I’m pretty sure my introduction to TOOL was the same as everyone else my age. I saw the video for Sober and just stood there with my jaw on the floor knowing I was watching something completely new. Both the stop motion music video and the music itself were completely alien to me. I’d never seen its like before, and it was love at first listen. I got the album, Undertow, and while it wasn’t as good as the singles, it’s still one of the more impressive debut albums of the 90’s.
Ænima however, was definitely not love at first listen. I’d gotten a review copy from the student newspaper I was working for and I remember going straight to the computer lab, sat down, put the CD in the disc drive and pressed play. And was utterly bored by what felt like a dower, one note, slog of an album. I did like the closer, Third Eye, it had the more accessible bit of rocking out and kinda reminded me of Ministry. I only got into this album as my mate Andy would come round to our place to work on the Vampire Live Action Roleplaying game he was running in Sunderland Uni and put it on. And slowly over a few weeks it clicked and has never let go.
Where do you even start with such a sprawling album? I’ve so many memories of listening to this album over the years, it’s a very dark and overpowering record to be a musical comfort blanket but that’s pretty much what it’s become. From the first, dissonant notes of Stinkfist I know I can just drift away with the album.
Maynard gets a lot of shit, and some it is deserved but when he puts his mind to it he can write a great lyric.
“I’ve been crawling on my belly
Clearing out what could’ve been
I’ve been wallowing in my own confused
And insecure delusions
For a piece to cross me over
Or a word to guide me in
I want to feel the changes coming down
I want to know what I’ve been hiding.”
There’s a spiritual side that he only uses writing for Tool and it’s a shame because it’s what makes his lyrics stand out in the metal crowd.
For me, Third Eye is the album highlight. A 13 minute beast of a track. It’s not catchy in the way the title track is, but it has an intensity and atmosphere that no one else has been able to copy, no matter how hard various acts have tried. This is Tool before they became TOOL and climbed fully up their own arse.
There’s been so much push back against the band over the years, and to be honest, some of it is deserved, but that shouldn’t and never will take away from just how good Ænima is. Before anyone thought prog could be in any way cool, TOOL, one of the most musically impenetrable bands of their day, somehow became one of the biggest bands in the world.
https://lynkify.in/song/third-eye/ZleNrgmH
The ways of exile 