TOOL Essentials

TOOL Essentials

TOOL may well be the last major rock band to join the streaming generation. But now, finally, all their music is here. Maynard James Keenan and his band formed in LA in 1990, and quickly became one of the most important, ambitious alt-metal bands ever, perfecting the balance between temperate, contemplative melodies and full-on metal, screeching and vicious. And the way those two extremes play off one another makes each all the more potent. Many songs, like “Schism” and “Lateralus,” begin gradually, meditatively building atmospheric intros and intense yet restrained verses, before fully unleashing. Add the band’s lyricism—philosophical, deeply psychedelic, sometimes outright spiritual, and often wickedly hilarious, with lots of double entendres—and it makes tracks like “Forty Six & 2” and the 14-minute epic “Third Eye” as great to analyze as they are to hear. TOOL’s songs may take patience to fully absorb—and we’re not just talking about the track lengths—but the payoff is worth it.

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