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Originally Posted by atsonicpark
Actually, chairman, Estranged is amazing. That's always been one of my favorite songs.......... Anyway... See, the brilliance of Tool, and they're obviously not the only band that does this.. but let me reference "Pushit" again.. or "Eulogy"... they have a lot of songs that never repeat. The songs flow, organically, from one section to another, to another, to another, to another... now, obviously, bands have been doing this since music existed, it's not some mindblowing, new technique that Tool invented. But few bands do it so well. THeir songs, literally, tell a story. And they never have ugly, throwaway parts in their music (not until 10,000 Days at least). All the songs flow so naturally. They really are brilliant musicians.
Also, Lateralus is absolutely amazing. It's extremely soft compared to all their other stuff ('cept for Ticks and Leeches) but it has their most powerful compositions on it. That minute-long scream in "The Grudge" is unbelievable, as is the guitar part that comes in directly after the quiet part in "Ticks and Leeches". The 11-minute "Triad" encompasses everything that makes Tool awesome. The album is a bit too long (79:59.9999! The fuck?! I played the disc on my computer once and it read the album as 80:01!) but eh. When so much of it is amazing, who cares? Honestly, it's not my favorite album by them, but it is probably their best. They removed all the filler (the "Filler" here is still musical), and it has their best songwriting, ever.
Their only real misstep is 10,000 Days. It has a few good songs, a few GREAT songs (love the opening track, with the dual guitar lines), but ... most of it is chunky, throwaway riffing. Sounds like a parody of Tool. Actually, no, it sounds like a band who maybe wanted to return to their "early" sound but were still in the Lateralus mindset so they made these long, epic songs without any thought put into the actual process of songwriting. You know what I said in the first paragraph about Tool's brilliant, organic, natural, flowing songwriting? Yeah. Almost none of that on 10,000 Days.
In all seriousness, Tool does blow away 99.9% of other bands out there. They're just too great. They're easily one of the best bands ever.
But I only really listen to 'em like once every 3 years.
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