TRACKLISTING

 

1.- Stinkfist
2.- Eulogy
3.- H
4.- Useful Idiot
5.- Forty-Six & 2
6.- Message To Harry Manback
7.- Hooker With A Penis
8.- Intermission
9.- jimmy
10.- Die Eier Von Satan
11.- Pushit
12.- Cesaro Summability
13.- Ænema
14.- (-) Ions
15.- Third Eye

 

   Tool took another three years to come up with a follow-up for Undertow. Some changes inside the band are worth mentioning. The bassist Paul D'Amour left the band and the vacancy was pretty big. Undertow's sound is led, defined, shaped by the bass. D'Amour was an angular stone inside Tool's songwriting. So, it was hard to imagine how the band would sound without that lovely bass. Justin Chancellor came for this album and let me say it, he is damn good.

 

   So, Tool took their time, but if you considered Undertow good, nima is beyond the wildest dreams of any fan. The album is by any standards their biggest, most artistic effort. Undertow was straighter, the songs were merely layed out in varied but simple structures. Ænima takes to a new level the complexity; still, in some songs can be traced a more accesible path ("Stinkfist" or "Ænema") but the album strays from the mainstream a lot. The songs are really developed into monstrous and solid chants. The trick is plainly shown in such cases ("Pushit", "Eulogy") but even in those that are more accesible, they plant their trademark. The song doesn't build around catchy choruses, but it uses a chorus that evolves, changes and mixes with the strophes.  So, Tool are seemingly another mainstream band, but do not be fooled. The apparent pop structure used throughout their discography is only that: apparent. In this album, the slight changes inside the evolvement of the songs make all the difference. The listener doesn't find anything twice, his ear must be sharpened in order to distinguish everything. So, the songs are unique; the breath-taking parts are used only once, so these parts aren't worn off even after months and months of hearing and analysing. The album is more sober than Undertow; sometimes there appears that grungy shade, but weaker than ever. The band has eliminated the risk of being branded as alternative and has created a different enviroment where only Tool know how to grow in. A territory that borders metal and fuses the past sound of the band with progressive shades. Not that progressive music that is used to show off the skills of a guitarist, but that one that reminds us of Pink Floyd: not always perfect technique but full of feelings. But the listener has to be prepared for the ambiguous atmosphere that the album portrays: an opressive enviroment that's prolonged by the annoying intermissions. Eighty minutes later, the listener is tired and completely satisfied.

 

   The technique of each member has been clearly improved. Maynard James Keenan has cleaned his voice a lot; it's an amazing surprise to hear his voice making clear-voice choruses, but the range of his growling and shouting has been widened, too. In Undertow, one can hear vocal uncertainty sometimes. Now, he is unquavering. The guitar isn't exactly flawed, it's just that Adam Jones doesn't surprise with his technique; it is innovating, but very simple indeed. Even though, he manages to write greatly inspired riffs and solos. The drumming is freer. In Undertow the drum didn't play an important role as now it does. Now, Danny Carey strays from the main rhythm to make explendid displays; there's even a drum solo in "Forty-Six & 2". The bass, like it's been said, can be marked only as different: he produces a sound no better than D'Amour's, but he is certainly not bad. If the bass was rough and played a leading role in Undertow, now it's elegant and a lot cleaner; now it has catched up with the rest of the elements, too. Each of them has a shining moment, but, most of the times, they go in perfect harmony.

 

   We can note one other thing: four songs were written before changed bassist ("Stinkfist", "Ænema", "Pushit" and "Eulogy") Even though Justin played these parts, the listener can notice the strong hand of D'Amour.

 

   After the reachable Undertow, Tool has reached perfection in an exhausting album that will mark their path as an original band that can't be compared to nothing else. They are Tool, their genre is Tool.

100 OUT OF 100