These days, Keenan seems more invested in his thriving winery, rallying the troops every so often to churn out another lackluster TOOL full-length, tour to cultists willing to wait out the dross to experience the classics firsthand, and collect their hefty festival paychecks. Hell, Maynard himself isn’t a culprit in just one such example, but two, the same fate having befallen his other project, A Perfect Circle, after an underrated and compelling debut. They defined their own niche from the start.īut a million pasty teenagers in JNCOs scrawling lyrics of pain and rage onto their Chuck Taylors is never enough to ward off the specter of diminishing returns, and TOOL’s proven just as regrettably susceptible to this truism as any other mortal band of sweaty dudes in a million vans and green rooms. The incredibly precise and serpentine riffing, the fragile wail of Maynard James Keenan’s tortured choirboy vocals, the smart-kid posturing and snarky philosophizing, and of course their game-changing animated music videos…all are inextricable hallmarks of what TOOL does well when they’re doing it well. ‘Technical metal’ doesn’t even begin to properly define what TOOL does, and it’s perhaps the surest sign of their enduring station in the cultural consciousness that no one has really attempted to fully jack their style (except, um…Chevelle, and they soon moved on to aping Around The Fur -era Deftones instead). For legions of angsty white suburban Americans, especially boys, TOOL is that magical elixir of heft and brains, equal parts intellectually-sniping and cavernously-heavy. But consider for a moment the implications of such a jab. I have been known, uncharitably, to characterize the sort of music made by bands like TOOL as ‘school shooter music’. TOOL’s Lateralus turned 20 this past May (Art: Ron Hart)
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