A couple of weeks ago I was out shopping with a gift voucher in hand, and while in a local book store I noticed a familiar figure on the bestsellers shelf.  That familiar figure happened to be Maynard, and the book was Unleased – The Story of Tool. Seeing as Tom Clancy hasn’t released anything in a while, I decided to grab this and give it a shot.

The book covers the history of Tool starting from the background of the four founding members, right up until 2009.  Essentially, the book is a collection of interviews and quotes from the band.  The books itself seems to be written well enough, though I doubt it will win any prizes for literature. 

Without focusing unduly on them, the book also discusses various Tool side projects, in particular A Perfect Circle, Puscifer and Maynard’s wine endeavours, as well as briefly covering the rest of the bands projects.

Overall, it’s not a bad book, I enjoyed the read despite the fact I’d probably read 90% of the quotes before at some point.  There were a few inaccuracies I found, but nothing worth getting too upset about.  For a Tool fan who knows everything about the band, it’s hard to really recommend the book.  Also, much of what is in the book can be found on Google, in particular on the excellent Interviews section on Toolshed.

This book best suits someone who doesn’t know much about Tool, or is reasonably new to them, and would like to learn more about them that what is available on their Wikipedia page.  For completists, I’d suggest it is a worthwhile item for your bookshelf, though I wouldn’t call it essential at all.