page: 22
 title: Salival of the Fittest
author: Robert Cherry

Few bands successfully combine a unique visual aesthetic with a 
powerful sound. Tool are the exception to that and many other rules. 
If you need evidence, look no further than Salival. Short of 
attending one of the band's concerts, there's no better way to 
immerse yourself in Tool's world than this box set, which beautifully 
packages the group's videos (on DVD or VHS) with a disc of live and 
unreleased tracks. Salival's artwork and impeccably recorded and 
performed live tracks, plus the rarities including a dynamic cover of 
Led Zeppelin's "No Quarter," are worth the purchase alone; but it's 
the videos that will leave you permanently haunted. Under the 
direction of the band's guitarist, Adam Jones, the clips-short films, 
really-inform and enhance the music like very few videos do. Using 
the archetypal imagery of dreams and admittedly indebted to stop-
animation gurus the Quay Brothers, Jones and his creative team relect 
the unsettleing mental and emothional states that singer Maynard 
James Keenan evokes in his lyrics. Jones' style is instantly 
recogniziable, and to his credit, he never resorts to cheap shock 
tactics to provoke a response from viewers. But that doesn't mean 
you'll feel any less disturbed after you finish watching this 
collection. One last word of warning: Don't try to operate the DVD 
under the influence. True to form, Tool have designed the menus to 
confound viewers.
Posted to t.d.n: 02/11/01 15:05:09