I don't know why I love Tool so much...I just do, and have for many years. Kinda like DR said...
Other than Tool and APC I like (this is just part of a long list, btw): RATM, Incubus, NIN, SOAD, Deftones, Glassjaw, Head Automatica, Green Day, Offspring, Sublime, Marilyn Manson, Korn, Metallica, Lacuna Coil, Nirvana, Radiohead...
Hell, Nivek, we like a ton of the same music 😂
I can connect with the music Tool make on so many different levels which I will go into in a second. I guess the most obvious one is that they make music that is great to listen to with a voice (which I count as an instrument somewhat) that is a privilege and pleasure to listen to.
I connect with Tool for that reason. Also, I connect with them spiritually, emotionally, psychically and on just about every level possible. Through the messages and deeper meanings displayed on their songs and the lyrics Maynard writes and sings I have overcome fears of life, death, the world, the people in it and most of all, myself. With the music being the reason. For those and the lyrics a very very potent catalyst. In return I got different views of life, people and everything else which plays a part in making me who I am and my life what it is. I perhaps have a different view than most because of the fact that I had my first psychedelic experience listening to a song by Tool called "Third Eye". As amazing as I KNEW this song was, it took me a good few years (as it does with ever Tool album) to get almost everything I could out of that song in particular and the album "Aenima" which said song is featured on. To this day I'm still getting emotional, spiritual and physical inspiration from it. As I am from their album before, and their previous one (2001's "Lateralus"😉 which I believe to be the perfect album in many criteria. Anyway on topic, I was listening to "Third Eye" having taken magic mushrooms with some friends in the safety of my bedroom and all of a sudden there was a completely new, changed, evolved meaning, sound and deepness to the song. Stuff I couldn't hear again after I cam down from the trip. It didn't make me wanna take the drug again, it did the reverse. It made me realise just what our minds are capable of and made me want to try my hardest to evolve as a person and reach the levels of perception our mind can reach, without the use of psychedelics. It was like a trial version of the next step of mental evolution for me.
With their song/s "Parabol/Parabol" (from "Lateralus), I was completely void of my fear of Death and in some cases life, after I fully got into it. The line "Embrace this moment; remember, we are eternal. All this pain is an illusion" is what did it. It taught me that embrace whatever it is you are feeling, be it pain or happiness. Then to remember that if it is pain, we are eternal and the fact that we are eternal beings means that we will reach a point in our existance where we ascend to a level that pain cannot follow. If it's happiness then embrace it in the knowledge that we are eternal and while pain is an illusion, it's only here while we are in "this body holding me reminding me of our own mortality", as he says in the song. And that it's only accompanying us in our form now.
All of that came out of one Tool song. No band on Earth ever in my honest opinion is capable of producing that kind of perception-altering, life-changing music and lyrical poetry. I don't believe I'm giving them too much credit because only I can vouch for what I'VE got out of it.
The fact that each one of the members are candidates for the being the best ever at their instrument is what adds to their musical genius in MY OPINION. I don't believe there are many guitarists or bassists in the world that can touch Adam Jones or Justin Chancellor respectively. Maynard James Keenan is, in my opinion, the best lyricist ever. Second only in vocals to Chris Cornell as far as technical ability and strength goes, although Maynard has a 26 second straight-up roar on "The Grudge" which no vocalist on Earth could compete with. Then comes Danny Carey who I believe is the best drummer there is, was and ever will be. His only challengers in my opinion are Neil Peart and Dave Lombardo. For the reason that I've heard many many many many drummers from many many many eras and genres and none of them have made me feel like they are as crucial a part of a band or as technically gifted and blessed as that man is. 30 years of drum experience covering almost every genre doesn't hurt either.
If you think I'm blowing their trumpets too hard, fair enough. But this is a Tool thread, he/she asked what makes them so great, I gave him an answer.
Tool are, to quote Metal Hammer "The most important band in the world". One of the few who could ever claim that title.
-AC
To think that you have that perception of them is a good feeling.
Just wait till you see them live and walk out of the arena. You'll know what I mean when it happens. Because from the second I walked out of the venue the first time I saw them, I didn't feel the same as I did when I went in there. I can't explain it, just needs to be felt.
-AC
God, I'd KILL to be able to see Tool live...
I remember the first time I heard them...I was a whole 9 years old, in 1995, and I heard Sober played on the radio...ever since they've been one of my favorite bands ever, and have always remained in my top three favorite groups...which is really saying something, because my top favorites shuffles around a LOT.
If I'm typing it, it's obviously my opinion. I'm not one of those to put "IMO" at the end of every post in a music forum; because just about everything in a music forum is an opinion.
And, yes, it was the third or fourth best show I've seen, behind Santana, The Shins and possibly Rammstein (not a fan of their music, but they put on a hell of a show)
Originally posted by Morgoths_Wrath
I'm under the impression that there is a great deal of Tool fans in this forum...I actually think there's more Tool fans in this forum then fans of any other specific band! I haven't heard a whole lot of Tool's songs save a few (Sober, Prison Sex, Stinkfist, Schism, Ticks and Leeches). They are not a bad band by any means, but what makes them so great? This isn't an attack, it's a question. Am I right in saying there are a massive amount of Tool fans here? Why such love and devotion to this band? What other bands do you Tool fans like (besides A Perfect Circle)?
the first time i´ve listen to a tool song, i couldn´t stop listening to it, it was something magic, i spent all my summer listening to two song that a friend of mine had showed me, it was eulogy and stinkfist, i was on vacations in a village, there are no cds there, you can go to the closest town and you will not find tool cds. when i come back home, the first thing i did was, buying Aenima, and after that i bought right away Opiate and then Undertow, i don´t remember the year but Salival and Lateralus didn´t exist at the time (now i´ve already have both of them).
Tool is my favorite band, why they are so good? because all the members are excellent, Adam jones has an incredible creative mind both musically and visually, Danny Carey is one of the best drummers in the world (my personal favorite) he has a unique style of playing, Justin Chancellor is an awesome bass player, Maynard James Keenan one of the best singers in the world, my favorite voice of all time, and an awesome poet, and lets not forget Paul D´Amour the first bass player of Tool, curious that if any other member of Tool had gone out the band wouldn´t be the same, most of the bands don´t survive if you take out the singer, but in tool without Adam or Danny it wouldn´t be the same either. But they choose very well, justin is great.
concluding Why i like Tool, because "i don´t want it, i just need it, to breath, to feel, to know i´m alive!"
other bands that i like beside (APC), no particular order: Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, Dire Straits, Sigur Rós, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against The Machine, Mão Morta, Guns n roses, Rachmaninov, Dead Can Dance, Depeche Mode, Placebo, Muse, Primitive Reason, Godspeed you black emperor!, dEUS, Massive attack, tricky, At the drive in, The Mars Volta, ennio Morricone, Ben Harper. i could go on forever, it´s just to give you an idea.
Originally posted by Bierbommetje
First off: I havent read all of the 10 pages in this thread.Question: Is Tool the kind of band that gets better after a couple of listens, cause ive now listened to about half the Aenima album and so far nothings really caught my attention as being special or memorable...