Current Events > C/D: Tool is overrated.

(+) Yeah! (+)

C.

I mean, they're alright. But I don't see what the big deal is.
Kinda angsty imo.
---

C terrible band
---

Eh, I loved them when I was student age and see them live a couple times but yeah I don't really listen to them much now.

Awesome band for teens. I still dig AEnima on occasion.
---

To me, Tool's Lateralus is the most amazing piece of music ever composed. I think Tool deliberately wanted to give their fans something truly amazing, but wanted them to find it on their own. "Recognize this as a holy gift..." At first, I thought that the song Lateralus was about tripping acid - discovering true color by seperating the body from the mind. At first listen, I imagined the bending envelope as an intense visual. After becoming more familiar with the track, however, I had reformed my interpretation to something broader: think deeper. Lateralus, perhaps because it is the album's "title track", serves as the central clue for a puzzle that a friend of mine had read about somewhere on the internet. "All I know is that there is a different order for the songs - something about two spirals. Oh yeah, and thirteen is in the middle." After scavenging through endless google search results, I gave up on finding more about this 'alternate order'. Intent to figure the album out, and very curious about the spirals - I put on the proverbial 'thinking cap'. I understood how the spirals could have a lot of significance, in that the album's title track offers the inspiring, "swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human..........And following our will and wind we may just go where no one's been. We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been." In my internet scavenging, I had read one review, written by a drummer, who mentioned that Danny Carey's drum beat formed a fibonacci sequence during the song Lateralus. A drummer myself, I decided to get out the graph paper and follow Danny. I can't play like he can, but at least I can hear everything he's doing, and thus was able to construct the drum tabulature. Sure enough, Danny repeats a Fibonacci sequence through the number 13: 1,1,2,3,5,8,13. After 13, he starts again with 1. Bringing in my Algebra 2 knowledge of the Fibonacci sequence, when the equation for the Fibonacci sequence (which I don't actually know) is graphed, it forms a sprial whose vertex depends on the number at which the sequence begins. Coincidence? I began to think not. I had already known of Danny's obsession with sacred geometry and am familiar with Bob Frissell's book, Nothing in This Book Is True, But It's Exactly How Things Are , so the significance of what I had stumbled upon had actually begun to settle in. This is where I just had to play with Lateralus. I had doodled a few spirals in the corners of my graph paper, and in doing so made the first important connection to Lateralus. I knew that if the tracks were in fact intended to be heard in a different order, "Parabol" and "Parabola" would have to go together. In drawing my spirals, I had begun with a vertex and 'spiraled' outwards. After writing the numbers 1 through 13 linearly, I could immediately see that Parabol and Parabola would have to be the middle of my spiral (in that 13 / 2 = 6.5). I drew a simple arrow between 6 and 7 and then pondered the next pair. At first, I actually drew a spiral connecting pairs of numbers whose sum equaled 13 (the number of songs on the album). This, however, left the last track in the same position and without anything to connect to. At this time, I had used my copy of Lateralus and Cool Edit Pro to take out the silences between tracks and put the songs in the following order: 6,7,5,8,4,9,3,10,2,11,1,12,13. The transition from Parabola into Schism blew my mind, as the plucks, probably dismissed by listeners as a drawn out rant of an ending, perfectly transition into the beginning of Schism. When you count out beats as the strings are plucked, Schism resumes with the same time signature and tempo - mirroring the progression of notes. The transition from Schism into Ticks & Leeches is equally intriguing. Schism ends with strong double-kick bass and tom smacks, and Ticks & Leeches begins with what many would call a 'tribal' drum beat. The beat at the very start of Ticks & Leeches is slightly different every subseque
---

..

Yeah, i need a drink just scrolling past that.
---

I was annoyed when there were 3 Tool songs on Guitar Hero: World Tour. Not fun to hear or play and they take too long.

C
---

Ruid posted...

I was annoyed when there were 3 Tool songs on Guitar Hero: World Tour. Not fun to hear or play and they take too long.

These are the only songs I know and that they have weird fucking music videos. So, D.

I don't know enough about them.
---

Didn't the lead get busted banging underage girls? I was never a fan before anyways.
---

KillerKhan420 posted...

Didn't the lead get busted banging underage girls? I was never a fan before anyways.

Not busted, accused buy some unverified woman on twitter that 20 years ago he banged underage groupies.
---

I respect their artistry and attention to detail, but their music has never appealed to me
---

D

so much awful taste in this topic
---

I actually don't think I've heard a single one of their songs.

I see them as more of a meme than anything else at this point.

When youre listening to Tool, just remember that theyre not like other bands. Their music is incredibly artistic, almost to the point where you have to be paying complete attention to them to even remotely understand them. I remember listening to a song on Lateralus (though I cant remember what it was), where I thought a song was absolute bollocks during the listen. Then, I closed my eyes for a second, and all of a sudden the song had an entirely new meaning. It was insane the way Tool could just become something so different when you take a look into the music.

Another thing you should note about Tool is that its easy to get a headache listening to them. Not because theyre a bad band, but because of how many ideas their music is riddled with and how complex they are. Soon enough your head will fill to the brim and the rest will just sound like noise to you. Just turn it off and give it a listen the next day.

If you dont like the music, youll definitely at least enjoy reading through the lyrics, and picking apart the song itself and all of the artistic values that go into making it the complexity that it is.
---

Outgrew them some time ago, but i get the appeal.

Theyre kinda like Rush to me, i respect their ability but dont care to hear anymore of it.
---

Confirm.
---

Dragonblade01 posted...

I actually don't think I've heard a single one of their songs.

It's possible, their music doesn't get played in public very often
---

Overrated? No.

Overplayed at some point? Yes.

Tool isn't something I can listen to all the time but I do have most their stuff on vinyl and in the right mood it can be very immersive.
---

BuckVanHammer posted...

Outgrew them some time ago, but i get the appeal.

They're kinda like Rush to me, i respect their ability but dont care to hear anymore of it.

And the trolls who post on GameFAQs must be the ones who start...

D

TOOL is top notch. one of my favorite bands.
---

D. They're not like other bands.