Published on Feb 15, 1997
I remember the first time I ever heard Tool – I was in the
Chicago office of Zoo Entertainment visiting a friend I worked with
in radio. He pulled out Tool’s demo, and put it on the stereo for
me. Stunned is the word closest to describing how I felt listening
to this glorious noise – afterwards, I felt cleansed.
Maynard James Keenan and crew have been cleansing people with
their brand of alternative metal now for four years, and while
their latest studio release,
Ænima, isn’t their best work, it features some of
their most exciting product since their debut mini-album.
The debut single, “Stinkfist”, picks up where Tool left off on
their last album, the disappointing
Undertow. “Stinkfist” has a groove which grabs the listener
and refuses to let go. Like their previous singles “Sober” and
“Prison Sex”, “Stinkfist” mixes Keenan’s vocals with Adam Jones’s
guitar perfectly, and the vocal effects used add to the song’s
mystique.
For most of the first half of the disc,
Ænima takes the listener for probably one of the most
intense musical rides they’ve ever been on. Cuts like “Eulogy”,
“Forty Six & 2” and “Hooker With A Penis” show the true
potential of Tool.
Ænima would almost be the best Tool release were it
not for some of the band’s dives into total weirdness. “Message To
Harry Manback” is basically a threatening phone message with a
haunting backing track, and is disturbing on the first few listens.
Other cuts that could have easily been cut include “Intermission”,
“Die Eier Von Satan” (featuring German ramblings from Marko Fox),
and “Ions”. (One word of advice, guys: just because you have 78
minutes of space on a CD doesn’t mean you have to fill it up.)
Tool’s one strength is the ability to write long songs that seem
to go by in an instant; two songs clock in at over nine minutes,
the longest being almost 14 minutes. However, the musical abilities
of Keenan, Jones, and fellow bandmates Danny Carey and Justin
Chancellor, justify the length of the tracks.
While I don’t usually recommend buying an album for its artwork,
the CD of
Ænima features the most innovative packaging I’ve ever
seen, and makes the decision to buy the tape or CD easier. (One of
the moving pictures features the band, two of whom seem to be
naked, watching a contortionist apparently blowing himself. And to
think I believed that could only be done with a Craftmatic
adjustable bed.)
While Tool has never been able to produce an album that matched
the power and strength of their debut disc
Opiate, they have come close with
Ænima – and had they been a little less cautious with
the razor blade and the master tapes, they could have carved this
one into their best release ever.