Tool: Ænima

1996 Volcano Running time: 1:17:14 Styles:

Heavy Metal, Alternative Metal, Prog-Rock

Lineup

CODE

Maynard James Keenan – Vocals, Adam Jones – Guitar, Danny Carey – Drums, Justin Chancellor - Bass

One listen to Tool’s Ænima, and you will say “Wow, what an incredible album.” After a second listen, you will say “Wow, what an incredible album.” A third listen and the result will be the same. This is an album that will never get old, it will never get lame, boring, or dull. Ænima will live forever, because it is real rock; completely untainted by the media, by mainstream trends, by anything which brings other records down into the sea of mediocrity. Tool stay completely individual and totally true to themselves as they rise above the legions of posers with this heavy metal masterpiece. Tool come racing off the starting blocks with the opening track ‘Stinkfist’, which is about as ‘straight-ahead’ as Tool go on this album, beginning with a huge pounding riff before heading into a deceptively tame verse in which Maynard James Keenan soothingly sings of a boy who has a callous to love; a small taste of the unique and diverse subject matter of the rest of the album. The next song, Eulogy, is an epic, one of the best on the album, which grows from a simple percussion section into a tale of false martyrdom and betrayal, with incredible riffs and a beautiful detour into an angelic and pacifying bridge section. Other highlights are Forty-six & 2, a statement about gene therapy (the title relates to chromosomes); Ænima, a message of derision targeted at the circus of people who live their lives to the standard of somebody else, hidden inside a tale of apocalypse; Hooker with a Penis, which derides blatant commercialism and how our lives are ruled by corporations; and Third Eye, which asks us to open our eyes and come to realise what this world is, and to be who we are instead of an iron-cast shell of everybody else. The musicianship of Tool is consistently breathtaking, as they delve into eerie, atmospheric experimental sections at the drop of a hat; launching into full-blown heavy metal attack; or creating harsh, dissonant sound-scapes which are extremely effective and almost impossible to replicate. Each member of Tool is incredible on Ænima, and not one member is freeloading or not putting in their two-cents worth, Tool are one of the tightest bands of all-time. Not only is Ænima full of incredible music, it’s more than that. It’s a doorway to a world most people will never experience – a world where we see behind the walls and between the lines, where we see more than the eye was meant to see. Listen to Tool’s Ænima, and pry open your ‘Third Eye’, you won’t be sorry.

Tracklist

CODE

Stinkfist
Eulogy
H.
Useful Idiot
Forty-six & 2
Message to Harry Manback
Hooker with a Penis
Intermission
Jimmy
Die Eier von Satan
Pus[size=1]hit[/size]
Cesaro Summability
Ænima
(-) Ions
Third Eye

Contents

Tool: Ænima

Lineup

Tracklist

Index