Tool - Heavy Music's Divine Hammer

Tool – Heavy Music’s Divine Hammer

by Benjy Eisen

Face it: today’s musical landscape is more artificial than ever before. Factory bands sing songs they didn’t write, dance to moves they didn’t create, and promote an image that isn’t theirs. This has always been true of pop music, but now we are beginning to see other, previously less-marketable, forms of music being packaged in much the same way. Hard rock and heavy metal bands are Xeroxing copies of the Ozzfest acceptance manual, rather than getting there the way Ozzy Osbourne originally did, which is to say with

visionary songwriting and with gods of rock for a band. Many bands these days seem to think that it was his coniferous antics or demonic images that built his success. And while the facade may have spread Ozzy’s reputation, it was the solid foundation beneath that sustained his long-standing success. Ironically, for many of these new bands, image alone actually seems to be cutting it. At least initially. And it must piss a band like Tool off. Over the last decade, Tool has seen their peers slowly drop out, one-by-one, exchanged for — but not replaced by — these new replica bands. In a match of last-band-standing, Tool has become tortured perfectionists, totally disregarding the rules of the music industry and totally ignoring the code of current music standards. Whether born from a survival of the fittest, or from some sort of Hegelian dialectic, Tool has created a math-rock prog-psychedelic-stoner-goth hybrid that is as honest as it is original. Say what? Say this — Tool has become the most important heavy metal band alive.

And you wouldn’t recognize them if they were five inches in front of you. Nor would they want you to. Tool is the anti-rock stars. They have never appeared in their own videos, and they don’t put their faces anywhere on their albums. The band professes to spending hours laboring over every detail of every inch of their output, from cover art to their website content, using each medium as another form of the same expression — art.

Tool’s music, of which all else is centered upon, obviously breaks convention as well. Their music is the natural result of kids who grew up listening to Pink Floyd and King Crimson in the same sitting as perhaps Nine Inch Nails and Ministry. Their lyrics are at once dark and yet undeniably spiritual. For example, from their latest release, Lateralus:

“So crucify the ego before it’s far too late to leave behind this place so negative and blind and cynical. And you will come to find that we are all one mind.”

Musically, Lateralus is dense. At nearly 80 minutes total, songs are six, eight, 11 minutes long. And many of them don’t even resemble songs. These are sonic tapestries, interesting patterns woven together, sometimes for their continuity, sometimes for their contrast. There are no verse-bridge-chorus-solo formulas at work here. Melodies can be scarce. Thundering drums and industrial bass often lead, allowing for the occasional guitar whitewash or for Maynard James Keenan’s emotive screaming. Explosive moments are followed by near silence, while thoughtful, patient guitar-work wraps eerily around tuneful singing and poetic phrasing. This is art-rock, intel-shock, heavy metal for dramatics and academics alike.

Tool first infiltrated the music world’s consciousness in 1993 after a high-profile slot on the then-still-hot Lollapalooza tour. Before Tool, Keenan and drummer Danny Carey were members of the cartoonish novelty act Green Jelly. Irony in check, Green Jelly’s mission statement was to be the worst band ever. Their live show was — if not entirely inventive (“Hello, Gwar?”) — an exercise in stretching the theatrical boundaries of a live concert. The identity of band members were hidden behind giant paper mache costumes and stage names such as Marshall Staxx and Jesus Quisp. Although unqualified for “the worst band ever” title, Tool also have become known for their intensely of-the-moment live shows. With one-time-only stage costumes, wigs and even body paint as sample props, each show is unique and one never knows what to expect. If you did, Tool would probably view that predictability as a fault, a result of being lazy and formulaic, and hole up for another five years to reassess their motives.

As it stands, that’s not too far from how Tool spent the last five years. Bitter legal battles with their old record company led to an extended period of frustrating litigation and stagnation. Exhausted from the pile of industrial dung that was being heaved at them from lawyers and businessmen, Keenan got tired of the still life and formed another band to keep him preoccupied — that band was A Perfect Circle. Their album (Mer de Noms, with the single “3 Libras”) went platinum and their tour packed houses nationwide. Having achieved commercial success with his new band, while his old band was for all purposes a lame duck, rumors of a Tool break-up started making the rounds. Leave it to Tool to answer by creating their first five-star masterpiece, chart their biggest hit to date (“Schism”), and launch a hugely anticipated arena tour — all on their own terms. And with t’s crossed and lines dotted.

Tool’s obsessive nature is understood and appreciated. It’s almost as if Tool uses music itself as a tool to get at higher truths. It is a tool which, when used correctly, enables the purist form of communication, where floodgates are left open to both interpretation and revelation. If all of this is true, then Tool the band is wielding a divine hammer and they’re driving in the nails. And whatever it is that they’re building, it’s cool as hell.

Tool will perform at the Hersheypark Arena on September 25. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster outlets, by phone, online, and at the venue box office. Call 534-3911 for more imformation. Fantomas, featuring Mike Patton of Faith No More, will open. Look for an exclusive interview with Fantomas in the September 27 issue of MODE Weekly.