ToolVivor Results

Are you satisfied with the results?


  • Total voters
    6
  • Poll closed .

Collin

Chasing Ponce De Leon's Phantoms
The game generated quite a bit of interest and there is really 1 1/2 survivors running right now. Plus there's finally a new album!!!!

Welcome to ToolVivor. This is going to be a very quick one, probably quicker than Ghost. We're going to rate the songs as they were intended to be listened to by the band. What does that mean? Tracks that are split, but really just one song will be grouped together. Here is a complete list of all of the songs grouped together...

- Parabol / Parabola
- Disposition / Reflection / Triad
- Wings For Marie / 10,000 Days
- Lost Keys (Blame Hoffman) / Rosetta Stoned

This cuts out what would make for an easy elimination as a few of these are really just short intros to the main song.

Furthermore, there will be no interludes. Pointless and a waste of time to include them as they will just be eliminated in the first round anyways. All in all there will be 46 songs in the game. I will promote 3 songs from each album. The albums are grouped as so...

- Opiate (EP) (The two live songs are included, but not Gaping Lotus Experience)
- Undertow ***
- Ænema
- Lateralus
- 10,000 Days
- Fear Inoculum


*** Most people tend to believe that 'Disgustipated' is a a song and not an interlude, so it's in the game.

Game will start Saturday or Sunday. Get listening!
 
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Hmm. I played in the previous one, and I might join now, but I haven't heard the new album yet and I don't know if I want to.
I have time to decide, I guess.
 
I'm going to upload this now, I may not have time this weekend. This round will be a bit longer to give people time to start listening.

Welcome to ToolVivor. We are starting out with Opiate and Undertow. Tool's earlier work is a little different to the rest, the growth of their song writing will really start to show in Lateralus. I am giving 6 votes to start, an album will be promoted once 3 songs are left. Aenima will likely come in next round due to the lack of songs so please keep that in mind. Poll will close Thursday or unless everybody playing has voted I will start the next round. Enjoy the game, Spiral Out!
 
I voted for Hush, Cold & Ugly, Opiate, Swamp Song, Undertow. (Is it fine not to use all votes?)
I will write something tomorrow :)
 
Alright, these were my first listens of anything from Opiate or Undertow.

Opiate

So this is much more heavy than Lateralus. The songs are kind of straightforward as in they have their schtiks but they stick to it, so not too much on the prog side... My favorite was Part of Me, followed by Sweat, just good songs. If I add something about Part of Me is the shift from the so called cliche opening to the very main drive of the songs, it's not terribly unique right?but that's what I talked about with their gimmicks.

So these two were at the top, and the rest went kind of evenly. Hush I gave the boot to first mostly for the dumb lyrics, and Cold & Ugly was just less memorable than the other two left, still I said I find all those songs about even musically. So the two I think are fan favorites are left: Opiate was just obvious to be considered "the" song here - it's more interesting, it's big, and of course its anti-religious lyrics give it extra points for some people. I personally am not one of those people, and while I can tolerate them they were a factor in voting against it.

Jerk-Off I had this (false?) memory that I remembered it as a top Tool song for most, but I heard it and didn't really get why. Anyway I liked it, good riff and the fast chorus is cool and the ending of course delivers. So I didn't shoot it in the fucking head. But I might next round!< :whogivesafuck::whogivesafuck: :whogivesafuck: >


So I'll end with that: The Gaping Lotus Experience is hilarious and I wouldn't vote for it this round had it been an option. Actually that's one reason I didn't vote for Disgustipated, but Undertow is tomorrow (what a lead :duckie:)
 
Boy. There's a lot to dislike here.

I admit that I'm not incredibly familiarly with Tool overall, but these first two albums do not sound much like what I have heard. Half of these songs musically fit more into the grunge metal or post-hardcore/groove metal (like early Clutch), i.e. repetitious riffs and lots of angry vocals. Maynard's talking parts are incredibly lame, especially when he's speaking poetry or doing character voices, and he sometimes sounds like a whiny Danzig. As with much Tool I've heard, whenever Maynard swears he sounds like an angry basement dweller who wants his parents to JUST SHUT UP BECAUSE THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND.

Voted for:

Hush
Cold & Ugly
Jerk-Off
Bottom
Swamp Song
Disgustipated (what a hideous waste of a track)
 
Boy. There's a lot to dislike here.

I admit that I'm not incredibly familiarly with Tool overall, but these first two albums do not sound much like what I have heard. Half of these songs musically fit more into the grunge metal or post-hardcore/groove metal (like early Clutch), i.e. repetitious riffs and lots of angry vocals. Maynard's talking parts are incredibly lame, especially when he's speaking poetry or doing character voices, and he sometimes sounds like a whiny Danzig. As with much Tool I've heard, whenever Maynard swears he sounds like an angry basement dweller who wants his parents to JUST SHUT UP BECAUSE THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND.

Voted for:

Hush
Cold & Ugly
Jerk-Off
Bottom
Swamp Song
Disgustipated (what a hideous waste of a track)
The talking part you’re referring to on Bottom is Henry Rollins. He provided the poem I guess. I’m also not really sure how familiar with Tool you are but the EP and Undertow are both very raw and more of the grunge type style. The next album is a lot more proggy, Maynard is still angry but it is one of the biggest improvements in the history of improvements.
 
Undertow

Undertow to me has more weight on the first half. The first 3 songs really nail some aspects. Intolerance has by far the best vocals here, while Prison Sex and Sober are both great catchy songs, Sober maybe more directed to be catchy because it has more emphasis on the chorus than Prison Sex does.

After them comes Bottom, which doesn't have a very apt name for being the peak of the album. Epic from beginning to end, but mostly in the beginning. What a song. But the spoken interlude deserves a better end than that "dead inside" repetition, it could be more explosive.

From here it's getting quite a bit weaker, but not before the absolute highlight of the album that is the flute in the beginning of Crawl Away, love from first listen.

And we also have the song Crawl Away, which is fairly standard and stole the fast part Bottom needs. (The one after "this is mine aloooooone!"). Swamp Song and Undertow are pretty much tied as the worst here, one is just 'bleh' while the other has a cooler name but I was not a fan of stretching euuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu phoooooooooooooo riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa for about 30.

Now a rise again. 4 Degrees wishes it was Sober, but the verse is lackluster and the chorus is not on the same league. But that's a cool wavey chorus riff. Maybe that's why it's called 4 Degrees, because it's cool.

Flood is interesting, it really feels similar to These Shrouded Temples + Damned for All Time (by Corrosion of Conformity). Still, there is a very important difference. TSS is awesome and DfAT is awesomer. On the other hand, Flood intro is great and Flood song is maybe good. I barely remember the second part, only memory-anchor moment is "I was wrong, this change is everything".

So we arrive at Disgustipated! This is a fantastic song. Cancel what I said about Bottom, the two are on the same level I guess. I heard this and I was laughing like "wait did he say carrots?" So great. Of course comedy alone doesn't put it above Prison Sex, the entire "this is necessary" part is top, and the message in the end was very intriguing. I'm glad between them there is actual ambiance noise and not just no sound, it's much better than just a hidden track like in Opiate/Gaping Lotus. One last thing; these carrot screams are more mortifying than they should be, good thing I don't cut carrots often I'd probably imagine them screaming andI'm not responsible if you begin to hear your carrots scream!
 
These early albums are definitely more raw and angry than what's to come later, and while I much prefer the period from Lateralus onward, there still are a few really great songs here.

From Opiate, the first and last song are the only real highlights. Part of Me is a song that I never cared for in the past, but I did gain more appreciation for it after seeing it live. I'm going to refrain from voting for it this time, but I'll probably have to give it a vote in the next round if it happens to survive until then.

Undertow is by far the weakest of Tool's actual albums. That said, Prison Sex and Sober are absolute classics, Intolerance is great, and I really enjoy Swamp Song as well.

Voting for:

Hush
Cold and Ugly
Crawl Away
Flood
Disgustipated
 
I'd like Undertow more if most of the second half was removed and replaced with re-recorded versions of the songs from Opiate, but that's just me. Must say I'm surprised at how many votes Cold and Ugly got, I didn't think it was that bad. I went with:

Part of Me
Bottom
Swamp Song
4 Degrees
Flood
Disgustipated
 
Eliminated:
Hush
Part of Me
Cold & Ugly
Disgustipated

Promoted:
Sweat
Jerk-Off
Opiate

Ænima joins the game! Poll closes in a week.
 
I'll give Ænima another proper listen before I vote, but at the moment I'm predicting that I'll just vote for everything that isn't on that album, minus Prison Sex and Sober.
 
Welp, gave it one listen. Once again: so much wasted time on this album. In the angry words of Tool, "Fuck your interludes." As if half of Tool's songs weren't long and meandering enough, 11 fucking minutes of interludes is too many minutes.

Anyway, I'm gonna listen again (minus the interludes) before voting. Currently the only songs I love (or like even more than a 7/10) are Forty-Six & Two, Aenema, and H.

I know there is no way for this to not sound condescending, but I'm genuinely interested to know something from anyone in this thread that considers themselves a Tool fan:

1. Do you do drugs?
1a. Do you do drugs while listening to Tool and does that make this music more engaging?

2. Were you angry as a young adult or teenager?

3. Are you a Pink Floyd fan?
 
Yeah I'm with MrKnicker on the interlude issue, I tried listening to it in full twice but the interludes are really intimidating, 4 songs and then an interlude every other song? Not to add the songs (although only one listen so far made it to the end and past Jimmy) don't exactly lack in length, major offender being Pushit. Third Eye I can understand this is it's thing.

And after a full listen you see how lengthy the interludes really make it. I too will listen tomorrow to a cut version.
 
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