| Band Description |
Tool is a Grammy Award-winning American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. The current bassist is Justin Chancellor, who has been with the band since 1995. Tool is known to have rigorous touring schedules in support of their albums, they have performed well on charts worldwide, and have sold an estimated 9.25 million records in the US alone.[1]
Tool emerged with a heavy metal sound on their first album Undertow, at a time when the genre was dominated by thrash metal, and later reached the top of the alternative metal movement with the release of their second album, Ænima, in 1996. Their efforts to unify musical experimentation, visual arts, and a message of personal evolution continued with their third record Lateralus in 2001 and their most recent album, 10,000 Days, released in 2006, gained the band critical acclaim and success around the world. Due to Tool's incorporation of visual arts and relatively long and complex releases, the band is generally described as a style-transcending act and part of progressive rock and art rock. The relationship between the band and today's music industry is ambivalent, at times marked by censorship and the band members' insistence on privacy
|
| Influences |
Tool has gained critical praise from the International Herald Tribune's C.B. Liddell for their complex and ever-evolving sound.[78] Describing their general sound, Allmusic refers to them as "grinding, post-Jane's Addiction heavy metal",[44] and The New York Times sees similarities to "Led Zeppelin's heaving, battering guitar riffs and Middle Eastern modes".[79] Their 2001 work Lateralus was compared by Allmusic to Pink Floyd's Meddle (1971), but thirty years later and altered by "Tool's impulse to cram every inch of infinity with hard guitar meat and absolute dread".
A component of Tool's song repertoire relies on the use of unusual time signatures. For instance, bassist Justin Chancellor describes the time signature employed on Lateralus's first single, "Schism", as 6.5/8, and that it later "goes into all kinds of other times".[80] "Lateralus", the album's title track, also displays shifting rhythms,[80] as does 10,000 Days' "Wings for Marie (Pt 1)" and "10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)".[81]
Beyond this aspect of the band's sound, each band member experiments within his musical scope. Bass Player magazine described Chancellor's bass playing as a "thick midrange tone, guitar-style techniques, and elastic versatility".[80] As an example of this, the magazine mentioned the use of a wah effect by hammering "the notes with the left hand and using the bass's tone controls to get a tone sweep", such as on the song "The Patient" (Lateralus 2001).[80]
Completing the band's rhythm section, drummer Danny Carey uses polyrhythms, tabla-style techniques, and the incorporation of custom electronic drum pads to trigger samples, such as prerecorded tabla and octoban sounds.[81]
Maynard James Keenan's ability as a vocalist has been characterized more subjectively by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: After his performance during an Alice in Chains reunion concert in 2005, freelancer Travis Hay saw him as "a natural fit at replacing Layne Staley".[82] Regarding his role in A Perfect Circle and Tool, The New York Times wrote that "both groups rely on Mr. Keenan's ability to dignify emotions like lust, anger and disgust, the honey in his voice adding a touch of profundity".[83]
According to Guitar Player magazine, Adam Jones does not rely on any one particular guitar-playing technique but rather combines many techniques.[84] For example, Allmusic wrote that he "alternately utiliz[es] power chords, scratchy noise, chiming arpeggios, and a quiet minimalism" in "Sober".[85] Additionally, the band uses forms of instrumental experimentation, like the use of a "pipe bomb microphone" (a guitar pickup mounted inside a brass cylinder) and a talk box guitar solo on "Jambi"
|