Tool
 

Ok so last night my roommate and her friend are like "hey chris, Come smoke a bowl" I'm like "Alright!!"
My roommates friend through on a Tool album, I believe it was called Lateralus.

It blew me away, I loved it. I have always liked the sound of Heavy Metal? But i always found the singers to be screaming in the mic..which always turned me off from it, But, I found that tool actually sings. I'm gonna be pickin up this album for sure.

They were kind of surprised that i liked it, Since i listen to pretty much just Underground HipHop. I love Tools sound..It's crazy.

Can you tell me what they're best albums are?
Can anybody recommend to me anything that is on the same kind of level as Tool?

Thanks.

Tool fucking rocks, man.

Best album - I'll vote for Aenima. Most of the tracks on there will blow your mind.

Undertow is great, a bit rougher though.
Opiate's pretty raw, but still good.

:thumbsup:

Thanks SiN, I'm heading to the music shop right now..Gonna pick up couple of their albums.

Everything Tool has done is astounding. If you want a strange visual experience as well, check out their DVD. It has videos, but you have to search for them. The DVD is really kind of strange, but their videos are awesome!

I can't think of anyone I'd put in the same category as them. They're one of a kind in my eyes.

EDIT: Just to clarify, the DVD is named Salival and it has a CD with it as well. Along with Lateralus, Sin named all their CDs. If you were to ask my favorite, I'd agree and say Ænima.

I don't like Aenima at all.

I do enjoy Lateralus from time to time.

Haven't heard the other ones. I prefer A Perfect Circle.

hmmm...this post was useless. sorry.

Aenima is by far their best album, I think.

Every song on ther could have been a single. All are very good. I think my favorite song of all-time is Aenima. Love the sound and what it is about ( sorry California).

I was huuuge into Tool a couple of years ago. Yes, Lateralus is an absolutely amazing album, still one of my favorites. I'd say it's their best album by far, and they have supposedly already recorded their next album, which will be out sometime this year I guess (if there's one thing I really hate about Tool, it's how fucking mysterious they are about everything -- just give me a fucking release date, assholes!).

Don't bother searching for a DVD -- he's talking about a DVD that came with a live/rare songs album called Salival, which is now out of print. You'll probably find some copies on ebay, but for a rediculous price, last I checked.


As far as other bands similar to Tool, you might check out Isis. They have a similar sound, although the drumming is not nearly as good and I think it might be totally instrumental (I haven't listened a whole lot, admittedly). Tool fans always rave about them though, so they are worth a shot.

I wouldn't call them Metal but I wouldn't really know where to classify them. They are definitely one of my favorite groups and I would recommend you make a point to find everything they have made. In concern is an experience as well.

i really like tool... all their albums are good...

i saw them in concert 3 years ago... waaaaay awesome show!

^^

Lateralus is really good too.

Maynard is a fucking god.. 'nuff said.


Oh and my vote goes to Ænima for best TOOL album. Fav song would be Eulogy :D

Musically, they're kind of similar but not too much. Their vocals are what keeps me from mentioning them, since he said he doesn't like "screaming" and that's kind of what they do. Neurosis are awesome as well, and sound more similar to Isis than Isis do to Tool, but again, I don't think he'd get into the vocals.

My vote goes to Undertow for best album, but I can load up all their albums in a playlist and listen to them all over and over again and never get tired of a single song.

Aenima for sure!

If you EVER get a chance to see Tool play live, take it, even if it means skipping your mother's funeral, take it. It's not just a show, it's an experience.

As a person who has experienced Tool 4 times during their Lateralus tour, I can vouch! How awesome it would have been to not be 12 years old during their Aenima tour...

Tool and APC both rock!

They're not really metal... the classification would be closer to progressive rock.

As far as buying their music - You probably would want AEnima, Lateralus, and Undertow. Go ahead and pick up Mer de Noms by A Perfect Circle as well... more great stuff by Maynard on there.

So I picked up Lateralus and it kicks all kinds of ass, The album i wanted second was, AEnima..But neither music shop i went to had it..Which is making me want it even more.

Lateralus leans to much towards his Perfect Circle stuff. . Go for the older stuff man, that is what Tool is (was) all about. Perfect mood music..... They also have a DVD out with videos and a live set. Nice stuff. Check it out.

Ever been to Arizona Bay?

I could see how a hip hop head would love Tool's Lateralis, as it's mostly driven by drums and bass, it has kind of an earthy, underground vibe (not as much as the first Deftones album, or Sepultera's root's did). This also leads me to believe that you should just wait for the next TOOL album, Lateralis really strayed from Aenima, kind of like Aenima strayed from Undertow/Opiate. They kind of evolve, but i guess five years of legal issues, side projects and mysteriosities can do that to a band.

My vote however (if i must) also goes for Aenima as a better album, it's alittle more produced and edgy, and less about anal sex.

Actually, Aenima is much more about anal sex... anal fisting even. Stinkfist? C'mon. I feel that Lateralus is a much more mature album.

The next Tool album will definitely be even more bizarre than Lateralus.

They went from being very tongue-in-cheek to incredibly serious ... since Lateralus was mainly about consciousness and varying philosophies.

The next album will either revert back to the tongue-in-cheek style or continue to evolve into a more posthuman state.

Anything they make will be good. They're one of those bands that actually CARES about music they make, and would easily call it quits before releasing an album that would make a mockery of anything they did in the past (unlike quite a few bands that have been around for 15+ years)

I really hope that they abandon that pop sensibility sound they have and explore their full potential as musicians with this album. I think it's possible.

Tool is simply an amazing band...psychedelic and deeply spiritual, their music is left open to interpretation by each listener. And their videos... oh my god their videos are astounding. I loved the parabol/parabola saga off of lateralus. But yeah they are really mysterious so no idea when their next album will have a release date.

when you start tripping out on TOOL, check this out too... great companion.

http://www.vanillacircus.net/book/

Opiate is worth the money even though there arent many songs, regardless Aenima is overall astoundingly magnificent.

Yeah, I don't think he'd like Isis because of the vocals. But he should check out Pelican, which is basically Isis without vocals.

I'd probably push you to the likes of COG - The New Normal. 3 aussies that kicked out an awesome CD back in April... i've been listening to it pretty much everyday since then.

listen to some samples at www.cog.com.au if you like.. i'd suggest these few, probably 3 fav tracks off the CD.

The Spine
The River Song
Naming the Elephant

Tool, along with Radiohead, is one of those good but horribly overrated bands. Check out Porcupine Tree or Opeth's Damnation album if you want some more good progressive rock.

Is it just me.. or does every opeth fan think any other band is overrated?


Personally I find opeth boring and quite overrated. :shrug:

It's funny. I was actually going to put Opeth on that list, but of course that would be from other people's point of view.

edit: I'm not a rabid Opeth fan anyways, but they do hold a special place in my heart for introducing me to metal.

If you can get a hold of Salival do so! There's three 4 live songs on there and I think one is an original.

My vote for best Tool album is Ænima. Salival second.

on Salival listen to Tool's version of No Quarter (download it if you have to, not that i condone that sort of thing). It's an old zeppelin song, but you'd never know, i think it shows the talent and genius that is the band Tool. BTW i wasn't all that impressed with opeth either.
And as far as anal sex goes: it's a two song to one ratio with direct references. Undertow has 4degrees and Prison Sex ("i have found some kind of temporary sanity in this shit, blood and cum on my hands.") vs. Anima's solo Stinkfist "Fingerdeep within the borderline, this may hurt alittle but it's something you'll get used to."
-CM

Salival is very good, for what it is. The live version of Pushit is definitly better than the original, You Lied (Peach, Justin Chancellour's old band) is just great, and No Quarter is a testament to Tool's talent -- taking a classic song like that and doing it arguably better than Zeppelin themselves is no small feat.

I don't know how Opeth got brought up in this thread, but if you weren't very impressed, I urge you to give them another chance. I got into Opeth through Tool (well, a Tool messageboard at least), and I was just about the biggest Tool fan in the world at the time, thinking that no one could possibly make better music. At first I was really put off by Opeth, the growled vocals especially... but after discovering their brilliant mellow side, everything just sort of clicked, and now I'm a gigantic, rabid Opeth fan. I went from listening to nothing but Tool all day, every day to listening to Opeth all day, every day in just a couple of weeks.

Both bands are great, though... they just have some magical x-factor in their music.

I think Lateralus is a better album than Aenima. Aenima is a bunch of random songs about random stuff, and they are awesome songs, but Lateralus is like a bunch of lessons which form the foundation of living a good life, culminating in the song Lateralus, which all the other songs revolve around, but when stretched out into a line they form the linear album lateralus. Aenima is just so close to a Tool fans heart that its hard to accept anything as being better. I still don't like Lateralus more, I just think it's a better album in another way than Aenima is better than it.

Anyone know of a connection between Tool and GI Gurdjieff. I have a book about Gurdjieff, and in it is the line "As above so below" like "as below so above", and he has a book called "All and Everything" just like "desperate to control all and everything". I've never gone any deeper than that, but it's kind of cool.

What Saut said. Though, Opeth is still the best band ever in my opinion :D

--jaded

Tool just keep taking things to a new level with every album they release, Tool is 1 of the very few bands where I can listen to any cd any time and not think about skipping tracks to get to a different song. My fav band by far.

O and 1 thing to try for sure

Grab a copy of Salival and have a choof if preferred and lay down somewhere comfy, close your eyes a whack on "Push it" and play as loud as possible. Blows my mind no matter how many times I listen to it.

Ok, Everybody is talkin about Opeth so i'm gonna have to check them out. I was also reffered to another group called A Perfect Circle..I guess the lead singer of Tool has another band and it is A Perfect Circle..So i guess i gotta check them out too.

Now, About this Salival Album..I check HMV's website to see if they have it and it says they are out of stock. Is this album still available? Or is there a website where i could order it from? HMV is the only website i know of to order anything that isn't HipHop.

Thanks.

check ebay

No, you're not going to find Salival anywhere really. Ebay maybe... Haven't checked Amazon for it though, actually. Your best bet is to download it, honestly.

And yes, you'll probably like A Perfect Circle if you like Tool. I have no idea why I didn't think of them actually.

Be prepared to not like Opeth right away, if you haven't had any exposure to growled vocals. Fortunately, he sings (very well I might add) normally about half the time too, and they have some songs that have no growling. I never thought I could like the growls, but after putting up with them for a while because I loved the rest of the music so much, they actually grew on me.

Ok, I'm sorry I ever mentioned Opeth in this thread. As for checking them out, try their Damnation album. It's their venture into progressive rock (which is sorta where I put Tool thus my remark). You might not be interested in their other albums.