\m/(~_~)\m/ Bring the Metal! \m/(~_~)\m/

Yeah for me re: Tool: it's the prog aspect that just turns me off. I don't think I'll ever get it. The closest to prog I've ventured is liking some Coheed & Cambria, at times.

Coheed rips. The song silent earth 3(has a longer title that escapes me) is a 9 minute power house that gets the juices flowing

This is as far as I made it into the new Tool album.
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/wLKSJPC/image.png)
There's nothing wrong with it, I guess, but I've moved on from the mid-aughts and don't feel the need to look back.

New 1349 on the other hand...

SLAYS.

r013nt0 wrote:

This is as far as I made it into the new Tool album.
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/wLKSJPC/image.png)
There's nothing wrong with it, I guess, but I've moved on from the mid-aughts and don't feel the need to look back.

You should at least give 7empest a go, it has all the energy missing from the rest of the album.

7empest and Pneuma are the only songs really sticking out to me, the rest feel like rehashes of earlier Tool stuff.

Invincible -> Descending back to back borderline bore the sh*t out of me. Something tells me the next album should maybe have more Maynard input instead of him checking out and letting them noodle as much as they want.

garion333 wrote:
jlaakso wrote:

It really confuses me how all my social media and music feeds are all Tool everywhere... I never got the appeal.

Pretty simple really, their sounds appeal to fans of rock, metal and prog. Just enough of each in their music to bring in huge swathes of fans. The rock side gets em on radio, the metal side brings the grit and the prog side is the long tail.

There's also the saying that a band is only as good as the drummer and Tool has an amazing drummer.

That's the base level. It all stems from that.

You hit most of it for me. Only other things I'd add (aside from the musicality of Danny + the band and the overall vibe of being the middle of the metal/alt/prog venn diagram):

1. The sound/production on their albums has always been really punchy. Love love their guitar and drum tones.
2. Their proggy side isn't about wankery, it's mostly always been about the (yes, length, but also...) rhythm, either in complexity (time signature shifts) or simplicity/repetition (just letting the groove ride in an almost meditation-like way).

Aenima came along when I was 16 and man talk about the perfect album for a 16 year-old into alt/metal/prog. I've just always dug their overall vibe. A fan of early APC too.

Speaking of sound...FI is very well-mixed and mastered to my ears. I was annoyed at first by it being muddy when the single dropped, then I realized I still had my Spotify EQ on. Taking that off and cranking it on the big system at home has been quite fun.

garion333 wrote:

You should at least give 7empest a go, it has all the energy missing from the rest of the album.

7empest and Pneuma are the only songs really sticking out to me, the rest feel like rehashes of earlier Tool stuff.

Invincible -> Descending back to back borderline bore the sh*t out of me. Something tells me the next album should maybe have more Maynard input instead of him checking out and letting them noodle as much as they want.

I'll give 7empest a listen.
Invincible completely killed the momentum for me. Figured I'd come back to the rest of the album at some point but, I just haven't felt any urge at all, which is honestly super surprising to me.

r013nt0 wrote:
garion333 wrote:

You should at least give 7empest a go, it has all the energy missing from the rest of the album.

7empest and Pneuma are the only songs really sticking out to me, the rest feel like rehashes of earlier Tool stuff.

Invincible -> Descending back to back borderline bore the sh*t out of me. Something tells me the next album should maybe have more Maynard input instead of him checking out and letting them noodle as much as they want.

I'll give 7empest a listen.
Invincible completely killed the momentum for me. Figured I'd come back to the rest of the album at some point but, I just haven't felt any urge at all, which is honestly super surprising to me.

Warrior. Struggling. To care.

I feel attacked by the name of track 5.

Oh ho! Do I like that 1349 track!! I’ll be checking out more of their catalog.

garion333 wrote:

There's also the saying that a band is only as good as the drummer and Tool has an amazing drummer.

That's how Green Jello was an all-time great band too.

1349 is headlining a show, with Uada supporting, in Boston at the end of October that I'd really love to check out. The problem is that it's a Tuesday night. My finger is very close to the buy ticket button...

r013nt0 wrote:

Figured I'd come back to the rest of the album at some point but, I just haven't felt any urge at all, which is honestly super surprising to me.

This is where I'm at too. There's just so much out there right now that's more exciting. The Meet the Mailman sent me on a long string of finding and listening to some amazing stoner metal bands I hadn't heard before, and I found a black metal podcast that has introduced me to some other amazing bands. Here's one of the stoner metal bands, unfortunately named Sail, making it super hard to find their stuff:

Loving it!

r013nt0 wrote:

This is as far as I made it into the new Tool album.
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/wLKSJPC/image.png)
There's nothing wrong with it, I guess, but I've moved on from the mid-aughts and don't feel the need to look back.

That is almost exactly where I tapped out too. There was a glimmer of promise when they released the single, but I kind of forgot I was listening to anything about two minutes into Invincible... I'll check out 7empest as well, but my reluctance to dive in to FI feels justified at this point. On the bright side, I've started playing Lateralus tracks for my kids and they seem to dig it

d4m0 wrote:

1349 is headlining a show, with Uada supporting, in Boston at the end of October that I'd really love to check out.

Uada is one of the few black metal bands I dig. Coolio.

r013nt0 wrote:

. Here's one of the stoner metal bands, unfortunately named Sail, making it super hard to find their stuff:

Loving it!

Sail definitely gives some serious Yacht Rock vibes with the name. pass me a white claw.

On a second listen I am very much a fan of Meet The Mailman's new album, as well. Potent stuff!

Re. Tomb Mold: it's alright. Not really my thing, overall, but I can see myself getting back to this when working late. I prefer the previous album to the new one. I dig the super low and undecipherable grunts.

Like 60 seconds into Uada and I am loving this!

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Uada is one of the few black metal bands I dig. Coolio.

jlaakso wrote:

Like 60 seconds into Uada and I am loving this!

Glad you guys like it! Uada is actually the reason I want to check out the show. Their last album was one of my favorites from last year. 1349 also being pretty good is just a bonus. You know what? I'm gonna pick up that ticket! If anyone is anywhere near Boston that night, here's the place to get a ticket.

f*ck.
Yeah!

I actually scored Tool tickets for Raleigh. Feels weird to actually beat the bots, glad Ticketmaster is requiring logins and doing queues/throttling.

Well that's neat! Finland is lagging behind on that, I feel... For anything expected to be popular you really need to be lining up when the booths open. I've always had more luck being there in person, compared to hitting refresh on my browser.

Cutting in with my power metal garbage, I wish Encyclopedia Metallum offered more comprehensive information about bands and their histories than it does. It's only slightly helpful in confirming some info, but I just discovered that StormHammer is not only an older band than I thought, but they basically did a cover of their own material.

In 2017 I was a fan of their album Welcome to the End. One of the songs was The Law.

Well, turns out that song was originally released by them sounding very different in 2001.

Given the difference in sound and tone, I understand why they'd remake it as a sort of "updated" version. It's just weird because I kind of want to understand their history beyond their discography.

I imagine they're simply not popular enough to have more info listed, but, yeah, EM is basically little more than discography and band members.

I very much agree that I want more info from EM, but consider that people on r/punk periodically ask what the punk equivalent is, and there isn't one. I asked that maybe a year ago and they linked me about five other times that question had been asked.

On a The Black Dahlia Murder binge at work today. I was put off by their vocalist for a long while, but now I'm digging it a lot.

Decent!

I saw The Black Dahlia Murder last year. That album is really good so it was a great opportunity to see them. I'm not super into the vocals either, to be honest. The band is good but not 100% my thing. Tons of respect for them having such a long and prolific career. I'm not interested in seeing them again on their current tour with Black Label Society and Alien Weaponry, but if they came through with some bands I liked I'd be happy to see them again.

That tour last year was sick, with Skeletal Remains, Ghoul, Power Trip, and this misfit electronica project called Gost.

jlaakso wrote:

On a The Black Dahlia Murder binge at work today. I was put off by their vocalist for a long while, but now I'm digging it a lot.

oh they are a favorite. So great. if your into TBDM then may i suggest , a long defunct but still rule, The Red Chord

This seems good.

Oh, also:

Finally got around to listening to 7empest. It's... better, I guess, than the other songs I bothered with. But I am cool with never hearing any of this album ever again. What a sad, boring, slog of a listen.

r013nt0 wrote:

Oh, also:

Finally got around to listening to 7empest. It's... better, I guess, than the other songs I bothered with. But I am cool with never hearing any of this album ever again. What a sad, boring, slog of a listen.

Yeah Tool's not for you if you're anywhere near the "don't bore us, get to the chorus" type, especially from Lateralus on. They are not an immediate band at all.

Now if you're down for contemplating the mysteries of the universe on the mind-altering substance of your choice, fancy the occasional headbang out of a transcendental state, and happen to have a killer hifi in your den? They're your huckleberry.