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Thoughts on Tool
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I'm curious about people's thoughts on Tool. They seem to be a divisive band, with strong opinions on both sides. Yet in the past, they seemed to be pretty universally held as a great band.
I'm a fan, but not a super fan. I was turned off at one of their concerts by their fanbase - probably the worst concert experience of my life - and didn't listen to them for a long time. But I never thought they were a bad band. I don't have opinions of the members themselves, but as musicians I always thought they were good-to-great and I think Maynard is a fantastic singer with a great voice with Aenima being the sweet spot for the band.
Anyway, if you have strong opinions I want to hear them. I'm very curious about strong negative opinions.
Top Comment: I guess you’d call me a super-fan. They’ve been my favorite band for over 2 decades. Not sure what the concert experience might have been for you. Seen them 3 times at non-festival shows and pretty much everyone shuts the fuck up and sits down when the show starts. Not your typical metal show in that way. Literally never seen any disruption from fans. Online, you can find some real holier than thou tool fans, but I’ve never met one in real life. I’m very picky with metal (and of course tool is debatably metal to a lot of people, but honestly, what else are they if not metal). I like a lot of the very technical stuff, but I also hate a lot of it. Technicality doesn’t matter to me most of the time. Artistry and emotion does, and to me, Tool has that in spades. I’ve never heard anything else like them, they are their own category. Some people love them and some hate them and that’s just fine. It’s your fucking life, listen to what you like.
What do you think of TOOL?
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Recently I've started listening to Lateralus album made by TOOL and I've been enjoying it so far. Yes, I am aware that's a fairly old album and I'm a little bit late to the party, but hey it's never too late to discover new music and art. My favorite track is definitely Ticks & Leeches, since the time I woke up today, that's the song I've played the most so far.
Top Comment: Literally one of my favorite bands of all time. Love Tool. I’m a drummer or wannabe drummer that has some talent I guess lol but I’ve watched and listened to A LOT of drummers and drum videos and Danny Carey shocked me the most with the song Pneuma drum cam video. Like man, I’ve never seen another drummer like him I’m just gonna be honest😁
I think tool is hugely overrated
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I really don't think tool deserves to be the worshipped untouchable band they are. If you ask me they're a slightly better than average stoner metal band with unnecessarily long songs, mediocre ambient sections when compared to other prog metal bands, and pretty good lyricism. They're a decent band, don't get me wrong, but for whatever reason you're not allowed to criticize tool
Top Comment: Fridge cold take. We've already been through the "Tool are the best band ever with 1,000 IQ" era to "Tool are super overrated with the worst fanbase ever" era and are now settling into the proper contextualisation of Tool as an interesting unique band with a lot of ambition and skill but a slightly overzealous fanbase.
I have recently come to the realization of why people love tool
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I had liked a few songs before but now I am getting into them and understand the hype, 5 albums, a great drummer, bassist and a good vocalist (some of the time)
Top Comment: People shit on tool way too much
Tool is a horrible band
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There is other much better music than Tool. Why is everyone so obsessed with this mediocre band? When I think of tool I just think of the nu metal kids from my high school in the early aughts that just never progressed their musical taste, yet wanna tell me all about how deep Tool is because they use polyrhythms or The Fibonacci sequence. That doesn't make them an automatically good band whatsoever. Tool is basic music for basic people that never branched out musically.
Top Comment: Sounds to me like you're having a difficult time opening your third eye.
What do you guys think of Tool?
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I'm spiraling 🌀
Top Comment: They have some great tracks for sure, alex grey’s art is awesome, and their shows can be cool. Honestly though, their devoted fans are absolutely insufferable
Can Someone Explain TOOL's Mainstream Success?
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Title.
Essentially, just how? Yes, we all agree TOOL is amazing and deserves the credit they get, but we have to be honest with ourselves that prog rock/prog metal is not a mainstream genre. Bands like TOOL just don't get mainstream success like that. So how?
Over the years of rock/metal music, certain bands gained enough flair to have their own tshirts sold at Hot Topic (looking at everything from Metallica to A7X and every emo/screamo band in between). Every single one of these bands can mostly be classified into some "scene" perpetuated by highschool alt kids. TOOL is the one band that made it to Hot Topic, mainstream radio, and received its own cult following, with no real explanation to my knowledge. I appreciate their music, but they just don't fit into any mainstream category (rock, metal, emo, screamo, etc.). If anything, I would consider their music boring to the untrained ear (I don't mean to sound elitist, just being honest, as I actually found them boring at first). Someone explain this to me.
EDIT: A lot of great perspective. There seems to be quite a big disconnect between people who knew TOOL from the early 90's vs the early 2000's. I would conclude that TOOL became extremely popular for different crowds at different times in different ways. It also makes sense that this happened long before TOOL would be associated with the prog rock scene, which is primarily where my perspective is.
Top Comment: Music videos were pretty popular back when they came out. They had cool trippy videos that matched their unique sound and they got a lot of airtime based on the videos.
Lets Talk: Tool and their reputation
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Tool are a band that are both praised and reviled in many musical communities. They created a unique sound combining technical playing, experimental use of meter and time signatures, and Heavy Metal tones. Yet they also arguably served as one of the biggest inspirations for arguably the most reviled genre of all time: Nu Metal. They are also regarded as being pretentious assholes by many due to the behavior of front man Maynard James Keenan, as well as their dedicated fanbase.
So my question is simple: How do you feel about Tool? Is it really as deep and complex as it is praised for? Did they inspired the Nu Metal movement as much as they are credited? Are they as pretentious as they are accused?
Personally, I really enjoy Tools music. It's mathy, weird, yet has a good layer of accessibility to it which I really enjoy. They create a great atmosphere which feels both really chaotic, but also very controlled. My personal favorite by them is Aenima, its a great balance of the grungey sound of Undertow and the more psychedelic and proggy sounds of Lateralus. I'm very much looking forward to more material by the band.
And as for the question of inspiring Nu Metal, I feel it was just they came out at the wrong time. They happened to share a similar image to a lot of early Nu Metal bands and sort of got shoehorned into that movement unfairly.
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Yeah, Tool is in that category of bands that you'd expect a 16 year old, suburban white boy to listen to while they pretend that they smoke pot.
That said, they're a perfectly fine band and there's not a lot to dislike about them except for their pretentiousness. They have a great guitarist and a very good singer, and the rest of the band isn't terrible, either. They've produced a number of albums that stand up to critical examination and they're still pretty fun to listen to.
As with any other band, though, you can't put yourself on a pedestal because you listen to them. Nobody cares how deep their lyrics are or how complex their time signatures are or how trippy their music videos are. Take them for what they are: a pretty good rock band that flirts with some experimental techniques. They're not anything more than that and I think you'll have a better experience, holistically, with them if you keep that in mind.
Is the band “TOOL” worth listening to?
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One of my friends told me about it while discussing guitar amps and stuff like that. It sounded quite interesting and I wanted to know what guitar they used. So I looked them up. I was wondering if I should go listen to one of there albums, and if so, which one?
Top Comment: Your friend recommended it but you need Reddit's approval before you will give it a chance? Must not be a very good friend lol.