Tooling around again

Lateralus, Tool Volcano Entertainment, 2001

It’s a new world the four men of Tool now awaken to after five long years of slumber. For the most part, the band’s rocking contemporaries such as Helmet, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Alice In Chains and now Rage Against The Machine (well, at least Rage’s original configuration, anyway) have been scuttled for a variety of reasons from the inevitable (retirement) to the tragic (suicide, the case of Kurt Cobain).

Even the great Smashing Pumpkins, which has reaped more success than Tool, chose to bow out of the stage that has become the exclusive playground of prefabricated acts and rap-metal bands by the dozen.

Released last May 15 in the United States, Lateralus is not a tentative step back to the playing field but a reaffirmation of the fact that Tool will continue to be Tool – and not be influenced by whatever formula or genre is in good graces with record execs and album buyers.

Certainly, some of the craving for the Los Angeles quartet’s much-awaited fourth release was sated with the debut of A Perfect Circle’s Mer de Noms, a side project of Tool frontman James Maynard Keenan, Tool guitar tech James Howerdel and three other conspirators. Truth be told, "side project" hardly seems to be the term for it as A Perfect Circle — with its lush, tight instrumentation coupled with the signature vocals of the tender-one-moment-monstrous-the-other vocals of Keenan — notched platinum sales for Mer.

But although Tool will always have first dibs on Keenan, Adam Jones (guitar), Justin Chancellor (bass) and Danny Carey (drums) don’t appear to be in immediate danger of losing him to A Perfect Circle. In fact, a Tool article in the June issue of Spin asserts that "the two bands are so skittish about potential conflicts of interest," that the other members of the Circle refused to be interviewed for the Tool cover story. Mind your own Maynard – and never the twain shall meet?

Surely, an amicable relationship between the two camps spells good news for A Perfect Circle, too. Though the Circle is a more delicate, accessible and potentially more commercial vehicle, Tool logically made it all happen. Tool fans (like this writer) were eager, of course, to see what our former pet-store worker (Keenan) was up to.

"Perfect Circle is much more like The Cure," posits Keenan in the same interview, "it’s more ethereal and accessible. Also, I think that a lot of Tool fans weren’t aware that I could sing."

And sing he can.

So while Keenan was touring with his Circle, the rest of Tool bent down to work on Lateralus.

"Maynard was gone for a lot of it," says Carrey. "Off doing his Perfect Circle thing," adds Chancellor. "We didn’t quit working because he was away. He was around jamming for a while. But there was a while where he was off and it was the three of us."

However, this actually was just fine for the Toolmeisters, who prefer to do the music first and add the lyrics later. At any rate, the band has been used to doing things the hard way anyway. Said Keenan after the Aenima (1996) release: "Every aspect of what we do — each song, each video, each album cover — is tortured over by each of us. Nothing comes easy for this band."

Which, again, jibes with Tool’s world of dark desires, crippling anger and cruel fate. "The light that fueled our fire then has burned a hole between us so we cannot see to reach an end, crippling our communication," sings Keenan in Schism, the first Lateralus single.

In the lead-off track The Grudge: "Wear your grudge like a crown of negativity. Calculate what you will or will not tolerate. Desperate to control all and everything. Unable to forgive your scarlet lettermen."

And there are in-your-face belches like Ticks & Leeches: "Suck and suck. Suckin’ up all you can. Suckin’ up all you can suck. Workin’ up under my patience like a little tick. Fat little parasite. Suck me dry."

Clearly, Lateralus continues where the Tool left off in Aenima and forges on to Tooldom, with nary a backward glance or care about who among the followers can stay on the procession – wherever the @#$! that leads to. The prog-rock/metal tracks that Tool dishes out stretches to as long as 11 uncommercial and minutes, with Adam and company doing layering work and deserved self-indulgement. The complex soundscapes painted by Jones and company often throb like a tuneful migraine that is fueled by Carey’s frenetic pounding and Keenan’s screams. It’s Tool at its unapologetic, #@!$ you best. So, drop that Limp Bizkit CD and check out some real ass-kickin’ music without the crass commercialism.