Are Tool worth a damn?

Are Tool a quality metal band?

  • Yes, they rock

    Votes: 108 76.1%
  • No, they suck

    Votes: 34 23.9%

  • Total voters
    142
Originally posted by Pieguy
I can't see any reason to listen to progressive nu metal when there's so many good progressive metal bands around. I just get borred by extremely poor guitarists.

What, "progressive nu-metal", can´t you see the paradox in that??? Lateralus and Ænema are progressive as hell, and although the guitar player isn´t the shreddy fuck, the drummer, bass player and singer are doing amazing things...
 
Originally posted by DogVomit

I agree with Devy. They really are dull. I vote 'they suck' !

__________________
The Haunted made me do it...
Well, it seems like the bassist of a band you like (Jonas Björler) has a totally different taste compared to yours...he loves Tool.
 
All your base are belong to Tool.
Personally i think what makes a good band is something that either instantly grabs me, or that I hear, and after hearing it a couple of times, become more and more interested. And as I listened to Tool more and more, (I did the same for Opeth) it became more appealing and I kept noticing more and more about them that I liked. With both Opeth and Tool, as well as a few other bands, I started with a general distaste for them until I really listened to them.
B. Stinky
 
Originally posted by The Deathrace King
Overhyped?

Overhyped by who?

The mainstream crowd?

On the contrary, Tool is the only mainstream band that deserves the hype that they recieve, albeit, for the wrong reasons.

so true... a band that gets the hype they receivre finally gets it and look what happens
 
They become sell outs

What the fuck are you talking about?

Out of all of their albums (except possibly Salival), Lateralus is their least radio-friendly. I'm quite perplexed as to how it drove them into the spotlight like it did... but listen to Undertow and then Lateralus. If you can't hear the musical progression and the variance of style... then... :err:
 
I like their albums (i won't say they rock because it's only my opinion which is not really objective), because of drumming, voice and ambiance (reflection is my favourite song).
About the fans and the sell-out stuff, i think that they had luck to interest MTV at the beginning. If Opeth is suddenly broadcasted on tv and radio, korn fans would become opeth fans and old opeth fans would say "sell-out".

Edit:
Well, maybe i should change my mind about the "sell-out" part. Just take a look at http://www.toolarmy.com
 
Originally posted by The Deathrace King
They become sell outs

What the fuck are you talking about?

Out of all of their albums (except possibly Salival), Lateralus is their least radio-friendly. I'm quite perplexed as to how it drove them into the spotlight like it did... but listen to Undertow and then Lateralus. If you can't hear the musical progression and the variance of style... then... :err:

How old are you?
If you think that I was saying that they were sell outs because they became popular, your wrong - thats not what I meant.
I was saying that they shouldn't be considered as sell outs just because they became popular. Get it??? :u-huh:
 
I disagree with what YaYoGak said about Adam Jones (the guitarist). Sure, Jones doesn't shred, or play "riffs," but that doesn't make him a bad guitarist. He does what the song calls for, which is sonic landscapes most of the time. Doesn't mean he can't shred or play well. I think if he played with a different (more traditional/metal) style, Tool would not be Tool. Plus it's pretty difficult to imitate his style, so he gets major points for originality (from me atleast).

Not that it pertains to anything, one of my friends told me that Adam Jones is a big death metal/shreddy guitar fan.

And yes, Tool rocks.
 
Originally posted by Aborted Fetus
I disagree with what YaYoGak said about Adam Jones (the guitarist). Sure, Jones doesn't shred, or play "riffs," but that doesn't make him a bad guitarist. He does what the song calls for, which is sonic landscapes most of the time. Doesn't mean he can't shred or play well. I think if he played with a different (more traditional/metal) style, Tool would not be Tool. Plus it's pretty difficult to imitate his style, so he gets major points for originality (from me atleast).

Not that it pertains to anything, one of my friends told me that Adam Jones is a big death metal/shreddy guitar fan.

And yes, Tool rocks.
Did you read my post? If so quote it and point out exactly where im refering to shreddy stuff. You wont be able to, because i wasnt talking about that at all. What i was primarily referring to, when i said 'techniques', is song writing techniques, not guitar playing techniques. Im talking about modes, scales, harmonies, effects, tones, keys, etc etc etc etc. Its these areas where the guitaring sucks. Everything relies on the dropped D, you can pick about two scales and randomly solo over the entire lateralus album encountering very little problems, because there is so little variation. Yes, riffiness and shreddiness is completely inappropriate for tools music (and part of the reason you have so many people just saying "tool sucks" here is because very little of metal doesnt rely on 'killer riffs', there's so many similarities between a band like tool and opeth, yet they are achieving hugely different things). You talk about sonic landscapes, as do i, but their music never explores different places. Some key/mode/scale/harmony/etc changes could take tools music to an entirely new level, but instead they just meander around a very very limited position, exploring the exact same things over and over and over and over and over and over and over. The reason i say Adam Jones sucks is because he sucks at everything that is most important to tool's music. He is hard to imitate because you'd be lucky to find a guitarist in this world taking on such artistic pieces yet not even experimenting with the things most important to his success. Its like having an artist who only uses the colour green, using it for one series of paintings you can say it was a good idea and created an interesting effect. Using it for every painting you ever do and suddenly it seems far more like something done through lack of knowledge/skill, rather than something done by choice with artistic reasons.

I can listen to one tool song and be taken on emotional journeys through an interesting landscape. But every song takes me to the same place.

Tool have very formulaic ways to build songs up, very formulaic ways to introduce new ideas, their whole sound is very formulaic. Everything related to the guitar really. Drums are inventive and change around a lot, vocals change scales and modes (one of the things that makes Adam Jones' sound more interesting, even though he's still playing the same old stuff).

AEnima had far more variety than Lateralus, yet Lateralus was more pollished and far better executed, and far more artistic. Id hope the next album was a mix of the two, with the guitarist exploring the areas i talk about above.
 
Tool is by far the greatest band to come out of the 90s. Any group that has 10 minute songs on a regular basis is at the very least intriguing. When those songs turn in to epics, damn near all the time, wow.

Opeth fans should really like Tool, as those two bands embody what progressive music is all about: beauty, rage, and complexity.

GO BUY KING CRIMSON AS WELL!!!!!! The founders of progressive music are GODS.

I can't believe somebody out there thinks of Tool as nu-metal... wow, that's amazing. Listen to Lateralus. Nu-metal crap bands don't know what an odd time signature is, let alone playing 3 different ones at the same time.
 
One of my favorites, I didn't like Lateralus much first... now I can say it's one of the best albums in my collection. Very creative and talented musicians. I would call them "art-rock" or something like that. They're definitely not nu-metal.
 
Originally posted by YaYoGakk
Did you read my post? If so quote it and point out exactly where im refering to shreddy stuff. You wont be able to, because i wasnt talking about that at all. What i was primarily referring to, when i said 'techniques', is song writing techniques, not guitar playing techniques.

Well then I guess I simply misunderstood. :p When I hear people talking/complaining about "technical" playing, they mostly mean simple guitar parts vs. complicated/shreddy lines and solos. So I assumed you meant the same. :grin:
 
The people that don't like tool because it's not "Shreddy and technical"...

...Why the hell do you like Opeth then? Far from brilliant guitarplaying, and i sure as hell don't hear and technicality or shredding.

If opeth and tool were to swap places popularitywise, then you would love tool, and be against opeth. I would bet on it, Opeth and Tool are actually very similar in many aspects. Simple but effective guitarlines, cool drum patterns and subtleties, good bassists (although the bass is somewhat submerged in later era opeth, pity), and 'signature' vocalists, not necesarrily good singers, but both have got their own style, and a signature tone to their voice.

Tell me, what exactly sets opeth and tool apart from each other to the extent where you love one band, and hate the other?

-Trapped