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author: Phil Alexander

Tool.

They don't release singles. They make videos that are too harsh
for MTV. They are Tool, and they've just sold over a million
copies of their current 'Aenima' LP in the US without having to
ask anyone's permission. The uneasy listening Carlifornian crew
are currently on the road in the US, and will join Korn in June to
co-headline Lollapalooza. A UK return cannot be ruled out before
the end of the year, though there are no plans confirmed as yet.

The four-piece are expected to take a break during the late summer
in order for guitarist/visual director Adam Jones to work on the
band's next video. Jones is also keen to use the nine hours of
footage he shot for the 'X-files'-flavoured 'Stinkfist' vid to make a
full-length film. Tool also haev a unreleased cover of Led Zeppelin's
'No Quarter' up their collective sleeve, which could surface once
band members feel that they are totally happy with their unique
version.
----------

That issue had a review of the Equinox festival which took place in
Sydney, Macquarie University March 29. Midnight Oil strangely
headlined instead of Tool... Anyway, the whole thing got a 4 / 5 
rating, and this is what they had to say about Tool's performance:

And so to Tool. The Los Angeles four piece may not have any of the
traditional metal trappings, but before the 15.000 people gathered to see
them, they're an awesome spectacle.  Like Ministry, Tool are modern metal
in the best and articulate sense.  You can almost smell the torrent of
brain impulses surging through their systems during a set that is equal
measures instinct and intellect.  >From the moment guitarist Adam Jones
steps on his effect pedals, it becomes clear that the sound restrictionsof
earlier in the day has been relaxed considerably. His guitar rings clear
throughout the sense grooves of 'Forty Six & 2' and 'Third Eye', while
behind him the rhythm section of bassist Jusin Chancellor and Danny Carey
coils and uncoils with the strength and sinew of gigantic snakes. And
there's no dumb posturing either, no gyrations save for the moves of
Maynard James Keenan - he of the half blue half white bodypaint - which
comes across like some unhinged physiotherapy session half speed. Tool are
a paramilitary operation, clinically aimed at the gut, the mind and soul.
Empowered and empowering, like a modern day Led Zeppelin they mix muscle
and mystery, transcending any and every attempt to label them and pushing
back the boundaries of their art with everything they do. Long may they
continue. 

  -- review by Murray Engleheart

Posted to t.d.n: 05/01/97 16:31:01