[music] Tool, Aenima (1996)

Zoo Entertainment
Total Running Time - 77:25

Personnel
Danny Carey - Drums; Justin Chancellor - Bass; Adam Jones - Guitar; Maynard James Keenan - Vocals

1. Stinkfist
2. Eulogy
3. H.
4. Useful Idiot
5. Forty Six And 2
6. Message To Harry Manback
7. Hooker With A Penis
8. Intermission
9. Jimmy
10. Die Eier Von Satan
11. Pushit
12. Cesaro Summability
13. Aenema
14. (-) Ions
15. Third Eye

Tool is not the easiest band to listen to. It takes some time to get used to the dark, syncopated riffs and the even darker lyrics that drives their music. The brave souls who can endure it will be rewarded with some of the most emotionally intense music on the planet, even if those emotions are almost always pain, rage, anguish, angst, or some combination or variation thereof. Ænima, the L.A.-based quartet's second full- length album, hones the sound they established on 1994's Undertow, expanding on it in some places, and refining it in others. And if anyone suspected that Tool's collective demons had been exorcised with their previous effort, they severely underestimated the depth of the band's torment, particularly frontman Maynard James Keenan.

There is something about Keenan that goes a long way to set Tool apart from the everyday angst-mongers of the modern rock scene. His voice has an innocence that is almost disarming, and it both belies the intensity of his lyrics and adds to it. This manifests itself most strongly in songs like "H.," "Jimmy," and "Third Eye," where Keenan's protagonist seems to be a young child, identified as between the ages of 7 and 11 in "Jimmy," who may or may not be the victim of some serious abuse by way of either a family member or someone else the child trusts. While this theme of abuse shows up several times on this album, the songs that pack the most lyrical punch are the scathing indictments of alternative culture and Los Angeles, respectively, in "Hooker With A Penis," and "Ænema." The former, which seems to have become the incredibly appropriate opening song of their Lollapalooza set, confronts a cocky fan, with Keenan growling that "all you know about me is what I sold you, dumbfuck. I sold out long before you ever even knew my name." "Ænema" exhorts a dumbed-down, numbed-down populace to "learn to swim," presumably because L.A. is going to fall into the ocean. Then there's "Forty-six & 2," with its possibly Jungian theme of a man, his shadow, and the reconciliation, or even transformation, between the two. The band is not very forthcoming about the meaning of their songs, so it's left to the fans to speculate, which they do quite a bit on the 'official' unofficial web site.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I don't really listen closely to lyrics, so the profound effect of this material is that much more intense for me to have even noticed it. Usually, I identify more with the music, and in Tool's case, the music certainly grabbed my attention. And as a drummer, I'm absolutely floored by Danny Carey's playing on this album. Carey is a very articulate player, with every note sounding exactly where he wants it. He superimposes meters to good effect on a couple of tracks, playing three-note hi-hat phrases over four-four time in "Eulogy," and modulating the bass drum pulse in sections of "pushit" and "Third Eye." There's also an interesting groove that he uses on both "Hooker with a Penis" and "Ænema," where the tune is in three-four, but it's broken into a two feel. I like that one particularly because I've used it before myself. Guitarist Adam Jones also lays down some strong guitar work, although I would like to hear him use the full range of the guitar, rather than just the low strings.

The one apprehension I have about Ænima is its length. Tool doesn't stray too far from its signature sound, and 77 minutes of that can be hard to get through. It took me a long time to discover "Ænema," which is the thirteenth track, and after owning the CD for close to a year, I've only just started making it all the way to the last track, "Third Eye." On the one hand, it may just be that the album needs to be taken in parts. On the other, Tool seems to like the idea of doing things differently than most, like writing songs clocking in at anywhere between six and sixteen minutes, and making an album that demands that you forsake your shortened attention span to appreciate it.