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1. Aenima
2. Lateralus
3. 10,000 Days
3. Salival
4. Undertow
5. Thirteenth Step
6. Mer De Noms
7. Opiate
8. Money shot
9. CoMP
10. Emotive
Up until recently Lateralus has always been first but I listen to Pushit and Thirdeye so much... As for Undertow I love Paul's bass playing and given it is really all I have to listen to (from Paul) I listen to it frequently. I also like that in many ways it was their genesis given most of these songs were written before Opiate was released. I am also drunk....
I guess I'm near alone but I like Undertow better than Aenima. I think it's because Aenima songs have been played to death on the local radio and Undertow seems so much more emotional to me. Songs 1-9 anyhow not a huge fan of 10.
1. Lateralus
2. Undertow
3. Opiate
4. Aenima
5. Power of Beef
6. COMP
7. 13th step
8. V is for
9. Volto Incitare
10. Mer de noms
Alittlevil wrote:I guess I'm near alone but I like Undertow better than Aenima. I think it's because Aenima songs have been played to death on the local radio and Undertow seems so much more emotional to me.
Understandable. I fast forward past the Aenima radio songs most of the time when I listen to it.
man a year ago or so i got ripped by members of this forum for saying that Power of Beef was better in my mind than 10,000 Days. And to be honestly they are about the same for me. But if i counted right, so far 1 people have put Power of Beef ahead of 10,000 Days.
UndKeineZwEier wrote:man a year ago or so i got ripped by members of this forum for saying that Power of Beef was better in my mind than 10,000 Days. And to be honestly they are about the same for me. But if i counted right, so far 1 people have put Power of Beef ahead of 10,000 Days.
I don't really remember that, but you certainly bring it up a lot.
If my swift skimming count is right, Lateralus is 9 people's favorites and Aenima is 6 people's favorites.
When Aenima came out it took a few months to grow on me, then it hit me one day when I was jamming it at full blast. I became a Tool fan and at that time my brother was the only other person that I knew that got into Tool (1996).
When lateralus came out I was blown away and they instantly became my favorite band. My girlfriend and I went to the Tool show at Allstate Arena when they came to Chicago for the Lateralus tour. The day was 9/9/2001. I was blown away! I had to see more...so my brother and I traveled to Ohio and Michigan to see 2 more shows later that week. 9/11 consumed 95% of conversations for the next few months. All I could think about was Tool lol. I look back and think about those 3 shows I saw in a span of a week and it was one of the most enlightening things in my life. I had an epiphany and it opened new doors in my mind in how I saw things.
I think for many (well, for me at least anyway) the decision to rate one over the other can change at quite short notice. Some days I prefer Lateralus, some days I prefer Aenima.
For me it can come down to the difference between wanting to hear Maynard sing, or to hear the other three playing at their peak. For me Aenima is the stronger album vocally, and MJK's work is at it's high point there, while on Lateralus the musicianship shown by Danny, Justin and Adam it top notch.
hellboy wrote:I think for many (well, for me at least anyway) the decision to rate one over the other can change at quite short notice. Some days I prefer Lateralus, some days I prefer Aenima.
For me it can come down to the difference between wanting to hear Maynard sing, or to hear the other three playing at their peak. For me Aenima is the stronger album vocally, and MJK's work is at it's high point there, while on Lateralus the musicianship shown by Danny, Justin and Adam it top notch.
I get that. It used to sway back and forth for me. It may again.
I'm thinking that the new album will be a very different direction for them and I have big expectations.
I think what will change on the new album is Maynard's approach to vocals - I reckon we'll see it toned down somewhat to suit his more mature vocal cords. I expect the music provided by Adam, Danny and Justin will be as heavy as ever though, but I'm sure there will be plenty of more chilled moments to go with it.
I was far too obssessed with Metallicas early catalogue in my early teen years, so even though i was aware of Tool, i never really gave them a proper go. It wasnt until Metallica had gone full retard that a mate convinced me to give Eulogy a listen telling me id love it. That was about 1999 so from there on in i became obssesed with Aenima and played it on repeat every day for a long time... So as great as Lateralus is and is probably a more complete and mature album, my memory of discovering Aenima will always leave it as number 1 for me..
Aenima
Lateralus
Undertow
10,000 days
Opiate
Salival
13th step
Mer der noms
Stone & Echo
Emotive
Puscifer
COMP
Money shot (this will prob overtake COMP for me soon though)
And the rest of Puscifer here..
Cant really compare the 3 acts against each other, but my preference of artists is in order...
Busty McCracken wrote:I was far too obssessed with Metallicas early catalogue in my early teen years, so even though i was aware of Tool, i never really gave them a proper go. It wasnt until Metallica had gone full retard that a mate convinced me to give Eulogy a listen telling me id love it. That was about 1999 so from there on in i became obssesed with Aenima and played it on repeat every day for a long time... So as great as Lateralus is and is probably a more complete and mature album, my memory of discovering Aenima will always leave it as number 1 for me..
Aenima
Lateralus
Undertow
10,000 days
Opiate
Salival
13th step
Mer der noms
Stone & Echo
Emotive
Puscifer
COMP
Money shot (this will prob overtake COMP for me soon though)
And the rest of Puscifer here..
Cant really compare the 3 acts against each other, but my preference of artists is in order...
1) Lateralus
2) Aenima
3) 10K Days
4) Undertow
5) Mer De Noms
6) Thirteenth Step
7) Opiate
8) Salival
9) Puscifer Dont Shoot the Messenger
10) Puscifer Donkey Punch the Night Away
Busty McCracken wrote:I was far too obssessed with Metallicas early catalogue in my early teen years, so even though i was aware of Tool, i never really gave them a proper go. It wasnt until Metallica had gone full retard that a mate convinced me to give Eulogy a listen telling me id love it. That was about 1999 so from there on in i became obssesed with Aenima and played it on repeat every day for a long time... So as great as Lateralus is and is probably a more complete and mature album, my memory of discovering Aenima will always leave it as number 1 for me..
Aenima
Lateralus
Undertow
10,000 days
Opiate
Salival
13th step
Mer der noms
Stone & Echo
Emotive
Puscifer
COMP
Money shot (this will prob overtake COMP for me soon though)
And the rest of Puscifer here..
Cant really compare the 3 acts against each other, but my preference of artists is in order...
I dig your username. Welcome, Mr McCracken.
Please... call me, Busty. We're all friends here. Cheers bud, its more welcome back than a welcome. Been away for a while, but hellboy sorted us out so should be here bit more regularly now.
interesting, as much as I love the words and vocals on Aenima (especially Stinkfist and Pushit) i think Maynard shows the peak of his carrier in Lateralus (just as the other 3 members). Every single track gives me goosebumps and Maynard has a huge part in that.
I can see in theory why Lateralus rates higher for most but for me personally I know why Aenima takes the top spot. I remember going to the mall the day it came out, thinking the lenticular case was pretty cool and then promptly dropping (and cracking) it as I waited for my bus home. I didn't even know the album existed until earlier that day when eating a slice of pizza in the local shop I was thumbing through one of those free music zines and saw an early review.
At the time, that album was like nothing that came before it and it was still sort of an era where you didn't know very much about Tool, what these guys were all about individually, etc. It seemed almost a little bit scary, how good the music was, the subject matter, the artwork. All I had to go on was Opiate, Undertow (including the terrifying inner art), the music videos and two bootleg VHS tapes I bought at the local market: 92 JC Dobbs Philly and 1995 San Bernardino where they played some early versions of Aenima tracks and ended with a projection of a massive grey alien face on the screen behind the stage. All of that taken in context with some repeated listens of 'Swamp Song' and 'Disgustipated' and of course coming off of 'safer' bands like Metallica, Nirvana and Soundgarden even... this was scary stuff!
But the reason that Aenima rates higher for me is because I feel it's their most psychedelic record; it's psychedelic in a heavy way that gets closer to the intensity of the 'real thing' without trying too hard. They weren't expected to go in that direction, it was a nice suprise. For Lateralus, the 'trippy' band moniker was already in place and as such I find that record a little forced and on-the-nose as far as it saying "hey, look at me, bright colours, Alex Grey artwork, psychedelic themes, gonna blow your mind with all this complexity." But mainly though, I have always really disliked 'The Patient'; I find it simple, repetitive and a little whiny actually. 'Ticks and Leeches' is a bit of the same for me so my impression of the record was always somewhat broken. For what it's worth, I do rate 'D/R/T' to be their best stretch of music to date, especially when considered as a sequel of sorts to 'Third Eye', which I would rate as their second-best single piece of music.
10K Days as a whole would've probably gone over differently with me if they took the artwork in a different direction. As it is, at least to my mind, it all amounts to being derivative and a re-trod of territory they'd already gone over before, 'Intension' being the exception to that generalization.
Busty McCracken wrote:I was far too obssessed with Metallicas early catalogue in my early teen years, so even though i was aware of Tool, i never really gave them a proper go. It wasnt until Metallica had gone full retard that a mate convinced me to give Eulogy a listen telling me id love it. That was about 1999 so from there on in i became obssesed with Aenima and played it on repeat every day for a long time... So as great as Lateralus is and is probably a more complete and mature album, my memory of discovering Aenima will always leave it as number 1 for me..
Aenima
Lateralus
Undertow
10,000 days
Opiate
Salival
13th step
Mer der noms
Stone & Echo
Emotive
Puscifer
COMP
Money shot (this will prob overtake COMP for me soon though)
And the rest of Puscifer here..
Cant really compare the 3 acts against each other, but my preference of artists is in order...
I dig your username. Welcome, Mr McCracken.
Please... call me, Busty. We're all friends here. Cheers bud, its more welcome back than a welcome. Been away for a while, but hellboy sorted us out so should be here bit more regularly now.
Welcome back Busty. So fresh and shiny, not rusty.
Lateralus = spiritual, introspective, contemplative. sounds like King Crimson on steroids
Aenima = angry, frustrated. hints of experimentalism and 90's industrial metal flourishes
10,000 Days = proggy, meandering and closer to a "classic rock" sound. the band's most "positive" sounding album.
Undertow = unsure of itself. stripped back with a very Rollins Band feel. hints here and there at what was to come.
Tool V = ???
'It is time for us to be doing what we have been doing every day. And that time is now'
