Tool is a band I’ve known of for a long time. I used to think they were bizarre. With some of the most disturbing videos I’ve ever seen, I quickly wrote them off in my youth as strange and refused to listen to them. But Tool is unlike any band I’ve ever listened to. Maynard James Keenan, the band’s singer, said the following, “Tool is exactly what it sounds like: It’s a big dick. It’s a wrench…. we are… your tool; use us as a catalyst in your process of finding out whatever it is you need to find out, or whatever it is you’re trying to achieve.”
That pretty much sums up what this band is to me. What I love most about their music, is that more so than any other artist, they write about things in such a way that you constantly get something from their music. From the nuanced guitar riffs, to the heavily textured drum beats, to the deeply introspective lyrics, Tool’s music parallels my own life in many ways. Their early music was more angry, as most artists’ tend to be. But as their discology moves forward, you come to find songs that tell of hope, looking inward, and dealing with issues that are both mundane and otherworldly.
Seeing Tool in concert is unlike any other show I’ve been to. They have some of the most amazing light shows and visuals. Like their videos, some of the imagery is both disturbing and beautiful. They assault your visual and auditory senses in a way that only true showman can do… they slam you with all this energy. But just like their albulms, they give you a break periodically to recoup.
I used to agree with my brother, thinking that some songs, were merely just filler, or as he put it, “zombies farting into a microphone.” As I’ve listened to them over the year though, I’ve come to appreciate the “zombie farts” in that their albums are meant to be listened to from start to finish.
With Tool, you have an interesting phenomenom. People don’t really know what they are. Some say they’re anti-religion, some say they talk about shamanistic tradition, the occult, etc. And while I believe some of that may true, the band has been known to pull some insane April Fool pranks to their fans, claiming a break-up, and even saying that members were in the hospital in a critical state. What I can say about Tool is that they’ve become this thing that nobody can really define. And I think that’s exactly how the band wants it to be.
All I know is that I love these guys.Their music is amazing, and I think they aim to do what Maynard stated above. Tool is what you make of them. They’re fantastic artists first and foremost. The beauty is that the rest is up to you.
My favorite song from them is Lateralus, which I listen to on an almost daily basis. An interesting note is that he says, “Black and White are are all I see, in my infancy… red and yellow them came to be, reaching out to me, let’s me see…” I’ve heard word-of-mouth that that’s how our vision progresses. From black and white, then to color. Regardless, cool stuff. Check out the song embredded below and tell me what you think!
-ty
Click here to view the embedded video.
“A circle is the reflection of eternity. It has no beginning and it has no end – and if you put several circles over each other, then you get a spiral.”
-Maynard James Keenan
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