Tool Review
By ?


On October 1st, the thirst of awaiting Tool fans was mollified by Tool=92s
release "Aenima". For me, I was received an advance copy so it gave me the
chance to attest the music and especially preoccupy it.  It's
seventy-seven minute omnipotent tracks include six segments, and nine raw
songs.  Aenima takes a great departure from "Opiate" (the bands first EP),
or "Undertow"  (the bands Platinum album).  "Aenima" combines the
eccentric sounds and lyrics of "Opiate" and "Undertow" to give us the
formula for Aenima.  "It's like an amusement park, where you can jump in
on any ride or alternatively swallow the whole tab and be taken hostage. 
The treatment will be brutal and rigorous and the demands so great but
you'll walk away from it saying that you were treated well", says Justin
Chancellor, Tool's bass player. 

The sounds of Aenima has the traditional dark and eccentric sounds of Tool,
but takes a back seat on Aenima.  Of course, we are overrided by such songs
as "Hooker with a Penis" or "Aenima", but in perplexity of the new sounds;
Tool=92s formula has changed for the three years we have been in
anticipation.  With the arrival of Justin Chancellor (from the departure of
Paul D'amour), the pattern has changed.  "At first we had to spend time
finding or feet with each other and realizing our collective vision.  Once
this was achieved, constipation became a rare concept", quotes Chancellor.


The song "Third Eye", the thirteen minute third eye opener as the encore,
actually set the theme for the album. "It addresses the subject matter of
the entire album.  It's the ultimate extended remix of Aenima" says
Chancellor.  You might notice the voice of Bill Hicks, a passed away
comedian, used as a theme setter in the song and a key theme in the artwork
and album. "He was one of the only socially conscious comedians around.  He
could  take the same old hum drum comedy routines and turn them into a
totally heart-felt and social commentary that challenged his audiences to
think.  His comedy had layers.  If you want to hear his comedy on a very
superficial level that was there for you" quotes Maynard James Keenan, the
vocalist for Tool.

One consolation the media has with Aenima is the extreme length and
explicit language of the tracks.  "It has a lot of 'fuck you's' in the
album" says Leah at Zoo Entertainment.  The song that was chosen for radio
play was "Stinkfist"; the opening jaw-breaker for Aenima.  However, their
is songs such as "Forty Six & Two" and "H" that could qualify, but we have
to wait for what is handed to us, and on Aenima, your in the driver's
seat, you can discover it for yourself. 

Besides the radio play and length, I think Aenima shows us the cross
between the Tool that we have come to know, and the Tool that we still have
to discover.  Tool does leave us with a speculation that shines threw in
the tribulations of the underbelly of life, and that will always be there.
"Aenima", gives us the doorway to dark and a very eccentric world. It is
seventy-seven minutes of surgery that finds your third eye and hands it to
you on a plate of a world that beyond illusions itself.

"I met Tool about for years ago and by a strange quirk of fate, and now
I'm a part of the recipe", says Chancellor.  "I never come across or
been part of a collection of souls so diverse in character and belief that
possess the ability to mutually accommodate those differences and evolve
them into positive creativity" quotes Chancellor.  "Aenima=92s all about
change and evolution individually as well as universally.  It's also
about unity" ends Keenan.