Tooling Around....

Good morrow! Todays sordid article shall deal with a band which probably has that wonderful ability to create equal numbers of gasps and sighs, Tool.

To describe Tool as a band is quite tricky at points, some do not care for the avant-garde and progressive tinged band. Many, however adore the band. I myself am in an unfortunate group of people who like Tool, but do not worship them.

It is always hard for me because there are always certain bands whose fans/dispisers are pretty die hard, consistantly. I am willing to bet that many of you who read this article have come across the die hard Metallica hater, `I can't believe you like them` `Mustaine is far superior!` often come out there, the obsessive HIM fans (with their heart-o-grams and Bam Magera Skateboards) or even Those bloody radiohead fans!

Tool have many a fan, usually prolific drug users, in my experiance, who are very taken by them. They are very good but leave me often feeling luke warm. While a perfect circle (A band which the lead singer of Tool also fronts as well as one of the guitarists) are, for me, consistently listenable, I find Tool can get a little hard to swallow at points.

A perfect circle to many Tool fans, I believe, are considered to be the radio friendly version of Tool, while this may be correct where does that leave tool as a band?

Tool themselves can never truly be set into a genre and while this is makes describing and recommending them difficult it does mean that they are individual. So where to start? What is the most important part of Tool? Is it the obsessive fans? The complex rhythms? Personally it is the heady mix of heavy pounding guitars, the complex and syncopated drums and the superb structural intricacies.

This band's work is often quite progressive but often I find progressive metal bands tend to overdo it. Alas our genre that we love is a genre which is built upon extreme things, extreme sounds, bands and people. Many a prog band is often all-to-willing to sacrifice their common lay audience (I use lay in the sense of non-musicians) in order to try and obtain a hardcore musically talented audience. Often this is a bad idea because they are usually bastards to engage but mostly they can be very quick to make up their minds on things, rarely rewriting their view point.

So do Tool sacrifice normal songwriting in order to sound more `prog`? - er... not really, admittedly there are points where I find my attention waning away from the music and onto the paint drying on my wall, but mainly they manage pretty well to keep me interested. There are some complex almost (but not quite) wanking passages, but on the whole you can still hear the songs.

The staccato, syncopated feel of songs like `Part of Me` from their Opiate EP bear a striking similarity to song's like Dave Brubeck's Blue Rondo A La Turk. The fusion of Jazz like accuracy with a metal like heaviness suit the band well. Again to compare with Dave Brubeck's work several of Tools songs, including their irresistibly haunting `Schism`, have extremely unusual time signatures.

Schism, as a guitarist is fun to play and has some very interesting phrases but as a drummer it is bloody difficult! It has 47 different time changes! Now many bands would use this song as a gimmick, only using it to show off musicianship whilst leaving the song with a minimal of character. Tool have managed to create a very clear and ordered song even with all these time signatures. The song in general is one of those songs that slowly and surely builds to a climax. The hard and staccato (stop start) drumming helps to edge this song forward with slight breaks only afforded by the choruses which contain open chord like passages only to to be pulled back and the original pattern reset. It feels like the energy behind this song is barely contained and that any minute an extraordinary burst of energy will light up your ears. the climax suddenly comes in the form of a nu metal type guitar chord progression and a chanting of `I know the pieces fit`.  Before this is a perfectly sculpted lull of very light bends and slides.

Parabola is another track with which to hold the band aloft with. It achieves what creep by radiohead always wanted to achieve, harsh chords which overlay the song and serve as a means of mood change. The floating emotion of the lead singer (James-Keenan) and the thunderous and inventive drums are juxtaposed with each other and are only brought together with the help of he guitar and bass. Then a beautiful break occurs.  Here the drummer (Danny Carey) really shows of his talent, and my god what a talent he has got! The guitars soft reminders serve to anchor, again, the dream-like passages. This tells the listener where they are as much as the drummer and singer.

Ticks and Leeches starts with a very bass and drum heavy inception, with some nice gold filigree from the guitars for embellishment. The drums completely drive this introduction, as well as the rest of the song. This song would almost be very new metal, if it wasn't for the very strict rhythms which the band conform to, for they are far to complex to be classed as nu metal. This song only truly works if the band are together, any mistakes would ruin the sound. Again Tool show their mastery of song as the song naturally waxes and wanes like a demented full moon, and it is this use of dynamics which make this song seem almost like a fanfare at points and a lullaby at others.

The song Sober starts with thick smooth bassline which then groans beneath the weight of a squealing guitar solo. Maynard's voice softly glides over the guitars lending a tired and almost mournful quality. This song's bassline controls most of the song, which is frankly refreshing as many bands merely use the bass a supporting instrument. 

There are however, in my opinion, some flaws with some of Tool's songs. No band is perfect. Tool suffer from what I claim to be nonsense songs. While most of their songs are very strong and stable creations, some of their songs are simply minimalistic spoken word/sonic landscape pieces. (-) ions, Intermission, Cesaro Summability, Useful Idiot and Message to Harry to Name but a few. This is one of the problems I have with progressive music, while progressive music is a way of finding new ways of creating a song, sometimes what comes out of the really experimental moments is, to be honest, just filler. Filler which has impressive and challenging ideas behind it sounds the same as filler which is just there. While nine times out of ten, Tool will create a sonic experience which few bands can claim to fashion, it is in these moments that I fell they cross the line.

 

`pretentious [prɪˈtɛnʃəs]
adj
1. making claim to distinction or importance, esp undeservedly
2. having or creating a deceptive outer appearance of great worth; ostentatious` (Collins English Dictionary- Complete and Unabridged)

I choose not the first definition to describe these so-called nonsense songs but the second. whilst I enjoy music that challenges me I enjoy it to be in the form, of what I consider, music. I feel these sonic pieces are not musical, most being devoid of time signature which can be considered the most basic prerequisite of music. This is of course my opinion and I would like you to tell me if you disagree. 

If these musical oddities are such an annoyance why listen to Tool? Well to be honest these sonic moments (I'd call them creative wanking) and the long carefully made introductions to some of their songs have put me off listening to them in the past. Sometimes music should be able to just grab you and hold your attention. However this music can sometimes be forgotten and it is the music, like Tool's, which plants itself quietly and covertly in your mind and tweaks your mind until you need your fix of it which can make more of a lasting impact. It is for this reason that Tool are a good band. The best players in the world may be placed in a band but without the songs to go with it, the band is useless. Tool have fantastic musicians with gorgeous songs to boot, even if a few are poor! 

If you have not heard any of their work before, possibly the best/easiest place to start is with the song Schism. Let it plant it's roots in you, then maybe you'll become more than just a Tool.

   

See you later,

Shai-Hu-Lud Frantically searches for his spanner.