Publication: USA Today
Date: May, 2001
Transcribed by
Hank Jones (hankjay@hotmail.com)
Hank Jones (hankjay@hotmail.com)
page: title: They're just the right Tool for the thinking headbanger author: In the rock-metal game of survivor, Tool has the edge. The LA quartet, one of few heavy-rock outfits to outlast the '90s, tests its immunity against ejection from pop's in crowd with the mysterious and seductive "Lateralus" (3 1/2 stars out of 4). With Rage Against The Machine in limbo, Alice In Chains in tatters and Soundgarden in retirement, Tool is left to save prog-metal from extinction, a job it performs handily on this dark, electro-symphonic journey to self-discovery. The band's rabid cult following, established with 1992's "Opiate", remains intact and hungry, judging by sales of last year's Salival CD/DVD set (250,000 copies) and swift sellouts of four concerts this month. A Perfect Circle, singer Maynard James Keenean's side project, scored a hit last year with "Judith", further bulding anticipation. Tool hammered out a niche with such bleak dirges as "Prison Sex" and "Stinkfist" and the desperate mantra "I am just a worthless liar." The mood brightens on "Lateralus", in which scientific concepts serve as metaphors for human bonding and bondage. A dense, rhythmic hum belies the optimism in the passionate "Parabola" and healing "Schism". Where he once name checked Carl Jung and Aleister Crowley, Keenan conjures his own instincts to wrestle demons. In the title tracks he yearns for the emotional openness "to weep like a widow, to fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain, to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human." "The Grudge" preaches the wisdom of letting go: "Give away the stone/Let the waters kiss and transmutate this cold and fated anchor." Elements of Nine Inch Nails, Portishead, King Crimson and My Bloody Valentine inform Tool's precisely orchestrated industrial rock, yet "Lateralus" sounds remarkably original, due in large part to Keenan's agile voice, fragile and paranoid one moment, a despairing howl the next. The music likewise takes hairpin turns, demolishing formulas with shifting meters, digital noise and an erratic pulse that swerves from rushed to hushed. "Lateralus", the thinking headbanger's therapy, may not cure the metal illness rampant in mindless rap-rock, but it's sure to sharpen Tool's artistic reputation and shield its untarnished credibility.
Posted to t.d.n: 05/15/01 18:58:37