Tool - Aenima

I was introduced to Tool by some guitar tablature in some guitar magazine when I was about 12 or so. I loved the sycopated power chord rhythms, and the creative use in general of guitars, something I wasn't seeing a lot of in other bands of the time. I didn't actually hear anything by them til a couple years later, when the guitar technique was trumped in my mind by the amazing sound and soul of the singer's (Maynard James Keenan) voice, and the weird creepiness of their videos. These days I can't eat the stuff up the way I did as a preteen, but I still have a lot of respect for Tool, despite their unfortunate name. I have a deficiency in my ability to weather a whole album with the same instrumentation throughout, and this album is no exception. Even though it ventures into other territory some, it's pretty much strictly guitar band crushing for the most part, following a pretty standard hard-rock song structure. It's saved for me by Keenan's totally awesome singing, or would be if the songs were a little more distinct from each other. For now I'm still stuck in the "mad respect but I can't really listen to it too often" zone with this. That said, I'd go see Tool perform live in a second if someone offered me tickets. I'd even pay to see them, and that's something I can't say for most metal acts.