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 title: Aenima Review
author: Edna Gundersen

	Here's a review of Aenima from the Microsoft Musiccentral 
website.  I don't know where "The Useful Idiot" came from, but it's a 
pretty optimistic review nonetheless.  They gave the album 4 out of 5 
stars.
								
	-Mike Feld

	Tool, the latest sledgehammer in the alternative metal school 
that brought us Rage Against The Machine and Alice In Chains, nails 
the genre in its third and best release. The LA quartet's previous 
album, Undertow, was a commercial breakthrough but an artistic 
softball. Aenima takes greater risks, juicing up Tool's 
edgy, aggressive rock with samples, whiplash tempo shifts, unholy 
special effects, and exotic instruments.

    Singer Maynard James Keenan erupts with a furious braying that 
amplifies the energy of the band's volcanic rhythms, gnashing guitars, 
and percussion spasms. Old-fashioned heavy metal gets heavier and 
scarier with such alloys as the spooky industrial noise in "Die Eier 
Von Satan" and cobbled sonics in "Ions (-)". Even relatively logical 
constructions like "The Useful Idiot" {sic} and thick-rhythmed 
"Stinkfist" have a febrile, panicky undercurrent that make Aenima a 
metal landmark.

Posted to t.d.n: 06/09/97 22:17:29