I constantly get asked "Hey whats your favorite band"? Thats a hard fucking question considering I like stuff from the 1930's like Sons of the pioneer, jazz/blues, classic rock soul sounds of the 70s, metal in all its forms, rap like run dmc not that new shit and everything in between. So people are asking me to pick just one band across a 80 year gap, thats a tall order.
After alot of though I would have to say its Tool. They are the only band to have music that even my least favorite songs I like, I feel well rewarded for buying their music as I can listen to every album and not dislike one song. Now Tool is unique in that upon hearing them for first 3 or 4 times you may like it but you dont hear it, you have to become accustomed to the song and then you start hearing everything seperate and the real beauty of their music really comes out.
Tool is a band whose music is pretty hard to label. They've been called everything from metal, to numetal, to alternative and progressive rock/metal. While they exhibit attributes to all of the aforementioned genres, it's pretty safe to say that they've created a kind of music that's timeless, transcendent, deep, mysterious, forbidding and intriguing - all at once. To me, their name sums up the music they make perfectly - a "tool" for exploring the mysterious depths of the human psyche. The music usually explores darker themes like pain, anger, frustration and guilt, then regurgitates them into a volatile, yet beautiful and alluring catharsis.
How do I describe Tool's music? I'd say they have the dark aura and minimalist experimentalism of King Crimson, the philosophical bent of Rush and the hypnotic, alluring quality of Pink Floyd - without really sounding like either of those bands. They possess their own distinctive sound. What also makes them stand above the others is they never re-tread ground, no 2 albums sound the same. While its obviously the same group with the same tone they evolve each album into something else slightly different but equally good. They are constantly in motion. You also will not find catchy jingles or with a easily digestable marketability like you will find on the radio or mtv (that is when they actually fucking play music that is). Their lyrics are also sometime maddening in that 1,000 people could each come up with their own version of what they mean at times or just scratch their heads totally confused as they most have sense of being pulled from a diary of poetry written by a person driven insane by hallucinogenic drugs. All the while being perfectly formed for each song, the lyrics taken out of context of the songs they are in hold no power and make no sense, but seem to form to the song and become part of it.
If you will sit and listen to these songs, and I mean listen where your relaxed and undisturbed you will find your self hearing the amazing and beautiful guitar work, Maynards hauntingly ranged voice that reminds me of early pink floyd, the stern and great bass work as well some of the most precise and perfected drum work youll ever hear.
Tool is not for everyone, but if you can open your mind and willing to experince something then youll find eventually their songs have like multiple songs within each one.
Granted their earliest album Opiate is more of a rock/punk style but it still has their charm in it, I would label it as my least favorite cd of theirs but with each album they do progress and grow becoming more and more detailed, practiced, perfected and excentrict. Aenima has a darker tone to it. Undertow seems to be more personal and thought provoking. While Parabola and 10,000 days seem to work more into a almost experimental and a feel of almost existentialism that reaches beyond normal music.
Some reccomendations (all though all of their stuff is good).
1- Ten thousand days
2- Jambi
3- Reflection
4- Rosetta stoned
5- Sober
6- The patient
7- Stink fist
8- 4 degrees
0 comments:
Post a Comment