If Tool had broken up after the Opiate EP (and formed in Seattle instead of LA), there's a good chance they'd have gotten lumped in with the grunge scene. On Opiate, which is the most straightforward rock release of their career, they're "metal" but not any more so than Alice In Chains or Soundgarden or even some of the heavier Nirvana songs. They went on to make much, much more ambitious music than Opiate but it's easy to see why a lot of longtime fans still hold this EP dear. Later Tool albums require you to sit back and take in long, complex songs, but Opiate offers up a small batch of Headbanger's Ball-ready jams in easily-digestible three and four minute doses. And maybe the most impressive thing about Opiate is how fully-formed and distinct-sounding Tool's songs already were. On the EP's two live tracks, "Cold and Ugly" and "Jerk-Off," the studio isn't there to save them and Tool still sound as developed as they would on their classic full-length albums years later. It's moments like those when you realize a certain artist is really something special, and this band is one of those artists. And listening to Opiate now, knowing what Tool turned into, is an entirely new experience of its own. You're hearing the familiar sounds of a larger-than-life band, but in a very modest, life-sized way. It can be chill-inducing.
Tool, Lateralus Full Album Zipl
One of the reasons that Opiate sounds like it's bursting at the seams with talent is because Tool themselves were already aware that they had more in them than a few neatly-packed alternative metal songs. Just 13 months later, they released their first full-length, a 70-minute album with songs that neared or passed the 7-minute mark and embraced atmosphere and progressive rock much more noticeably than the EP. (It also included a spoken word interlude from Henry Rollins on "Bottom.") The seeds for what Tool would become are not just sewn but starting to blossom on Undertow, though it still remains the band's most straightforward rock/metal full-length. Tool cross over into prog a handful of times on Undertow, but still remain dedicated to the kinds of heavy rock bangers that gained them a shared fanbase with bands like Alice In Chains. As far as the full-lengths go, Undertow is the headbanger's album of choice. It holds up very well, but if you're waiting for Tool's more experimental side to really take over, the next three albums have you covered.
With all due respect to original bassist Paul D'Amour, the addition of Justin Chancellor was exactly what Tool needed to fully give into their proggiest desires. Chancellor's basslines -- like on the classic Ænima song "Forty Six & 2" -- became iconic parts of Tool songs, and his style made him as essential to the band's overall sound as every other member. With this lineup, Tool became one of those bands where truly every member is heard. Chancellor's show-stealing basslines, Adam Jones' mood-creating guitar parts, Danny Carey's polyrhythmic drumming, and Maynard's unmistakable sneer are all equals. It makes sense that when you see Tool live, Maynard often stays near the back of stage with his face obscured. He's become one of those frontmen that the fans disproportionately latch onto, but it seems like he knows the chemistry he has with the other three guys is bigger than anything he can do on his own. (He also fronts the bands A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, who both have good music, but who can't really compare to Tool.) Tool became a tight-knit unit on Ænima, and the album birthed some of their very best songs. There are heavy moments as well as quiet ones, catchy melodic moments as well as off-kilter experimental ones. The album's got even longer songs than its predecessor, and it's far more psychedelic and progressive than anything they did before it, but still overall more traditionally structured than what they'd do next.
Coming five years after Ænima, 2001's Lateralus is Tool's most experimental album. It still has moments that qualify as metal but it's overall a progressive art rock album that puts the band's King Crimson, Pink Floyd, and Rush influences more in the forefront than any of their other studio releases. On this album, long songs are more the rule than the exception, and it's heavy on atmosphere and ambience; the bulk of it would probably appeal even more to post-rock fans than it would to people who came to Tool via their adjacency to nu metal. To revisit the Nine Inch Nails comparison I made earlier, Lateralus is sort of to Ænima as The Fragile is to The Downward Spiral. In both cases, the latter is more classic, more widely loved, and more radio friendly, but the former is adventurous in ways that early fans of the band may have never predicted. A song like Lateralus' "Reflection" sees Tool fully off in outer space, with words seeping out of Maynard's mouth like a slow leak as the band builds an atmosphere rather than focusing on riffs or verse-chorus-verse song structure. It's closer in spirit to Hawkwind or spacey Grateful Dead jams or certain songs by the aforementioned Pink Floyd than it is '90s alt-metal, and it's far from the only time that Lateralus explores that kind of territory.
And though 10,000 Days was indeed a more accessible version of Tool, one more similar to the alt-rock and alt-metal bands you could still hear on the radio in 2006, it also had songs like the 17-minute epic "Wings For Marie (Pt 1)"/"10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)." That song, and a couple others like "Intension," see Tool getting even more trippy and more atmospheric than they did on Lateralus. And even if 10,000 Days wasn't a major leap forward, it still finds ways to not sound like any other Tool album. As a band who's been around for nearly 30 years and released just four full-lengths, we can probably assume that -- like My Bloody Valentine or Portishead or Slowdive -- they've got a serious sense of quality control and won't release something new unless they're absolutely sure it adds to their discography. Let's hope that means the 13-year wait for Fear Inoculum will be worth it. 2ff7e9595c
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