What do you folks think of Tool?

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Dogsinplastic

avuncular to no one
From the first time I heard Sober I was hooked, but I didn't actually buy any of there stuff until a few years ago and honestly didn't really spend any quality time with them. Recently though I've been starting to just absorb their stuff.

As I mentioned in the What are you listening to this week? thread yesterday, they have a very visceral quality to my ears. They strike at something that is sometimes unnerving. I can't say that it's really what they're doing, but like Tori Amos, it seems as though they are just purely expressing themselves and making you deal with it. Yeah, that makes sense...:rolleyes:

To me they are a metal band, albeit with progressive leanings and constantly moving within the music. I stopped thinking about music from a genre perspective, so metal is just a broad frame that some fo what they do falls into.

Anyway, does anyone else hear like them? If so what do you like most? Least?
 
I like Tool, but I find most of their music very dark and brooding.

They do an excellent job in production, though, and all their stuff is mixed great and sounds excellent through headphones or the stereo.

That being said, it's a lot like putting on PF's The Wall. It sucks you in, but at the end you are kind of left feeling empty and depressed wondering what the hell just happened...


So yeah, I like Tool a lot, but don't listen to them very often. I have to be in a certain mood for it.
 
I like their videos. And I can enjoy a song or two. But there's no way I could listen to a whole album straight through.
 
I was with Tool up to 10,000 Days. I think that’s me more than them. I outgrew their psychedelic new-age stuff around the same time I realized all those Seattle bands were just kind of whiny and Rage Against the Machine were callow twats.
 
jp_nyc said:
I was with Tool up to 10,000 Days. I think that’s me more than them. I outgrew their psychedelic new-age stuff around the same time I realized all those Seattle bands were just kind of whiny and Rage Against the Machine were callow twats.
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Were you previously a fan of all of these other bands as well? What instigated this epiphany (these epiphani?)? Was it something that made you rethink music?

The closest thing I ever had to that was growing out of any appreciation of '80s rock and metal. I still like some bands, but very few. I'm still in awe of many of the musicians, but I don't listen to them much be it old or new music. But I wasn't invested in it beyond wanting to learn how to play like a George Lynch or enjoying watching Sheehan and Vai (and later Sheehan and Gilbert) do insane unison lines in fun but meaningless tunes. My musical heart was definitely far broader and nestled elsewhere so the passing interest was expected.

The folks that I know that got into the Seattle scene and acts like Rage definitely took it very seriously and I would think getting to a place where something that once so meaningful to them was really just tripe might cause a lot of deep reflection. I know if I suddenly thought the Beatles, Coltrane, Marley, Donovan, the Police, Zappa (and various of many other artists/bands) were shit I would need some real and serious time to rethink music.

That said, it sounds like you weren't steeped into these acts much more than I was the '80s rock and metal stuff.
 
I think my first experience hearing them was live at Lalapalooza in the early 90s.

They didn't strike me as anything revolutionary but it was clear they were going for something different. They were more sophisticated and brooding than most of the mosh-pit bands.

I don't think badly of them as musicians but, kind of like Coralkong mentioned, their dominant mood doesn't appeal to me.

There's also a Rush-like geek thing going on: "Ok. They used a Fibonacci sequence for time signatures in one of their songs. I get it."
 
I should love them, since I love prog and metal. But Tool just doesn't do much for me, for whatever reason. I don't dislike them, mind you.
 
Was a big fan but for some reason haven't listened to them for a long time. I may have to go back and revisit thier music.
 
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