Aenima - Tool

Advantages: This is Tool
Disadvantages: May be disturbing to some...

...In the words of Mr Maynard James Keenan himself, 'F*ck Smiley Gladhands with hidden agendas' If there's one thing Tool are not, it's fake. If there're two things Tool are not, they're not fake or stupid... There's alot of controversy amongst Tool fans as to which exactly is the best album. There's alot of controversy among Tool fans as to which is the best song on any of these albums. There's no controversy at all as to the quality of any of Tool's material. It's all genius. My first experience of Aenima (but not Tool, having owned Lateralus for a good 6 months) was at a party some 5 weeks ago. Getting on for midnight, a group of us were gathered in the ridiculously deep sofas and dim lights of the front room, relaxing, chatting, and trying to avoid any of the manic vomiting that was going on elsewhere. Enter several girls who... Read review

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Advantages: Amazing ablum and band
Disadvantages: Nothing

...After the success of Tool’s 1993 debut album “Undertow”, the band was already receiving acclaim for the live stint on the third annual Lollapalooza festival and for their disturbing music videos for the songs “Sober” and “Prison Sex”. When it came time to record their sophomore effort “Aenima”, bassist Paul D’Amour left the band and was replaced by Englishman Justin Chancellor. When the band recruited David Botrill, the band wanted to broaden their progressive-metal sound to newer heights that most bands wouldn’t have done when it came to make a second album. Whereas most groups try to make a second album that was more accessible or stick to the formula that made their first album great, Tool didn’t do any of those things. Instead, they went to darker and more melodic territories to set the “Aenima” album further apart from their debut... Read review

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Advantages: Complex, original, amazing rock music with a difference.
Disadvantages: Takes a while to fully appreciate. Not to everyone’s tastes. Grrrr those four silly tracks!

...There is a sure fire way to forget about the commercially manufactured abomination that is the charts and there is a way to forget about bandwagon hitchhikers that claim to be making ‘alternative’ music. The way to do this is to sit down with a Tool album in your stereo and listen to it with your ears... Aenima is the third album by Tool (following on from Opiate and Undertow). Like all their albums it is complex, sincere, difficult to categorise, and of course is amazing... Tool are defiantly anti-commercial. They do not release singles and they do not personally appear in their own videos (the videos are always really cool animations that have been worked on by a member of the band). The band like to remain fairly anonymous by avoiding personal talk in interviews and the vocalist (Maynard James Keenan) has a constantly... Read review

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