Publication: Microsoft Music Central
Date: November, 1996
Transcribed by
Mike Feld (berkana@idt.net)
Mike Feld (berkana@idt.net)
page: title: Aenima Review author: Edna Gundersen Here's a review of Aenima from the Microsoft Musiccentral website. I don't know where "The Useful Idiot" came from, but it's a pretty optimistic review nonetheless. They gave the album 4 out of 5 stars. -Mike Feld Tool, the latest sledgehammer in the alternative metal school that brought us Rage Against The Machine and Alice In Chains, nails the genre in its third and best release. The LA quartet's previous album, Undertow, was a commercial breakthrough but an artistic softball. Aenima takes greater risks, juicing up Tool's edgy, aggressive rock with samples, whiplash tempo shifts, unholy special effects, and exotic instruments. Singer Maynard James Keenan erupts with a furious braying that amplifies the energy of the band's volcanic rhythms, gnashing guitars, and percussion spasms. Old-fashioned heavy metal gets heavier and scarier with such alloys as the spooky industrial noise in "Die Eier Von Satan" and cobbled sonics in "Ions (-)". Even relatively logical constructions like "The Useful Idiot" {sic} and thick-rhythmed "Stinkfist" have a febrile, panicky undercurrent that make Aenima a metal landmark.
Posted to t.d.n: 06/09/97 22:17:29