"Opiate""Opiate"Lotta people asked me when the hell I was gonna buy this CD -- hey, I was waiting for a used copy, ok?? Took a few years but finally found one, although some bleeding IDIOT put an old price sticker directly on the booklet, and another idiot tried to remove it, leaving a sticky, gummy mess. I was able to scrape off all the gunk, but dear God was it a pain...
I guess this debut EP could be considered "Tool Lite". Not nearly as complex or heavy as their future albums, but the rhythm lines are pure Tool. The "hidden" track is a jazzy-psychedelic tune with some of the most hilarious lyrics I've ever heard: "I had a friend who took some ecstasy, he tried to fuck my Lazy Boy..."
"Undertow"Somnolent, heavy-rhythmed, industrialish grunge...how the hell can I describe it?? It doesn't sound like ANYTHING I've heard before, which is what makes it so damn cool!! "Prison Sex" (LOVE that title!) has a wonderful bass riff, and the vocals in "Sober" are totally creepy (pretty cool animated video for that one, too.) Only part I could do without is that noisy 15-minute jam "Disgustipated", with the guy shouting "THIS IS NECESSARY" over and over again -- how annoying, just as annoying as the fact that it's on track #69! With 60 blank tracks in between it and the previous song!! I totally HATE when they do that! Why, you ask? Try playing this with 4 other discs on shuffle mode and you'll see!!!
"Ænima"Alright Doe, I got the damn thing, you can stop bugging me now. :-P Really, the only reason it took so damn long (almost three years) to buy the thing is because I was holding out for a used copy -- and the 3 or 4 times I found it, somebody must have tried cleaning the disc with sandpaper or something! This copy is hardly mint, the insert's all torn up and I think part of it is missing, but at least it doesn't skip. Guess I could have bought it brand new, but hey! I *do* have standards here!!
As for the music itself...well, as incredible as Undertow was, this one simply BLOWS it away. For one, there's no annoying blank tracks, and it's a helluva lot more cohesive, with each track flowing effortlessly into the next, whereas the previous CD was just a bunch of songs put together. And the unique "Tool sound" shines like a supernova...as far as I'm concerned, on all their previous work they were just tuning their instruments. In fact, I'd be willing to call this the best alternative album of all time (if you consider Tool to be an alternative band, of course.)
Oh yeah, there's all those 3-D images, which I usually find annoying but here they are pretty sweet. Especially the one showing what California will look like after the Big One strikes. :-)
"Lateralus"It's been five years since the last Tool album (not counting the Salival DVD and Maynard's side project, A Perfect Circle) and was it worth the wait? You betcha. In fact, I bought this thing brand new, since I didn't feel like waiting another five years for a used copy to show up.
I'm constantly amazed at how far this band is able to extend their unique yet arguably limited style. Not nearly as noisy and avante-garde as the last album, Lateralus basically picks up where Aenima left off and forges straight ahead. Maynard takes on a black-metalish screech on "Ticks & Leeches", and the last few songs contain some sweet percussive jams. Of all the songs here, the title track is probably the most Tool-ish, in fact it's almost "generic Tool" -- not much to distinguish it, although it's still a great song. I do wish this band would release more than one album every five years, though!!
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