Tool’s Ænima

Before I start, yes, I indeed do know that I haven’t done one in a while. That’s okay though, because now I’m doing a review. So shut up, and just keep reading.

Now, Tool is a band that you either like or don’t. Nobody really says they’re just okay, in my personal experience. I could be wrong though. Then again this whole planet could be wrong at times. Wouldn’t that be a travesty, someone actually being wrong?

Let’s get back to Tool though. I picked up their album (ae)nima, I’m using the (ae) because I can’t be bothered to find the symbol, and I have to say that this album is actually one that I’m impressed with. Now, I’ve been into too a bit, and I liked what I knew, but I always wanted to look more into it. This one I actually followed through with and went and got the album, well, more got it for my birthday, but let’s not get into that.

Now, the first thing I noticed is the album art. It’s queer as a three dollar bill…well, I don’t know about wherever you are, but a three dollar bill doesn’t happen in Canada. The album art is extremely well done, with two irises on one eye, a flaming thing with eyes floating around it, a shaking contortionist and neat changeable front. Oh yes, the front is this weird lined plastic that makes the images underneath move when you move the CD. The album art, frankly, scares the living sex cells out of me. I’ve not even touched it all, but it does lose a point for the song listings. They’re not easy to find, as you have to slide out the booklet and then look around at it, and the words are quite small, but I’m just being picky now because I have nothing else to complain about. It easily redeems itself and gains that point back for having a picture of Bill Hicks in it. If you don’t know who Bill Hicks is, look him up. Wikipedia is a good source, despite it being full on non-facts.

The lyrics aren’t listed in the booklet and they are at time, through distortion and sound effects, hard to understand. But, that’s okay because the internet has everything. Plus, if you’ve listened to Lamb of God as long as I have, you can pretty much understand anything. They lyrics are well thought out and well delivered, but start to confuse you unless you know what they’re talking about. Forty-Six and 2 takes a bit of a biology lesson and involves chromosomes and evolution. That can all be forgiven though for the chorus of the song Hooker With a Penis. The song has nothing to do with hookers, or penises, but it’s a good song none-the-less.

The guitar is well distorted, the bass is well distorted, the vocals are well distorted, heck even the drums are distorted at times. It’s a big distortion fest, and normally this would bother me, but it didn’t during this CD, because it was well delivered, something that is lacking from most of today’s artists. The songs at times did become a little long at times with Eulogy being eight and a half minutes, and Third Eye being thirteen and a half minutes, and I did find myself wanting to skip songs sometimes. They’re great songs, but they did not need to be that long, because they start to repeat themselves. Sorry Tool, you need to learn when to stop.

Overall a really great album, though at times it did wear a little thin. It’s something different and good from front to back for the first few listens, but then you’re going to want to choose your songs.

Lyrics 4/5

Music 4/5

Originality 5/5

Album Art 5/5

A solid 90/100 for the album

(Don’t blame me for the lack of indent, WordPress won’t seem to let me)