page: 22
 title: TOOL: Nightmare Visions
author: Frank Terricelli

  Tool's Maynard James Keenan strolled through the bustling mid-town
hotel lobby with a definite sense-of-purpose to his gate.  He 
didn't look around to see if a horde of well-wishers, groupies or
sundry hangers-on were about to descend upon him-- and he didn't
seem to care.  Rather, he just forged ahead, seemingly immersed
in his own little world, oblivious to any events that may have 
been transpiring around him.  As it happened, there really wasn't
much of anything occurring near Mr. Keenan-- no rabid fans following
hot in his footsteps, no scrungy media-types unmercifully hounding 
him, and no muscle-bound bodyguards protecting his ass from unseen
menaces.  It appeared as if Keenan was truly a man unto himself,
a star who through his manner, mood and appearance seemed almost
unaware of any of the trappings of his success.
  Perhaps the low-key approach to stardom that Keenan and bandmates
Danny Carey, Adam Jones and Justin Chancellor have assumed during
their six year career has played a major role in maintaining their
fans' intense fascination with Tool.  After all, how many other
groups could lay as low as this band did during the three years 
that separated the releases of their breakthrough disc, Undertow,
and their recent chart-topping effort �nima and only increase their
popularity?  In sharp contrast to the traditional platinum band
approach of attempting to keep their names and faces in the 
spotlight as often and as lewdly as possible, the members of Tool
seem to thrive on their anonymity.  They don't appear in their 
own videos, hate taking promotional photos and rarely-- if ever--
show up together in public.  Heck, these guys don't even appear
on their own album covers!  No wonder Keenan has been able to pass
so freely through virtually every hotel lobby...and airport...
and shopping mall the band has encountered during their current
world tour.
  "We're not doing this to become famous," Keenan said.  "We're
doing this because it's what we do.  It's a natural extension of
who we are and what we are.  If people find that a little different
or mysterious, then I guess that's good."
  In fact, one would be hard pressed to name a major band that has
ever been more cloaked in mystery and intrigue than Tool.  From
their earliest days in 1992, following the release of their debut
disc, Opiate, the band began perfecting their unique formula for
success; create some of the most thought-provoking, experimental
and downright unusual music in the world, dress it in an array
of superficially "metallic" trappings, and then release it on an
unsuspecting world.  At first, the band's approach was met with
reactions ranging from confusion to outright disgust.  But slowly
but surely, as they relentlessly toured the North American continent,
Tool began the difficult task of winning over the uninitiated.  By
the time their second disc, the aforementioned Undertow, hit the 
streets in the spring of 1993, the ground-swell of support the
group had been cultivating began to evolve into a seething swarm
of fanatics, all of whom were addicted to Tool's dark musical
stylings.
  "When you never set out to get signed, or make albums, you are
much more free to go after what truly motivates you," Jones explained.
 "With us, it was always the music and only the music.  It had to
inspire us and make us think-- and it had to inspire everyone who
heard it and make them think too.  If it didn't do that, then
what was the point of making it in the first place?"
  Indeed Tool's music did serve to inspire and did raise the thought
quotient of all who encountered it.  Through such ground-breaking
songs as Prison Sex and Sober, Tool managed to bring an entirely
new sound and style to the rock front line, proving in the process
that in the '90s there were truly to be no artistic bounds geared
to constrict the creative intent of any band.  Their videos further
fueled their fame, with their unique stop-motion animation approach
winning awards both for their creativity and their content.  Despite
their success, and despite their many industry awards, there were
those within the music community who did little to hide their
outright hatred for Tool, believing the band's approach was too
dark and dreary for public consumption.  But for every individual
who was turned off by the group's style, there were more who loved
the band for their brazen unpredictability and overt boldness,
rallying to their cause like buzzards to a dead carcass.  It seemed
the stranger, more bizarre and more grotesque Tool became, the more
both their fame and infamy seemed to grow.  It was a uniquely
contemporary rock and roll formula-- disgust your audience to the
point where they demand more!
  "Every aspect of what we do, whether it be each song, each video,
or each album cover is tortured over by each of us," Jones said.
"Nothing comes easy for this band.  Nothing is merely thrown away.
It took us more than three years to complete this album because
that's how long it took us to get it to sound the way we wanted 
it to.  There's nothing worse than creating something that's 
designed for instant disposability.  That doesn't interest us
at all."
  Certainly with the arrival of �nima, any lingering suspicion
that Tool may now be softening their harsh artistic stance was
quickly, and perhaps permanently, discarded.  This is an album
that takes all the concepts presented on Undertow and makes them
look positively commercial in comparison.  Few albums in recent
rock history have been so unwaveringly intense, so continually
perverse and so unfalteringly focused on the mission-at-hand.  Such
songs as Stinkfist and Hooker With A Penis seemed to tackle the
issue of the band's growing success head-on, and in the process
quickly eliminated any pretense that Tool were actually enjoying
their new-found place in the sun.  This is a band that enjoys 
existing in a dark, dank musical hole, and according to Keenan,
no amount of fame, fortune and attention is going to lure Tool
out of their dungeon of creative passion.
  "Once you release an album you're a product," the singer said.
"That's a fact of life.  You can deny it to yourself, but deep
down you know it's true.  I heard fans say we sold out when the
last album became successful.  I had to agree with them.  We are
a product.  But we're also true to what we believe."

Posted to t.d.n: 05/14/97 19:08:38