[dionysusundone]

Hate Tool. *end of contribution to thread*

[atsonicpark]

For the best experience, just listen to the Neurosis discography. Neurosis are one of the most intelligent, awesome, pummeling metal bands around. They don't really sound like Tool, except they are both epic, creative, and awesome.

[atsonicpark]

Also, why does every Tool thread have to mention their "fans"?

What popular band doesn't have idiotic fans? (don't say Sonic Youth, because one) they're not popular and two) this board has proven some of their fans are dumb-dumbs!)

...I'd never judge a band by their fanbase.

Then again, I do like some ICP songs.

[atsonicpark]

Tool are extremely creative. Name one band that sounds like them that came out before them. You can argue the "awesome" and perhaps "epic" part ("epic" is usually synonymous with "slow, boring, dull" anyway.. Lord of the Rings is described as "epic".. yeah, I'm going to not use "epic" as a compliment anymore, it's been associated with too much bullshit).

...Even Tool's interludes/filler tracks are amazing. That song ions? With the electric/static going from speaker to speaker? That shit is amazing!

[Green Magnesium]

Sooo... people assume that because I've never heard Tool that I'm not already a massive fan of Neurosis or Melvins? I've had Rising playing in a loop since I saw the recent Neurosis thread.

My question was in regards to where I should begin with Tool, not "what bands should I listen to instead of Tool?"

[dionysusundone]

Ohman, this is getting good, I think I'll stay after all. Where's that popcorn?

[pbradley]

Originally Posted by Green Magnesium

My question was in regards to where I should begin with Tool, not "what bands should I listen to instead of Tool?"

this song was my introduction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07pLGIgyfjw

I particularly like the change up at 3:35

[atsonicpark]

Originally Posted by Green Magnesium

Sooo... people assume that because I've never heard Tool that I'm not already a massive fan of Neurosis or Melvins? I've had Rising playing in a loop since I saw the recent Neurosis thread.

My question was in regards to where I should begin with Tool, not "what bands should I listen to instead of Tool?"

I was replying to sway's "for a better experience...." thing. Just get Aenima.

...Also, sway, it's not a schtick, I listen to "mainstream" music just as much as "underground" music. I don't really pay attention to a band's popularity or fanbase when judging what music I listen to. And I think all music has something good in it, regardless of anything. I just think bringing up their fans at all is a bit silly, and it happens in every single thread. I gurantee there are people on this board who write off bands just because of their fanbase. Which is ridiculous, especially when you consider how many idiotic Sonic Youth fans I've met! Don't judge a band by their fanbase! (if you do) (and that goes to everyone...) (...who does that)

I don't hear any Shitgarden in Tool. Maybe some Zeppelin (I mean, Tool DID cover "No Quarter").

Also, you can get GENGHIS TRON albums at Wal-Mart now, Sway. Does that mean they're popular (no, it just means Wal-mart sells some Relapse Records releases)? Tool have sold like probably 20,000,000 albums worldwide.. just sayin'. They're fuckin huge... so, they're guranteed to have more idiotic fans... but they're still a good band.

I'm just trying to pry open your third eye.

[atsonicpark]

I do want to make special mention of that GENGHIS TRON album at walmart though. The sticker on the front said something to the effect of, "For fans of Melt Banana, Discordance Axis, Dillinger Escape Plan, Boredoms..." or something ridiculous like that. Obviously, none of those other bands have had cd's sold at walmart, so I thought that was hilarious.

They suck.

[atsonicpark]

Huh. I don't know what you're talking about or what point you're trying to make, but Soundgarden make music that hurts my ears. Also, "Spoonman" is the worst song I've heard in my entire life.

[atsonicpark]

I heard LOUDER THAN LOVE a while back and...

yeah.

[Satan]

they're shit

[atsonicpark]

They brainwashed me into fucking my tattoos.

[infinitemusic]

Then again, I do like some ICP songs.

atsonicpark, you have the worst taste in music of anyone I have ever encountered in my life. Every time you post, you mention liking a worse band than the last.

Basically, I'm just going to take it as if you recommend something it has to be absolute shit.

thread contribution: Just like Tool.

In all seriousness, Tool does blow away 99.9% of other bands out there. They're just too great. They're easily one of the best bands ever.

Heehee

Also, I bought this guitar on eBay and some dumbass had carved the Tool Logo into it. You can hardly tell but it still pisses me off.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by atsonicpark

Also, Lateralus is absolutely amazing. It's extremely soft compared to all their other stuff ('cept for Ticks and Leeches) but it has their most powerful compositions on it. That minute-long scream in "The Grudge" is unbelievable, as is the guitar part that comes in directly after the quiet part in "Ticks and Leeches". The 11-minute "Triad" encompasses everything that makes Tool awesome. The album is a bit too long (79:59.9999! The fuck?! I played the disc on my computer once and it read the album as 80:01!) but eh. When so much of it is amazing, who cares? Honestly, it's not my favorite album by them, but it is probably their best. They removed all the filler (the "Filler" here is still musical), and it has their best songwriting, ever.

I got a lot of shit for saying Aenima had a lot of Filler but you are spot on with the lack of filler in lateralus. Further that scream in the Grudge is remarkable at it ability recapitulate the extremeness of frustration and angst in life. It is the epitome of screaming I swear, and I listen to a lot of hardcore and crust/chaos full of screaming, but the Grudge takes the cake. And I was just telling my sister about the mastery of that quiet bridge in Ticks and Leachs into the erruption on the same vibe as the Grudge. Since I was eight years old and fell in love with the power of dynamics, I have naturally flocked to albums the relly even overly on the power of loud to soft to loud. It gets me every time...

in regards to lateralus, as I said, it is is a metaphysical album in its ability to create and channel certain emotions of anxiety, frustration, angst. Essentially a great deal of this album (and excuse me for relying on religious dialouge but I am practically a theologian and it is the only language I know to describe some feelings sometimes, its my handicap ) is the emotional power of frustration carried in the saying, "Eloi Eloi Lama Sabachtani (which is construed, My God My God Why Have You Forsaken Me?") It is not that Maynard was trying to be religious, rather this album just naturally carried the empathy of frustration and angst, and that is also the entire purpose of the Passion theology, that the Suffering God Jesus is supposed to be able to relate to the suffering spirit of humanity. Life is suffering, and Jesus is supposed to be the relief of suffering because he experienced the very pain and anguish of mortality and the feelings of weakness of the human experience and condition. It is deep theology to contemplate God feeling the pain of the weakness and insecurity of being human but that is a digression left for a different thread.. back to tool

For me, this album is my release. The Grudge captures a bad day and gives you a language to express your inarticulate groanings of a frustrated soul in anguish. It climaxes with that long scream like the weeping of a soul in the weakness of being subject to forces outside of your control. Life is suffering.

"Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.
Justify denials and grip 'em to the lonesome end.
Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.
Terrified of being wrong. Ultimatum prison cell.
Saturn ascends, choose one or ten. Hang on or be humbled again."



then the Patient continues with this vibe, carrying you deeper into your internal dialouge with your own emotions and experiences, helping to solidify, perhaps define your angst and help you relieve it by naming it and disregarding it after the fact. Just knowing something can be a relief unto itself.



"A groan of tedium escapes me,
Startling the fearful.
Is this a test? It has to be,
Otherwise I can't go on.
Draining patience, drain vitality.
This paranoid, paralyzed vampire act's a little old.
But I'm still right here
Giving blood, keeping faith
And I'm still right here."


but the album provides a glimpse of hope to transcend your grief. after all the excitement of confronting the beast in yourself, you come to Parabol and Parabola which are very theological and comsological songs about existing..

"We barely remember what came before this precious moment,
Choosing to be here right now. Hold on, stay inside...
This body holding me, reminding me that I am not alone in
This body makes me feel eternal. All this pain is an illusion."

It is interesting to think of the fact that the human body, the mortal and weak body, could actually be a relief to the eternal soul, a kind of comfort to know that your body is your existence. You have a physical body to define and keep company of your spiritual existence reminding you that you are not alone, and it is your spirit which makes pain transcendental and illusory. I had never thought about the mortal body having such a relieving quality as being your companion, the friend of the soul, until I heard this song..

that quiet bridge and scream of "Suck Me Dry" is almost self-explanatory in this context..

"Feed my will to feel this moment urging me to cross the line.
Reaching out to embrace the random.
Reaching out to embrace whatever may come."

In Lateralus you find that hope return, to reach out and embrace with joy and surprise, like the tenets of Buddhism or Chaos Theory, the simple pleasure of existence, 'embracing whatever may come' as inevitable reality and an experience worth having one way or the other, as your experiences are all you have.

"And in my darkest moment, fetal and weeping
The moon tells me a secret - my confidant
As full and bright as I am
This light is not my own and
A million light reflections pass over me"

The Hope is growing stronger here, it is not necessarily "God" that provides relief, but it is a light outside of ourselves, it is the reality of reality which is comforting, that the universe is not fucking with you personally (toltec wisdom)

this is a good fucking album, it captures quite a great deal of the human experience and condition, both in its lyrical poetry but especially in the sound and power dynamics of the music itself. fuck the haterz, TOOL is the shit, and Lateralus is a masterpiece.

[Rob Instigator]

I'd rather listen to FEAR

[youthoftomorrow]

i like Tool. Lateralus is a great record.

10,000 Days kinda sucked, but at least the singles were good.

[dirty bunny]

If the question was "Do you think of Tool" then my answer would be "No".

But I guess if I had to say something about them, I'd say they're alright. They kinda just sort of find this one pace to go at that never really climaxes into anything. What's up with that?

[pbradley]

Lateralus is boring shit.

[AllHandsOnTheBigOne]

10,000 Days is some god awful shit. Their other albums definitely have some good points to them.