Publication: Atlanta Journal Constitution
Date: May, 2001
Transcribed by
I don't have a name (It's Lee) (leesumners@mindspring.com)
I don't have a name (It's Lee) (leesumners@mindspring.com)
page: D7 title: Tool's depth and breadth much more than metal author: Shane Harrison (sharrison@ajc.com) Review of "Lateralus" Grade: A Tool is to Limp Bizkit as Marcel Proust is to Stephen King. The former fashions art that is deep, dense and not easily digestible. The latter's work is undeniably well-crafted and entertaining, but ephemeral. Tool's first album in five years is unleashed into a very different musical environment from 1996's "Ænima." Modern rock has evolved into a more metallic beast while carving out a bigger chunk of charts. Some of it good, most of it bad, but none of it approaches the dense brilliance of "Lateralus." The Los Angeles-based quartet takes raw, hard metal and twists it into suprising shapes. Imagine the more mysterious side of Led Zeppelin (Tool has covered "No Quater"), Pink Floyd's experimental sprawl and Black Sabbath's sinister scariness melded together in a thoroughly modern musical maelstrom. It may be metal, but Tool is more akin to edge-seekers such as Radiohead. Vocalist Maynard James Keenan offers up lines that would make a fine band motto in the song "Lateralis" (yes, that's a different spelling than the album title, but willful spelling inconsistencies are one of the many quirks in the Tool universe): "I'm reaching for the random or whatever will bewilder me. And following our will and wind we may just go where no one's been." "Lateralus" defies easy analysis. It will still be giving up its secrets after many months of intense listening. Haunting and otherworldly, the surface blasts away at rock's conventions, led by the rafter-rattling precision of Adam Jones' guitar. Keenan's voice is a more assured instrument on each successive Tool album, providing passages of aching beauty and thundering fits of rage. On "Ticks & Leeches," Keenan's vocal is every bit as scathing as the lyrics, where he rants, "I hope you choke on this." There's a lot here to choke down, but popular music is rarely this substantial. "Lateralus" is worth every discomforting moment. Tool plays a sold-out show at 8 tonight at the Tabernacle
Posted to t.d.n: 05/15/01 13:21:34