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A TOOL-Related Article

Publication: The Melbourne Herald-Sun

Date: October 31, 1996

Transcribed by Daniel Steadman (flood@zx.net)



author: Greta McMahon

It's not uncommon for a band to take its anger out on the world through
song, but few can pull it off as this band do.

On Aenima, their second LP, this intensely confrontational four-piece snarl
and thrash their way through a 77-minute set.

Distorted, wailing vocals, coupled with a powerful rhythm section results in
an extremely in-your-face, yet subtlely adventurous 15-track follow-up to
1993's successful Undertow album.

Most of the songs are epics which tend to follow a formula, wandering in and
out of controlled verses and hard-hitting, grinding choruses.

The production is sharp and the sound is big - but Tool are not the average
hard-rocking guitar band the first few tracks almost deceive you into
thinking they are.

Message To Harry Manback is a strange, piano-based track, with an
aggressive, venom-filled voice-over.

The Intermission is an organ piece, which is quite unnerving in its "scary
clown" style, while Die Eier Von Satan is utterly disturbing - a harshly
distorted piece featuring a Nazi-Germany narrative which, to say the least,
is more than a little creepy. Aenima will leave you exhausted - its
aggressive and forceful nature is not for the faint-hearted.

3 1/2 out of 5 (which makes it somewhere inbetween good and excellent)


kabir/akhtar | kabir@t.d.n