Okay, I'm going to rant a little bit here, and people who don't know anything about
music might not get some of this, but it's worth saying anyway.
Typically, I
listen to
classic rock and
jazz music, but a little while back I discovered a
band called
Tool. A lot of you have probably heard of them, but maybe not heard more than about one song by them. Tool plays the most
complicated, difficult music in
modern rock, without any rival other than another band called
Dream Theater.
Anyway, I like music that forces me to
think. I love to try to analyze the
guitar licks, and especially the
drum fills and patterns. These guys play some
riffs that no one else can touch. For example, take "
Intolerance", the first track on their second album, "
Undertow". The song starts out alternating bars of 4/4 and 13/16!!! For you musically illiterate people, just understand that this is an incredibly hard
time signature to play in, let alone write in. Other pieces include alternating bars of 7 and 8 (
Forty-Six & 2), 6 and 5 (in a couple of random places), 5 and 3 (which is, admittedly more a feel-thing in 4/4), and a few actually split the band (
Lateralus and
Third Eye), having half play in 3 and half in 4. That gets REALLY confusing. But they're sooo clean.
They play some really
heavy music, and their lyrics tend to be scary at times (with titles such as "
Prisonsex" and "
Hooker with a Penis"), but the quality of the music is well worth it. Every member of the band is in his own right not only a
great musician, but an
amazing writer, and an
intellectual thinker as well. I have heard that no member of the band has an IQ less than 160, but that's unconfirmed. I do know that they are one of the very few bands that
Ozzy Osbourne considers his equal in writing ability.
So, in an attempt not to write the entire history of the band, I will say simply that
Tool is a band that, if they chose to, could really bring
metal to the forefront of
respected music. They seem to prefer the often
moronic metal scene to any other, and they are all noted
assholes, but excellent musicians. I also suggest checking out "
A Perfect Circle", the singer's (
James Maynard Keenan) side band, who is opening up for
Nine Inch Nails' tour this summer. Okay, that's it for me this time around.
yes, I am a drummer.
Okay, it's five years later, and I've just looked back at this. This is
SO COOL! srkorn,
danlowlite,
artemis entreri,
FlexAble, and
nyte, you guys (or girls, or whatever) are awesome. This is why I love E2. I could NEVER in "real life" find five other people that could have this kind of a conversation about Tool, or any other musical act. THANK YOU.