The music is the only bit I still like about Tool.

The rest was really cool when I was 16, but I've grown out of it now.

good band / shitty fanbase

hating them is a meme / lauding them is a meme

Their music is Magical.

It took me a long time to get into and understand what all the admiration was about, but after I've finally broken into it...it's like their music is on an entirely different level. I started out on Opiate, I listened to it once, didn't get much out of it. Then I saw Escape From LA, and the director John Carpenter uses the song "Sweat" to perfect effect in the beginning of the film, and it just haunted me. I listened to Opiate again and it's like every time I listened to it, it eerily got better and better and became one of my favorite albums in a very short period of time.

Next I listened to Lateralus. Once again, didn't think much of it. Seemed like Tool was just experimental and overrated. Then listened to it again the next day... and it's like something unlocked in my mind overnight. The album was brilliant, amazing, and beautiful. It continued to get bigger and more incredible the more I listened to it. I've probably listened to it 50 times since then.

Yesterday, listened to Aenima. Remember feeling disappointed that it was no Lateralus. Listened again today, and it's brilliant, haunting, and marvelous. Tool does something I've never heard before; It's like they're playing with the very properties of music to set up something you can't understand at first, then blow your mind with a musical idea that couldn't have been understood or expressed in just a few playthroughs. Their music engages you on a spiritual level and shows you things you didn't know existed. If you don't like Tool, it's not because they're "overrated" or not as good as you've heard, it's because you haven't been enlightened. The best way to listen to them is to accept that the music is excellent and you're in good hands musically. If you try to judge it like you do most music, it will prevent you from understanding.

When you're listening to Tool, just remember that they're 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 can't 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 it's easy to get a headache listening to them. Not because they're 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 don't like the music, you'll 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.

To me, they represent an ordered chaos when nothing else seems to be. In our time of need, we often seek out control over things to make us feel more appreciated and give us worth. With control comes order. Having everything in perfect order comforts some people. This also goes along the path of people with OCD. Tool songs have such a rythmic pattern that can be so chaotic at times, yet remain in perfect pitch and perfect harmony. Every note seems like it falls into a puzzle where only that note can fit. If you try and think about a tool song going one way or another, possibly having a chorus happen later or adding a bridge or ending a solo on a different note, you will find yourself unable to comprehend anything other than what tool has bestowed upon us. In this way, to me at least, it is the perfect music. So calm, yet so busy. So full of emotion, yet so void of emotion. It can be as shallow as you want it or deeper than your mind could ever comprehend. Tool's music offers something for everyone. Most often, people consider them to be the "thinking mans metal" and I agree. I have had friends without a pea sized brain in their body and they know that tool is amazing, even if they only know a song or two. Yet, throughout my years of slaving over tools discography, I can still listen to a tool song and find hidden messages or meanings that were right before me my whole life. I was simply never in the mood or right state of mind at the time to understand the instruments and/or lyrics fully.

I KNOW THE PIZZA FITS

>>61268300
Maynard says that Tool has never been the cause of anything, but rather a soundtrack to our lives, which we have always lived out with our own intentions. I agree with this in the fact that Tool has never actually caused me to do something that I would have never done on my own. All of my thoughts while listening to Tool have been my own. Tool has simply helped invoke deep thoughts of inner reflection and allowed me to see what I have really wanted all along, and thus, I act upon them. A sort of catalyst soundtrack, if you will, to the actions which represent me. All of this contributes to what Tool means to me. I have always agreed with the messages that they preach and they are a band that I have never, and will never, get tired of listening to. When I die, my gravestone will read "Ride the spiral to the end, you may just go where no one's been".

I don't understand why so many people shit themselves for this soft rock dronefest

This thread is proof that Tool fans are stoners, fedoras, or a combination.

That being said, I loved them in high school and still listen to Lateralus from time to time. I still have some fedora in me, but I think moving on from buttrock to gritty punk to jazz has made me see music from a wider angle and Tool doesn't seem mystic or intimidating anymore, if that makes any sense.

>>61269286

they're all copypastas

>>61268213
I only like Opiate, Undertow, and parts of Aenima. They only sound good when they're not trying to sound all deep and philosophical with their lyrics IMO.

Lateralus is good. The rest is ok or super bad

>>61268306
keked hard

>>61269481
best songs from TOOL are about sex not philosophy

>>61269592
Maynard's voice also sounds a lot better on their earlier albums.

>>61268213
They were good before they went mainstream with Opiate

>>61269631
agree entirely

>>61269434
you're a copypasta

>>61269701

n-no

They are definitely way better than the other bands in their genre.

still think jihads fanbase is waaayy worse. I can still enjoy TOOL but fuck man jihads fanbase make it literally impossible to enjoy

>>61269797
kek

you win