page: 3
 title: Aenima Review
author: James Lien


If you look at it objectively, the story of Tool is the story of How 
To Break A Band In The 90's And Still Keep It Real: much like Pearl 
Jam, Rage Against The Machine, and Stone Temple Pilots, the band 
became a tremendous success with its first record, and not just 
because of a killer video - it also took a year of touring and kids 
calling radio request lines, as well as other intangibles and a lot of 
hard work to get the band to the breaking point.  But even more than 
Pearl Jam, Rage and STP, the band is virtually defined by its 
antagonistic stance towards bullshit and hype, even while it plays the 
big-time music biz game: if Tool really were the media-driven, 
machine-made puppets-on-a-string that its critics might suggest, then 
try explaining away all those eager kids lined up outside the store on 
the eve of the record's release.  Tool's second opus is looong (72 
minutes!) and every bit as unrelenting as a forced march to the 
battlefield.  And heard objectively, it's probably a better, more 
consistent album than the sophomore efforts from any of the above 
mentioned bands.  Aenima celebrates the band's strengths to stunning 
effect - the fist-pumping choruses ("Jimmy"), gigantic mosh-on-top 
rock jams ("Stinkfist"), garbled wrenching vocals ("Eulogy") and the 
absolutely haunted-sounding lead guitar work of Adam Jones ("Hooker 
With A Penis," "Pushit," "Useful Idiot").  From packaging to promotion 
to its self-directed videos, Tool controls its own destiny, and Aenima 
shows it to be a bandand force to be reckoned with.

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[My thoughts: there's "haunting" guitar work in "Useful Idiot"???
So haunting, you can't even hear it!!]

-TiM

Posted to t.d.n: 02/08/99 12:43:13