Schooled by Tool

In spite of being a big fan of music in general and also of Metal, I’m usually a bit apprehensive when people suggest Metal bands that I “must” listen to. This apprehension is primarily due to the very thin blurred line between the kind of Metal I like and the kind I don’t. Metallica has long been my staple hallmark in metal, they mixed the aggression and chaos of metal with harmony and melody almost seamlessly, it also helps that most of their songs are usually pure energy. There are other great metal bands out there, but Metallica has held the mantle of the best in my book and nothing anyone suggested so far has come close, not Pantera, not Maiden, not Megadeth. Don’t get me wrong they’re all great bands but I’m just not into 'em. Add to that the fact that most bands coming out of college these days are so obsessed with HEAVY Metal and Death Metal, that they just seem to lose all semblance of music and even the smallest amount of growling in a song drives me up the wall.

So sadly it was with the same disregard that I treated a friends* suggestion of the band Tool that he said I absolutely must listen to. That was until one one rather fateful day that he actually made me listen to the song Lateralus by Tool, I was, to say the least, hooked. It had everything I looked for in music; power, emotion, beautiful bridges and melodies, it was mind blowing. So the next day I went to another friend of mine in office** whose a huge Tool fan asking for Tool’s discography in search of other gems like Lateralus, little did I know what I was in store for.

Tool is one of those bands that comes along only once in a few decades that make music of such exceptional quality that its genuinely hard to appreciate them till you are truly LISTENING to their music, and nothing else. Its a band that is composed of such exceptional talent, that there isn’t a weak link in there. The singer Maynard James Keenan modulates his voice so well to truly express his words, exactly how it should be expressed. Speaking of the words, his lyrics are inspiring, not sad, not morose or angry or anything, it's just what the song needs to be. He has a clear message that he wants to express in his work and that shines through really well (the lyrics of the song Lateralus is something I really recommend reading). The guitarist Adam Jones’ tone is exceptional and the clinical precision of his guitaring in such complex time signatures is truly amazing. Speaking of time signatures, wiki Tool and you will see they also belong to a genre all their own called “Math Rock”, they mix such complex time signatures so well that it blends together seamlessly and doesn’t at all seem enforced, each instrument in some songs play in different time signatures. Which brings me to, for me, the strongest unit in the band – Justin Chancellor on the Bass and Danny Carrey on the Drums, the thing with time signatures is you need great Bass and Drums to hold it all together and my God do they go far beyond just holding it together. Justin on the Bass is so exceptional with the mastery of his instrument and its effects that at times I have a hard time figuring out if its him or Adam Jones I’m hearing. Danny Carrey on the other hand is plain mad; he uses such a wide variety of percussion instruments that his setup in itself is a site to behold. Everything from digital drumpads to Tabla’s are present in his setup and if you listen to just his drumming you would find it hard to imagine that just one man is doing all that.

But the greatest thing about the band is that inspite of consisting of such great talents none of them stick out in a song, it’s the song overall that stands out. All the instruments, including the voice, gels so well with everything revolving around them that they act as one single piece, one unit. And I think if even one of them were to be replaced the whole thing would fall apart.

Then comes my favorite fact about this band, they don’t just make songs they make Albums, and I have long stressed my affections to Albums as a whole. In my opinion art in all its forms are means of expressing a thought or an emotion, and songs have the wonderful ability to do that and capture a persons attention for the entire 3 minutes that they are with that song. Now when you have the chance to do that over the period of over an hour or more, why wouldn’t you make use of that. The structure of the songs, the order of the songs, the build up to the songs are all such important tools in doing that. A song can capture your attention but an over all album can convey meaning and emotion and seem more complete as a package. A song should always remain a piece of the jigsaw that is a part of a bigger picture, a piece that makes sense on its own but feels so much better blended into the overall picture. Tool does this exceptionally well, their albums are fantastically structured and all of them sound unique, you can pick a song at random and almost tell which album it came from. Many other bands also place a signature sound on their albums and songs , but that’s usually just the bands signature sound, Tool takes that a step further and gives the album itself its own signature sound. While you can listen to Tool songs independently they just have so much more effect when heard as part of the complete album. And once you finish that album head to toe buried deep in it, you get that sense of awe and satisfaction, like the one you get when you finish a fantastic book. That sense of how fantastic it was and that it was sad that it had to end, but at the end of the day you know it had to end.

But through all their good points there is one rather minor downside of Tool. While they do make fantastic albums and music, their albums come through only once in a while. A Tool fan has to wait a fair few years before getting a fresh album from Tool. But at the end of the day when the music that comes out of this wait is of such exceptional quality it is easily forgivable. The sad part of truly great things are that they are also scarce.

A friend*** of mine said that Tool is like the Led Zeppelin of this generation where they have that same sense of greatness and mystery and where each member is just so talented. And that comment really struck a chord with me, it was summed up quite well, Led Zepplin is not a band that everyone gets, it’s quite an acquired taste. But the thing with them is they aren’t out to please crowds or anything, they are out to say what they want to say in the best way that they can say it. They needn’t be popular, they are not just brilliant, they are so much more, they are. . . Influential.

Credit where credits due:

* Mahesh for recommending and introducing me to Tool.

** Swarit for giving me the entire discography, it is now a prized possession.

*** Vikas Rao Pejavar for the Led Zep comment, well said my friend.