Tool Band • Page 14

What's everyone's favorite album?

I used to think Lateralus but I can't look past Aenima nowadays.

 

Aenima is my fav, BUT Lateralus is seriously so fucking good too.

H probably my go to TOOL song.

Also Push It, and also there whole discog

 

I have never been able to pick a favorite between those two.

 

It’s close between Aenima and Lateralus but I’ve gotta go with Aenima.

 

Lateralus, hands down

 

Easily Lateralus for me

 

Aenima is probably my favorite record of all time. Lateralus is fucking incredible too, though.

 

It switches between Lateralus and Aenima depending what mood I’m in for me. If I was hard pressed I’d probably pick Lateralus as being their best and most cohesive work but Aenima has some of my fav songs by them on it. I do think 10,000 days gets overlooked a lot and I’d only just have it behind the other two.

 

10,000 Days is a great record too. Just not as nuanced as the previous two. Wings For Mary is a great two parter

 

Alright now I've gotta break out the rankings cause their discography is so manageable and the order is pretty easy for me.

1. AEnima 98/100
2. Lateralus 95/100
3. Undertow 92/100
4. 10,000 Days 82/100

Also, I found Opiate on vinyl for $8 a couple weeks ago. It had been a long while since I'd paid that album much attention, and this has brought back how fantastic it is for an EP and for early '92... the grunge scene was just getting off the ground, hair metal was still a thing, and these guys were fucking killing it.

I like most of the material on 10k Days, but I have to notice after doing the ranking... if they'd stopped at Lateralus, this would be by far the most flawless and unimpeachable discography of any band I follow.

 

Aenima was my favorite album in high school and my favorite tool album for a long time. But, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve picked Lateralus over it.

 

I think Aenima has the best individual songs, but as a whole Lateralus is a cohesive masterpiece. Too much filler on 10K Days but the good stuff is really good. I cried the first time I heard that bass riff in Jambi.

 

I'm the outcast who ranks 10k first

 

Pt 2 is their best song

 

10k Days is not my favorite but it might be my second favorite. It's also one of the best sounding albums I've ever heard

 

10k Days will always have a special place in my heart as it was the only album I had to wait for (I became a fan after Lateralus was released). The hype and buildup to it was unreal. I can go back and look at posts I made on the Tool forums 12 years ago that are super cringe-worthy and smile fondly on them.

As for the album itself, the first 5 tracks are amazing. My problem is all the filler. "Lipan Conjuring" is a classic useless Tool segue. "Lost Keys" is barely more than a filler as it only serves as an intro to "Rosetta Stoned" which is a weird one because a lot of the vocals are just spoken word laden in effects. I would also argue that it goes on too long and a majority of the riffs are recycled from other Tool songs, but then guitar has never been Tool's strong suit. "Intension" feels like half song/half segue, but it does have some cool moments. "Right In Two" is outstanding, and "Viginti Tres" is your typical weird Tool noise filler.

I know Aenima also has a lot of weird little segues, but it also has 9 full songs to balance the 6 filler tracks.

 

Yeah 10,000 days is very top heavy.

 

I got absolutely obsessed with Tool maybe a year after Lateralus came out, so I was in the same boat.

My initial reaction was major disappointment. Now that it's so far in the past, I can see that I was too hard on it because the expectations were just impossible for a band I regarded as practically divine and infallible. What I remember leading up to the 10kD release:

- "Vicarious" leaked a few weeks out, and I thought it sounded like a "Schism" rehash, and also that Maynard's vocals had taken a significant nosedive
- The whole album leaked, and as "Rosetta" started with the holy fuckin' shit bouncing between channels in my headphones, I legit wondered if this was a fake dupe leak or something
- "Jambi" was my favorite right away and still is, but even it sounds like a vague mashup of AEnima songs

I don't know, I can totally see how someone getting into them now could put 10kD near the same level as the others. It has killer jams. It just isn't revolutionary at all in the way its predecessors were. In fact, it recalls specific moments and aesthetics of the previous two LPs to a fault at times. Up to Lateralus, this was a band that completely reinvented itself repeteadly with smashing success, similar to Radiohead. I was expecting something completely alien and mind blowing, and 10kD just wasn't that, so maybe I've never been able to fully accept that and give it its due.

 

Vicarious was the first tool song I heard and one of my favorite songs of all time

 

Here's my opening post from a thread I started on 04/20/2006:

"I don't know how many of you guys have experienced this, but I can't listen to anything but Tool right now. Like, I try, and nothing works. All this hype about the new album and then the single coming out and then this leak, it just pulls me in. I only got into them about 3 years ago a good while after the release of Lateralus, so I'm not as diehard as those who've been here since 92 from the first EP (lol). But I'm into all kinds of music but still Tool remains my fav and I don't listen to them nonstop, there have been times when I can't get enough besides right now. There was a good long while where I didnt really listen to them that much and people actualyl forgot I liked them. No. It doesnt work like that. Tool will remain in my heart always. I have boned up on Opiate, Undertow, Aenima, and Lateralus so much these past two weeks. I've already mastered and memorized them but I've just been so excited that I listen to them nonstop for added inspiration. And it never gets old.

That being said, I have only had the new CD for less than 24 hours and I still can't listen to anythign else. For example, yesterday while I was listening to "Hidden Hands Of A Sadist Nation" by Darkest Hour I just stopped it on the third song and went straight into Vicarious. It's a disease.

Can anyone here relate? I know none of my really close friends can."

Man I was the Tool fan that everyone hates

 

Oh my god haha. Posted on 04/24/2006:

"Today sucked. It's a proven fact we hate mondays (its monday in the US) and today was no exception. Given that yesterday was my 18th b day, I went to the local DMV today to get my license.

I apparently suck at driving. I failed the test.

So i was sitting in the car there after the test and then Vicarious came on the radio. I havent even heard it yet off of the radio, but it was magic.

It was like seven minutes of bliss in the midst of strife and sorrow. Then the song ended and life went back to normal. But as I sang along to those seven minutes, I found that Tool is a band I can put my trust in to cheer me up. They blow my mind away and constantly push the envelope. They relax me, enthrall me, confuse me, captivate me , and tweak my senses into submission on a regular basis.

Here's to the band that has inspired us all (hopefully).

Vicarious owns, and this release is going to be monumental."

Someone's response to me in that thread: "lol. Failing a driving test is strife and sorrow? Ahh, to be so carefree..."

 

That's some good shit and I was just as bad of a fanboy in HS. Man, back in that era if you were into progressive/experimental rock, they were straight up gods. The legions of obnoxious devotees existed for a reason. I think they've inspired so many great artists over the past 10-15 years that the cult following looks slightly sillier now, but around the time of AEnima and Lateralus, they were so far above anyone else with a remotely similar aesthetic. I've def never been half as obsessive about one specific band as I was with them for the first couple years I was listening.

 

This thread inspired me to listen to Lateralus for the first time in quite a while... I’ve loved Tool for a long time, but I think I had forgotten just HOW amazing they are, and how far they were above similar bands from their era.

 

Not having Tool on Apple Music is the worst. I have no way to listen to the band while driving anymore. My new car stereo doesn’t have a CD player (don’t have any CDs anymore anyhow) and I just don’t think it would sound that great listening on YouTube through my car.

 

I’m hoping the rumors of their catalog being available to stream this year are true.