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)