821 Tool - Aenima (1996)

Studio Album - Progressive Metal

About the Act:

Tool are a Progressive Metal band from LA, although they might not embrace the "progressive" part of that description as whole-heartedly as some might.  Most of the genres used to describe Tool involve the word "Metal", so let's stick with that. They have existed since 1990 and have produced 5 studio albums. That’s an average of one every 6 years. They have had a very stable membership - four current members and one ex-member.

About the Album:

This album is the second of their four studio albums (in 28 years - not exactly prolific) and is apparently considered a classic in Metal circles.

My History with this Album:

I have had a copy of this album for a while, but didn't seriously listen to it until I reviewed it for my series on prog rock. Most of the text is that review re-jigged, but I have listened to it again, and my opinion has not changed.

Review:

Most Progressive Metal is varied in style to the extent that the passages that are really Heavy Metal are quite rare. Tool are not like that, their sound is very dominated by harsh distortion, and a particular approach to production that increased the harshness and a feeling of metallic surfaces, possibly achieved by enhancing certain high harmonics. The resulting sound is effective, but, to use the word for the third time, harsh. I have probably talked about textures in music before, I tend to, and this album is, for me, very textural, in fact it reminds me of steel. It's all sharp edges and scrapy noises, cold and hard and very precise. 

They mix in a lot of noises and effects to emphasise this feeling, and the vocals are often processed, like sounding like a bullhorn, or other ways to make them hard to hear. There are some complex rhythms at play at times and the production is just perfect - nothing is out of place, but it doesn't lose its soul in the process.

Strangely, it reminds me a lot of Nirvana's grunge, it has the same kind of tension and release interplay, with a gentle hint of menace. A little heavier at times than Nirvana, as if Marilyn Manson has got involved somehow. I have to say, actually that the production is exquisitely done.

Their lyrical content is also not for the faint-hearted. This is a band who like to sing about disturbing things, violence, and violent sex, sweary vitriol, anti-Christian sentiments and generally, it would seem, the darkest things they could think of, and they have quite graphic imaginations. The song lyrics are less like some Prog, although there are references to drugs, ritual magic and religion, it is pretty firmly based in the real world, if your real world is a dark and disturbing dystopia. I have never been to LA so as far as I know it could be, I've been to Preston.

Overall, if you like well-produced, technically excellent, harsh and unrelenting music, you might like them. I find them too much This is definitely not safe for children, or work, or your mother-in-law, there is a lot of swearing and quite a bit of implied aggression - I guess somehow Metal never seems to be about happy sunshine and bunnies.

So, I enjoyed it musically, I was less keen on some on the lyrics.

6.5/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6yWMN087PgSimbcVmHLEwG

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfUV806q_Ri5qJcqGsKbd0wzfOs0_3IFV

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86nima