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torquillIf I'm going to be mad for a little while, I might as well have good music to be mad to.
Tool is really what I think of as heavy metal/heavy industrial for the musician. To anyone who knows any sort of musical theory or has any particular sophistication in terms of chords and rhythms used, Metallica/Megadeth and that crew can get... well, boring. All thrashing and no music. The stuff has its place, but it is not a joy to listen to in a musical sense.
I take real pleasure in listening to Tool. I do prefer Lateralus as a cohesive album, but I like various songs from the other albums as well. It's powerful, harsh, sometimes deliberately discordant metal interspersed with almost delicate meanderings on electric guitar. It's also musically complex: Schism starts out in 5/8-7/8 time (that's 12 beats to the double measure, boys and girls!) with enough syncopation to spin you off your chair. Add in Maynard's voice -- the distinctive blend of insanity and angel -- and the chords they use, and I'm almost sorry that the only time I really listen to Tool is when I'm supremely irritated.
A Perfect Circle has quite a bit of the same elements, of course, and I tend to think of it as the softer version of Tool... I need to get the second album of theirs. It takes a particular sort of brooding contentment for me to listen to A Perfect Circle, but not the sort of all-out anger that really fits Tool proper. And I'll do a lot for a chance to listen to Maynard in good form.
Tool is really what I think of as heavy metal/heavy industrial for the musician. To anyone who knows any sort of musical theory or has any particular sophistication in terms of chords and rhythms used, Metallica/Megadeth and that crew can get... well, boring. All thrashing and no music. The stuff has its place, but it is not a joy to listen to in a musical sense.
I take real pleasure in listening to Tool. I do prefer Lateralus as a cohesive album, but I like various songs from the other albums as well. It's powerful, harsh, sometimes deliberately discordant metal interspersed with almost delicate meanderings on electric guitar. It's also musically complex: Schism starts out in 5/8-7/8 time (that's 12 beats to the double measure, boys and girls!) with enough syncopation to spin you off your chair. Add in Maynard's voice -- the distinctive blend of insanity and angel -- and the chords they use, and I'm almost sorry that the only time I really listen to Tool is when I'm supremely irritated.
A Perfect Circle has quite a bit of the same elements, of course, and I tend to think of it as the softer version of Tool... I need to get the second album of theirs. It takes a particular sort of brooding contentment for me to listen to A Perfect Circle, but not the sort of all-out anger that really fits Tool proper. And I'll do a lot for a chance to listen to Maynard in good form.
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Date: 2005-02-25 06:23 (UTC)Green Jelly has had more than 74 members since it started. Maynard was a member for a while and so was former Tool drummer Danny Carey (so was a rapper but I can't remember if it's Ice T or Ice Cube). Whether they met before then, or during I'm hazy on. Maynard actually formed APC for two reasons. One, there were some legal issues with Tool and he wanted to take a break. Two, he wanted to give some of his other friends a chance to get started. It worked. The old violinist on Mer de Noms went off and became a part of Zwan (whichis unfortunately no more).
Some people say that APC is nowhere near as dark as Tool. I'd have to disagree. Knowing what I know, I can tell you that it's just as dark if you know what you're listening to. Take the first album, Mer de Noms, for instance. It's actually telling a story. It's the story of a man who falls in love with a nun. He begins secretly stalking her, and finds out that she's not as pure and perfect as he thought she was. He follows her one day and strangles her. Maynard himself actually secretly stalked a nun for about six months so he could get the feel for it. He wrote her a letter later to tell her. Needless to say she was rather uneasy.