Concert Review: Tool

Tool concert – Thursday, June 15, Rogers Arena, Vancouver

My apologies for the long delay between entries – I was away seeing progressive metal band Tool in Vancouver at Rogers Arena last Thursday night. So rather than wait for my next music review I give you bonus content in the form of a concert review (no accompanying album since Tool hasn’t released it yet).

The opening act was Crystal Method. I had spent a couple of days checking out their body of work on Youtube and had liked what I’d heard. They have a cool mix of industrial dance, techno and rock. I was excited to hear some it played, but instead they played the role of DJ, a few of their own tracks but a lot of other stuff as well, messed with ‘creatively’ like a club DJ would do. It felt like being at a nightclub, but with no room to dance.

Tool was solid, and the band was incredibly precise but it didn’t engage me that way I wanted. I think this was the result of a combination of things, including:

• I had a few drinks before the show and by the time it started, I was a bit groggy. That’s on me, not Tool.
• Large venues make it that much harder to connect with the band. This was my first huge show since Rush about ten years ago (which I enjoyed a lot more, but was also a lot closer). I think I just prefer smaller venues and if that means I’ll have to limit myself to less popular bands, I can live with that.
• Tool are incredibly proficient on their instruments, which you need to be to play music this fast and intricate. For all that, they played a little too well, and I never felt any variation that made the performance feel ‘live’. Even the godlike Danny Carey’s drum solo felt more technical than inspirational.

The set list was solid and featured many of my favourites including “Schism” “Opiate” and “The Pot”. Although I was warned they wouldn’t play anything off my favourite album, “Undertow,” it was still disappointing when the warning proved true.

The crowd was well behaved and spanned multiple generations (I think we were the oldest), proving Tool has staying power even ten years after they released their last studio album. These large shows tend to attract a bunch of people who go just so they can say they did, but not this time. The crowd was both knowledgeable and appreciative, with very few posers. Overall it was a good energy, although there was a lot of smoke (tobacco and otherwise) that while it added to the ambience, was a bit thick at times.

Also, while I didn’t feel emotionally engaged (even after trying the show with ear plugs out for maximum aural assault) the sound was excellent for such a large venue, crisp and nicely layered. Kudos to the folks running the soundboard.

Visually, the band doesn’t do a lot – they just stand in one spot and play their instruments. There are disturbing videos playing behind them on a big screen, but that just made me feel like I was sitting at home watching a video, which wasn’t the experience I signed up for. On the plus side, there was a pretty killer laser light show.

Best of all, I took the trip (and saw the show) with great friends, and great friends make every experience better. While I wouldn’t see Tool live again, I look forward to seeing my friends at other events for years to come.

CD Odyssey Disc 735: Tool

I just finished watching the New York Rangers stay alive for another game. I promised myself I wouldn’t watch the playoffs when the Bruins didn’t get in, but I find myself motivated to watch the Blackhawks, Habs and Rangers all get eliminated. As of tonight, they are all still alive. Damn.

Disc 735 is…. 10,000 Days

Artist: Tool

Year of Release: 2006

What’s up with the Cover?  Tool simply can’t resist freaky covers. Like Pink Floyd’s “The Division Bell,” the cover of “10,000 Days” is a cognitive illusion, where you can see the central face, or you can see the two faces looking away from each other, but it is hard to see both at once.

This cover also comes with a couple of weird lenses that are used when you open up the CD booklet to turn a series of pictures into three dimensional scenes. The scenes are mostly band members sitting in turn of the century style offices or laboratories. However, since this is Tool there are also some ‘freaky as hell’ scenes. These include a skinless corpse impaled by pins, a skinless corpse wielding pinwheels of fire and a human skull with a fetus gestating in it. Thanks, Tool, for keeping it real. Real freaky.

How I Came To Know It: I was already an avowed Tool fan in 2006 so this was just me buying their new album when it came out.

How It Stacks Up:  We have five Tool albums. I would put 10,000 days in dead in the middle at number three. Since this represents the final Tool album in my collection, here’s a recap:

1. Undertow:  5 stars (reviewed at Disc 131)
2. Lateralus:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 622)
3. 10,000 Days:  4 stars (reviewed right here)
4. Opiate:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 425)
5. Aenima:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 485)

Ratings: 4 stars

“10,000 Days” is yet another master class in creepy brilliance by Tool. Like most of their records, it has the ability to deliver progressive metal riffs that draw you in like a warm bath and yet are so infused with disturbing overtones that you feel like you are taking that bath in the Bates motel.

For the most part I listened to “10,000 Days” on walks to work in the spring sunshine. You might think that this would take away from the creep factor, but it just made it all the more troubling. Seeing the sun all around you while listening to Maynard James Keenan’s dark lyrics and the off-kilter beats of Danny Carey’s drums just made the sunshine ominous. Every dappled shadow seems to hold some ill-portent and it is was delicious fun to indulge the fears that lurked in my lizard brain from the safety of a sunny stroll.

Thinking of how much more interesting Nightwish was to me after dark and with a few drinks in me I had planned to walk home from the pub last night using “10,000 Days” as my soundtrack. I ended up finding a cab right outside the restaurant so I took that home instead. I’d like to think it was simply the convenience, but maybe I was a bit scared to take Tool on that way. When I did get home I looked out on the dark and listened to “Intension” just to see what I had missed.

“Intension” is a slow mood piece designed to unnerve you, and it worked well, but I still felt it wasn’t as impactful after dark. I think Tool’s music calls for the juxtaposition of the normal with the abnormal in order to work, and because of that sunshine just draws out the weird factor better.

Musically, the band is in top form. “Vicarious” and “The Pot” are both groove infused tracks that show off the brilliance of drummer Carey, particularly “Vicarious” which half-way through has the most intricate and attention getting drum solo I can remember since the last time I listened to Rush's Neil Peart.

“Vicarious” also has quintessential Tool lyrics. The song is an indictment of the human fascination in the suffering of others. It is actually darker than just an indictment. Keenan makes it also about acceptance:

“'cause I need to watch things die

From a distance

Vicariously I, live while the whole world dies

You all need it too, don't lie”

A really messed up acceptance, mind you.

Tool loves to explore the troubled edges of our minds, where the conscious mind and the subconscious mind lap at each other’s shores, and madness lurks where they overlap.

On “Right in Two” Keenan sings about the dark impulse of humanity to always want to divide and to fight. This is the cursed gift of consciousness to Keenan – the gift of realizing we are apart from one another. And how does he see us using that?

“Monkey killing monkey killing monkey.

Over pieces of the ground.

Silly monkeys give them thumbs.

They make a club.

And beat their brother, down.

How they survive so misguided is a mystery.”

This reminded me of Roger Waters’ “Amused to Death” album except it was way less amusing. That’s bad because, “Amused to Death” is not at all amusing.

Songs like “The Pot” are so catchy that they can’t help but define the record, but the real gem on “10,000 Days” is “Rosetta Stoned.” It is about a man abducted by aliens or simply high on LSD and thinking he was abducted by aliens. We are never sure. Ordinarily this might not matter, except the aliens have allegedly told him the secret to avoiding humanities destruction and he was too high to remember it. It is this kind of tragedy of uncertain perception that Tool revels in.

The album drags ever so slightly in places, and at 75 minutes I found it a bit overlong, but the general brilliance of the high points more than make up for it, and the dragging sections are well used to set up the set pieces.

If you are new to Tool, “10,000 Days” is a good gateway album to their music and while it isn’t my favourite that is only because of how consistently brilliant these guys are.

Best tracks: Vicarious, The Pot, Rosetta Stoned, Right in Two

CD Odyssey Disc 622: Tool

I am just back from an evening of listening to music with friends – one of my favourite things to do. Now it is time to review the album that I listened to as I walked the last part of my journey home – making it a musical night right up the very last!

Disc 622 is…. Lateralus

Artist: Tool

Year of Release: 2001

What’s up with the Cover? Tool always manage to do covers that are both innovative and totally creepy.  This one has a plastic black sleeve over it, but when you take that off there is a booklet that looks like those see-through layered anatomy pages you find in encyclopedias.  Except when you flip through this one you find weird extra items buried inside, like a vortex ending in a burning eye, a pentagram and a pearl at the centre of four ornate handles. For Tool the human anatomy isn’t just fascinating; its filled with eldritch horror.

How I Came To Know It:  My friends Kelly and Chris told me to get this when it came out but like a chump I ignored them for several years. When I finally did buy it, they were proved right. If I didn’t give them credit at the time, let me make up for the oversight and say thank you now.

How It Stacks Up:  It is a close call with “Undertow” (reviewed way back at Disc 131). I originally put “Undertow” second to “Lateralus” when I rolled it, but there are a couple of small faults at the end of “Lateralus” that knock it just south of 5 stars. Since I gave “Undertow” 5 stars, and I’m not going to do that here, I’ve got to reluctantly put “Lateralus” second.

Rating:  4 stars but ever so close to 5.

When I go to house parties, I’m known to take an ornate drinking glass with me – I call it the Goblet of Rock. The Goblet of Rock is an ornate steel frame depicting dragons, pagodas and naked ladies. The glass the frame holds is a deep cobalt blue. It is ridiculously over the top, and I love it.

Or at least I did.  Last night while I was unpacking my knapsack, it slipped out of my hand and the cobalt blue glassware smashed into tiny pieces on my kitchen floor. I was listening to this album at the time on headphones, and the song that was playing was “Schism.” As the glass bounced unscathed off the tile once, and then fell a second time and disintegrated, I could hear Tool’s Maynard James Keenan singing:

“I know the pieces fit 'cause I watched them tumble down

No fault, none to blame, it doesn't mean I don't desire to

Point the finger, blame the other, watch the temple topple over.

To bring the pieces back together, rediscover communication.”

It was a weird coincidence, but exactly the kind of weird coincidences you almost expect when listening to the crazy genius that is “Lateralus.” Listening to this album walking to and from work for a couple days, I felt like I was in some kind of Lovecraftian tale of horror. The sun was shining, but everything seemed disconnected and alien. Yet last night walking home at two in the morning, the album felt more like a warm blanket of sound. The dead of night is just a better conduit for the Tool listening experience.

Wherever you listen to it, “Lateralus” will cast its spell on you. This record is a masterpiece of musical precision, crisp yet layered sound production and thoughtful, evocative lyrics. Like all Tool albums, it explores the dark recesses of the human mind as it casts its considerable imagination into what it means to be human.

Grounding it all are Danny Carey’s drums. Carey’s drumming is always amazing, but I think he is never better than on “Lateralus.” He lays down a web of complicated and unexpected time signatures. My untrained ear can never figure out what they are (I’m pretty much a 4/4 guy), but it doesn’t prevent me appreciating how they give every song a centre that is both focused and disorienting at the same time.

And beyond being technically interesting and intricate, these songs draw you down into a fugue state where your lizard brain can get lost in the groove even as your frontal lobes dance nimbly on the melody.

There are portions of this album that drag slightly, like the echo-filled “Mantra” or the muted “Parabol” but they are deliberately placed to give context and emotional layering to the songs that come just before and after. Without these little tracks, “Lateralus” would never let you up for air.

Songs like “Schism,” “Parabola” and the title track, “Lateralus” explore the nature of the human experience, and what it means. Can we step outside of ourselves? What is our condition, and is it divine, or merely self-aware? Tool never provides easy answers to these questions, but they always encourage us to think outside the lines, and contemplate our place in the universe.

And then there are songs like “Ticks & Leeches” where Maynard James Keenan just gets his anger on at all those people who suck him dry. For all I know he means the fans (he has been known to baa like a sheep at his own audience until the start baaing back). I’d tell the band to lighten up, but frankly I enjoy listening to them get their anger on. Maybe that’s what Maynard’s getting at.

Like my last review for James Brown, a lot of the songs on “Lateralus” are long (eight of the thirteen songs are six minutes or more) but they never feel too long and although the album clocks in at an unwieldy 78 minutes, I’m not sure what I’d cut to make it shorter.

Well, there is one thing. Once again, Tool decides to end a song (“Triad”) with two minutes of dead air, and then finishes up with “Faaip de Oiad,” a panicked ‘true recording’ of some guy describing an alien conspiracy. This just knocks this record down to four stars. Just.

Best tracks: The Grudge, Schism, Parabola, Ticks & Leeches

CD Odyssey Disc 485: Tool

On Thursday my new random album for review was Tool, but I didn’t finish listening to it before the weekend.

Over the long weekend I mostly steeped myself in alt-country and folk music.  I just discovered an artist in the genre – Neko Case – and I love her stuff and plan to get more.  I also listened to a couple of loners from my buddy Casey (no uploads, though – pay the artist!).  On Monday I even took a tour through reviews in “Penguin Eggs” magazine looking for new artists and discovered quite a few I want to check out in more detail.

Which is to say that I was not terribly ready at an emotional level to return to plumb the depths of prog metal that is Tool.  However that is what the dice gods decreed before the weekend began – and the dice gods will have their due.

Disc 485 is… Aenima

Artist: Tool

Year of Release: 1996

What’s up with the Cover?  Tool loves their screwed up covers.  Previous albums revealed an alien rib cage and a six armed priest, but this time we go even further into the land of H.P. Lovecraft.  This cover is a rudimentary square pulsing with some kind of strange fire and emanating disembodied eyes.  The photo I’ve taken doesn’t do it justice though, because Tool put the picture in a special jewel case with textured horizontal lines, so that when you move the CD back and forth, the strange fire pulses and eyes fly about with the illusion of depth.  I call this cover “The Lack of Colour Out of Space.”

There are alternate images inside, in case you prefer skinless leg grafts, naked contortionist floor shows, or flying babies with back-spikes.  How I wish I were making any of that up.

How I Came To Know It:  I have been a fan of Tool since my old room-mate Greg first introduced me to them in the early nineties.  I bought “Aenima” much later as I was drilling through their collection, and probably have only had it for about ten or twelve years or so.

How It Stacks Up:  I have five Tool albums.  I also briefly had a “Perfect Circle” album but it didn’t grab me, and I sold it before I ever rolled it for review.  Of the five Tool albums, I must risk the rage of Tool fanatics everywhere and put “Aenima” fifth.

Rating:  3 stars

My two favourite Tool albums are 1993’s “Undertow” and 2001’s “Lateralus,” so it is strange to find the album in between not appealing to me nearly as strongly.

Which is not to say “Aenima” is a bad album – it is actually a very good album – and it marks Tools natural movement from the more grunge-rock style of “Undertow” toward the more progressive and complex sound of “Lateralus.”

Once again the drums of Danny Carey are in full glory, and on Aenima there are even other elements of percussion worked in that aren’t drums per se, but still nail down the rhythm of the songs.  This was particularly noticeable at the beginning of “Eulogy,” which just sounds like two hollow sticks being banged together at first, but slowly builds into a complex, ultra-heavy rock song that is worth the wait.

Tool isn’t about guitar solos, so much as they are about riffs and creative drum beats mixed together.  These form songs that generate simple visceral energy but provide a deep level of complexity if you take the time to let your ear wander through them.  If you’re not in the mood to be challenged that’s OK too, it also works to just bob your head and rock out.

I will sometimes complain about longer songs on the Odyssey, but Tool is a band that knows how to properly use a longer song to fully develop a musical idea, and then transport you there until you lose yourself in the labyrinths of their construction.  “Aenima” shows the beginning of the sound the band would perfect on “Lateralus, and helps you appreciate it by seeing it in its nascent form.

The album’s lyrics are as angry as ever.  The anger runs the gamut, whether it is the quiet piano of “Message to Harry Manback” wishing cancer on its listeners, or the loud and rebellious “Hooker with a Penis” which is a rebuke to early fans that insist that Tool sold out to get famous.  Rev. Maynard sings “Hooker with a Penis” with a clear and present rage at the hypocrisy of judgmental fans:

“All you know about me is what I've sold you

…

I sold out long before you ever heard my name.

“I sold my soul to make a record

…

And you bought one.”

The ellipses are replacing some colourful insults to underscore Maynard’s point; namely that if the band is a sell-out at least they are aware of their own decisions, while the listener knows nothing more than what they’re told – a mythology created by the very artist they seek to judge.  It is a lesson that ‘early album only’ snobs and music critics alike should take to heart.

“Aenima” then takes the band’s anger to a whole new level, as they practically call for a massive natural disaster to sink Los Angeles into the ocean.  For all the many songs through history that praised the city of their roots, “Aenima”provides a disturbing counterbalance, as the song snarls away for six and half minutes.

Songs like “Aenima” provide the band time to explore their rhythmic progressions and really work up a good smelly, angry sweat.  The one notable exception to this on this album being the almost fourteen minute “Third Eye” which is just too all over the place to hit the mark.  Here it isn’t the length so much as the excess content.

If anything, it is the shorter songs that let me down, seeming to be just mood pieces of between half a minute and two and a half minutes to separate the larger set pieces.  I personally think the album would hold together better without this filler.

Also, even if individual tracks stretch their length out comfortably, at fifteen tracks and over seventy-seven minutes of music, “Aenima” loses the comfort overall.

Of course, Tool is not about comfort – if anything the songs are designed to knock you out of your comfort zone.  “Aenima” does a fine job of doing this, and as always the musicianship is exceptional.  Still, despite the strong high points, I always find myself preferring the visceral rock experience of “Undertow” and the song construction and groove of “Lateralus,” leaving “Aenima” caught in the middle.

This experience – admittedly a very personal one given the overall quality of the music – keeps it just a hair shy of true excellence, even as it proves that there is no bad Tool album to be had.

Best tracks:  Eulogy, Forty Six & 2, Hooker with a Penis, Pushit, Aenima.

CD Odyssey Disc 425: Tool

After a hard-fought ultimate game, I’ve awakened from a refreshing nap and an equally refreshing shower ready to take on the next review in the CD Odyssey.

Disc 425 is…Opiate

Artist: Tool

Year of Release: 1992

What’s up with the Cover?  It’s fun with double exposures!  Here, the result is a creepy six armed priest.  Listen to enough Tool and you’ll quickly discover they’re not too keen on religion.

How I Came To Know It: This was another album that my old roommate Greg put me on to (along with “Undertow” reviewed back at Disc 131).  Greg was in on the whole Tool scene from the ground floor, and brought me along for the ride.

How It Stacks Up:  I have five Tool albums.  “Opiate” is only an EP, so it is hard to compare, but I’ll put it 4^th anyway.

Rating: 4 stars

“Opiate” is only an EP, but in just six songs it captures just as much of Tool’s ferocity as any of their excellent works that would follow.  Here, in 1992 we see the beginning of a musical journey that form legions of dedicated fans, throngs of enthralled critics and more than likely a few sleepless nights for the more squeamish among us.

Tool is a band that gives voice to the underbelly of existence.  Lead singer Maynard James Keenan isn’t interested in sharing his love of puppies with us.  He prefers to explore the mysteries of the universe, usually finding them cold and discomfiting.

When he sings about the human condition, and he finds unexpected kinships in our insecurities.  On “Opiate” this is exemplified by “Cold and Ugly” a song about facades and fears:

“Trembling at the thought of feeling

 Wide awake and keeping distance

 Nothing seems to penetrate her.

‘cause she's scared as hell.

“I am frightened too

I am frightened”

When Keenan sings “I am frightened too” it comes from a deep an honest place where he sounds genuinely frightened; for himself, for the girl in the song, maybe for all of us.  It isn’t often you’ll hear a metal lyric that admits to being scared, but that is the charm and the horror of Tool.  They scare you into paying attention to the lizard brain inside all of us, and that rarely paints a pretty picture.

When “Opiate” strolls away from the personal experience, it tends to get even darker.  Focusing on the realm of the civilized, Keenan sees only hypocrisy and self-serving power structures.  “Hush” is a guttural scream of defiance against censorship in all its forms, replete with and a torrent of expletives that seem entirely at home within Keenan’s core anger that he can’t say what he wants to, even if he’s not serious.  Everyone has to govern what they say once in a while, of course, but Tool gives a voice to the frustration that can cause.

It is hard to figure what they feel they can’t say on this first record, mind you.  Topics include nightmares, fear, censorship, masturbation (strangely not the song called “Jerk Off”), murder and on the title track, a vicious assault on organized religion.

Most metal songs called “Opiate” would be about drug use, but leave it to Tool to be referencing Karl Marx’s famous quote about religion.  I’ll leave whatever you think of that to you – I blog about music, not politics or religion – but the song itself is a breath stealing five minutes and twenty seconds.  Like a breath, it flows in and out, now slow and troubled, now fast and angry until it ultimately explodes into a minute long drum solo that I can only call a rape of the ears.

After the song ends (it is the final one on the album) we get that annoying habit of early nineties metal albums; the hidden track.  This one comes after about a minute of silence, and is a fairly entertaining little tale of a couple of oddball characters that go a bit crazy.  One takes acid and thinks he’s a fire hose, and another takes ecstasy and has sex with the furniture.  I wish it were a separate track, and if it were I’d still listen to it, but it is a minor qualm on an otherwise great record.

The high degree of musicianship the band would later become famous for is on early display throughout.  Most EPs you will hear from early in a band’s career sound like they were recorded in an oil barrel and only listenable because you can hear the promise of what will come later in the band’s career.  Not so, Tool, who Apollo-like spring fully clothed from the head of rock, playing intricate arrangements as tightly as any ten year veterans.

The album is anchored by the rhythm section of Paul D’Amour’s bass and Danny Carey’s drums.  Carey is always great, and has gone on to have a body of work only matched by Rush’s Neil Peart in terms of its ambition and ability.  D’Amour left the band in 1995 and despite the great bass playing on later records, listening to “Opiate” made me wish he’d been there for their full career. 
 

Like the full-length albums that would follow it, “Opiate” isn’t music for the squeamish, and it doesn’t pull its punches.  If you are easily offended, seek your pleasures elsewhere.  As for me, I think it is yet another classic entry in Tool’s great discography that has only one serious weakness; it’s too short.

Best tracks:  Hush, Cold and Ugly, Opiate.

CD Odyssey Disc 131: Tool

The next disc in the CD Odyssey is proof that not all music is about love and fields of flowers.

Disc 131 is...Undertow
Artist: Tool

Year of Release: 1993

What’s Up With The Cover?: Um...an alien ribcage? This is typical of Tool's disturbing CD art and frankly, is one of the more tame examples. The back of the disc depicts a pig with the word "undertow" shaved into its side, that has been impaled on about twenty forks. Yikes.

How I Came To Know It: My buddy Greg gets full credit for my exposure to both Tool in general, and this album in particular. During the grunge/celtic folk wars of the early nineties, this was an album I actually enjoyed.

How It Stacks Up: Tool takes their time releasing records. In eighteen years, they've released five. Of the five, I would say "Undertow" is a close second to 2001's "Lateralus".

Rating: 5 stars, although there is some silliness on track 10 where you get about 10 minutes of crickets chirping, that came very close to knocking it down to 4 just out of sheer frustration.

"Undertow" was the first Tool album I ever heard - I really liked it, although I'm told they don't perform these songs in concert any more, which I think is kind of odd.

When Tool put this record out (and the EP preceding it, "Opiate") I don't think there was anything that sounded quite like them. Rev. Maynard's creepy vocals, their compelling, complicated grooves and above all Danny Carey - rock and roll's second greatest drummer ever (after Rush's Neil Peart).

Seventeen years later, "Undertow" still sounds fresh enough to be released tomorrow. Frankly, it would probably do better if you did. They are a unique band, who I think only fully realized their mainstream potential in 2006, with the release of "10,000 Days". That suits me just fine, and likely Tool as well - although I'm sure they would've happily cashed the cheques.

Anyway - this isn't a Tool retrospective, it is a review of "Undertow."

This record only has ten tracks, but there isn't a real stinker among them. "Disgustipated" is a bit goofy, since it is over fifteen minutes long, and the only musical portion is a weird beating of sticks, as Rev. Maynard sermonizes about a dream he had, in which carrots can feel pain. ("These are the cries of the carrots. They have a consciousness!"). It sounds silly, but Tool manages to twist our initial humour at the notion into a dark and serious realization:

"This is necessary. Life feeds on life."

Yikes. It is creepy, because it is true.

Since Tool can creep you out about eating carrots, it isn't surprising that they are that much more creepy when tackling serious topics.

In "Sober" they get right to the emotional core of addiction. Lines like:

"I am just a worthless liar
I am just an imbecile
I will find a centre in you
I will chew it up and leave."

really capture the self-loathing of the addict that wants to quit, but can't resist his own compulsions. There is also a very cool (and creepy) stop-motion animation video for this song, featuring a sewer pipe filled with chunks of raw meat.

Frankly, we used to joke that "Sober" was the radio release simply because nothing else would've received radio play in 1993.

Most notable, is "Prison Sex" - a song about prison rape. This song paints such a disturbing picture of its chosen topic it could probably singlehandedly scare people onto the straight and narrow. Of course, it would be a pretty tough sell as a public service announcement. Not exactly after-school special material.

When I first heard the record, I always enjoyed "Swamp Song". I can't understand all the lyrics, but I always imagine this song is about some drunk in a bar stumbling into other people. I don't know if that is what it's about, but that's what it is about for me. I can certainly relate - who among us has not been stumbled into by some drunk at a bar? Anyway - whatever it is about, I love the groovy riff on this song.

What all these songs have in common is amazing musicianship - often with the unexpected focus on drums and bass. So often in rock music, guitar and vocals are cranked up way too loud. Tool provides an excellent balance, and in the process shows off very balanced and intricate songwriting.

Every Tool album is excellent, but I think even with the stiff competition, "Undertow" holds its own, and is solid throughout. It also put a new spin on music, a new focus in production, and lyrics that both disturb and elicit real emotion in the listener.

It isn't a pretty flower, and it isn't for the easily offended, but it is amazing music.

Best tracks: All tracks, although you can live without "Disgustipated" after you've spared a moment of silence for the carrots.