Review Summary: One of the best debut albums of the 90's that perhaps deserves more praise from both fans and critics alike.
It’s also hard to imagine now, but there was a time when Tool didn’t seem destined for success. Grunge was reaching its boiling point, Rap metal was hitting its stride and radio-friendly punk-pop loomed on the horizon. Alternative and Metal, the two genres that Tool base their music around, were performing badly as far as the mainstream was concerned.
Tool’s first release, a demo tape entitled 72826, was released in 1991, and their follow up EP, Opiate, from 1992 were both seminal but unsuccessful signs of things to come on their first full length LP despite extensive touring and promoting. When Undertow was released in 1993, not many people were expecting how much sheer, unadulterated power that featured on this ground-breaking debut record.
Undertow opens with an office chair to someone’s face. “Intolerance” is a great introduction to, and summation of, the sound which Tool went for on this outing. The LP just gets better from there. “Prison Sex” is a true rocker, and still remains one of Adam Jones’ best performances, and “Sober”, the album’s leading single, is one of the greatest ever Tool songs. The proficient instrument playing and Paul D’Amour’s awesome bass line, along with Maynard’s incredible singing wins everyone over as he bellows out “Why can’t we not be sober? Why can’t we drink forever?” “Bottom” is another incredible song, where Danny Carey stands out over the rest of Tool with his excellent drumming, and “Crawl Away” is an anthem of brutality and fast paced mayhem towards the end with a killer intro.
Undertow enters its second phase with “Swamp Song”. Maynard’s performance on this song is also rather disappointing, but the music is very good apart from the occasional repeating of riffs. “Undertow” is a more progressive song on the record, and contains technically proficient guitar playing from Adam Jones, “4°” is the hardest rocker on the album along with “Prison Sex”, and “Flood” is an impressive conclusion to impressive rock album that will definitely stand the test of time. “Disgustipated” is a part of Undertow despite that it is a monumentally pointless hidden track that is hilariously listed as track 69 (well I wonder why), after 60 tracks of one second silence. This 16 minute ‘experimentation of rock’ isn’t, in my opinion, proper music. It is interesting to listen to though, but it’s best to avoid it.
Of course, as most Tool fans know, the music in Undertow is nothing compared to their later work, which evolves into a much more progressive style, The main riff for “Sober” is only based around two chords, as is the entire verse progression, and Danny Carey, who would later in Tool’s career be hailed as ‘the best drummer in the world’, had not yet proven how good a drummer he was when Undertow was released.
What many critics and fans seem to forget is that Undertow was Tool’s debut record. For a debut, it was enormously successful and one of the best ones I’ve ever listened to. No band made such an impact from a debut since Rage Against The Machine’s self-titled monster. Yes, the production and sound quality wasn’t perfect, but this is normal for every band. Metallica’s debut Kill ‘Em All was very poorly produced but it made such an impact on the Metal community. Undertow did the same thing. Metal and Alternative music were both performing badly to attract any attention at the time if this release, but Tool did just that, and it remains a high seller worldwide. This was also Paul D’Amour’s only appearance on a Tool LP, as he left Tool in 1995, but it was an incredible way to leave the band.
Undertow is a great album, even if fans don’t acknowledge it very much, even if most prefers Tool’s second release Ænima, it is a sensational album that fans will one day realise how important it was. While there have been several changes to the group’s sound over the years, Undertow remains a solid release after nearly 20 years, and if the music industry in 1993, particularly the Alternative and Metal side of thing, is thought about by everyone, it could be argued that Undertow was a ground-breaking record that I will always cherish.
Pros
• Incredible debut record
• Music is frequent and heavy
• Singing is great
• Themes are interesting
Cons
• Sound quality isn’t great
• “Disgustipated”
Recommended Tracks
• Prison Sex
• Sober
• Bottom
• Crawl Away
FINAL RATING: 4.5 / 5
