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 title: Salival review
author: David Peisner  
Reviewed by David Peisner  
  
Since their 1993 debut, Tool’s taken art-metal pomposity to new 
heights, producing some heroic, pain-wracked guitar-rock in the 
process. They’ve proven there’s a market for such creative writhing—
their last two efforts both went platinum—and the slickly-designed 
Salival is intended as a nice holiday bone to throw to fans. In the 
end though, it’s much ado about nothing. Packaged in a big, black box 
with a 60-plus page booklet of garish artwork, it’s hard to believe 
when you dig into this thing that there’s only one lousy CD with 
eight stinkin’ songs on it (plus a DVD with a few videos on it). Five 
of the songs are live versions of previously-released stuff that 
ramble on for at least nine minutes. The studio tracks range from 
irritating self-indulgences (“LAMC”) to engaging covers (Page and 
Plant’s “No Quarter”), but nothing’s essential. For die-hards, 
Salival will look really cool sitting on your shelf. And after a 
couple spins, that’s where it’ll stay. 

Posted to t.d.n: 05/06/01 02:11:00