stage is empty, ABBA's "Dancing Queen" begins to play. So cool.

My partner was in the driver's seat so I went on setlist.fm to see what other cities had gotten. Honestly, we got the perfect setlist possible. For 10,000 Days they swapped between "Jambi" and "The Pot". For Undertow they swapped between "Intolerance" and "Swamp Song". For Ænima they swapped between "Forty Six & 2" and "Ænema", and occasionally "Stinkfist". For my money, our show got the best possible combination of songs that they played.

Such an awesome experience all-around. Enjoyed the whole experience and I definitely wanna see them again next year.

Thanks for the review!
 
Back
Top