Album Rating: 4.0

The guitar is certainly the most underwhelming aspect of this album for me. That said, I'm not a guitarist and I don't know what pentatonic scales are, so my appreciation of the simplicity here is mitigated by my lack of conceptual resources.



I'm a rhythm guy. Generally speaking, I pay much more attention to bass and drums than I do guitar. Rhythmic complexity is much more satisfying to me than complexity in guitar parts. So Tool, and this album, tick some boxes there.

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

The lyrics maybe could’ve been a little more inspired and unique like their earlier stuff, but they’re serviceable. His vocal performance is great though, same with Eat the Elephant. However, not sure how much of that was done live from him, or later manipulated or enhanced in the studio..

Album Rating: 3.0

I agree with the criticisms of his vocal performance here, but I also realize that he can't help it since a) his voice is not what it used to be and b) he does not harbor the same emotions that he did when he was younger.



On the first four albums however his voice was a force to be reckoned with and the rhythmic arrangement of his melodies have always been fantastic for me



"be real, the choice for worst tool member could only ever be between maynard and jones"



I agree, only insofar that Carey and Chancellor are the most talented members of the band for sure. So yeah Maynard and Jones technically are the worst lol but that does not take away from their own talents (Maynard's in particular, Jones has always been mostly okay for me).

Album Rating: 3.5

oh man eat the elephant was terrible.

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

Only the album cover

Album Rating: 3.0

I don't feel any reason to give Maynard a lot of heat with him being in his 50s. Dude's been in the game for a long time. He definitely has/had one of the strongest voices in rock. Go back and listen to some of their 90s Opiate/Undertow live recordings. The live Sober performance? Hell out of here haha, that performance is legendary. The Opiate performances in the tiny club? Ridiculous.



That said, he's clearly had enough, and doesn't have the same energy anymore. He phoned it in for this album, and didn't even record his vocals with the band.

Album Rating: 5.0

And he's had covid twice since FI. Allegedly that can also make you a worse singer.



Only solution is to get LDR to do the vocals.

Album Rating: 4.0

Danny > Justin > Jones > Maynard. It's been like thix since 1996.



However, that doesn't matter since Tool at their worst is better than any band in the world. They play incredibly well as a band, they respect each other's space instrumentally and that's their trump card, not individual instrument composition/performance. Only Maynard shows signs of slippage when he sometimes sings over parts he shouldn't sing on (The Patient, Rosetta Stoned, Ticks & Leeches).

Album Rating: 4.0

I've been a guitarist for 25 years, and I've always felt that each member of the band all but invented the role they occupy therein. Just because Adam doesn't shred all over his albums doesn't mean he's *incapable* of shredding, nor does shredding = accomplished guitarist. The entire discourse is ridiculous to begin with.

Album Rating: 5.0

>The entire discourse is ridiculous to begin with.



How much of the thread are you referring to here?

Album Rating: 3.5

I'm not one of those fuckwits who think mAyNaRd Is GoD but he is undeniably a fucking amazing vocalist and lyricist, and guyman is right, jones' textures and stuff may not be technically amazing, but who gives a shit, they sound fantastic.

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

True that, Adam’s one of my all time favorite guitarists. He’s been my prof pic on here for years now.

I don't give two shits whether Jones can or will shred, just wish he wrote riffs that aren't boring af
As for "textures and stuff", the intro to the t/t is godawful

Album Rating: 4.0

revisited this today for the first time in a minute and "Pneuma" along with "Invincible" are definitely up there with my favorite tool tracks.

Album Rating: 5.0

Pneuma for best track of the year

Jones is a very creative player, some of the production/mixing choices for his guitar are also strange/cool like that part in Parabola where the guitar cuts through, sounds so crisp but also twisted somehow it's how he plays it but also how it's mixed, I'm talking about that ''solo part'' in the song at like 1:37 in. It just sounds weird somehow, almost indescribable. But it fits the song perfectly, it almost sounds sloppy, but I'm sure it isn't.

Still think it's one of the coolest moments in TOOL's discography, that part where maynard is singing ''in this holy reality...'' and adam is jerking off his guitar

Album Rating: 5.0

Parabola is really good yeah. Great introductory song for plebs too

Album Rating: 4.0

Johnny is wrong all the time tbh because of his Tool derangement syndrome.

Hear me out, take Justin Chancellor, one would say he is a barely above average bassist technically, when in reality he is one of the greatest bassists ever because he is a genius in setting moods -- simply put, he VIBES. Similarly with Adam Jones, his critics only think of him as a slow-ass chugger, unable to understand that his riffs have atmospheric qualities that, at times, can even rival Tim Hecker's ambience. Tool's band members know how to create sounds that channel inner resonance. Basically, if you like this band, you're a sexy winner, if you don't you're a lost cause and consider buying yourself some taste in music.

Imagine caring about riffs when listening to them... that's such a obsolescent, non-European way of thinking. It'd be like an angsty atheist reading The Bible only to find faults in it. We're talking Tool here, not Oceansize, Faith no More or other stick-in-the-mud rock bands.

inner resonance like when you eat too much pizza and you can feel your colon vibrating on the train home

Album Rating: 4.0

The Bible comparison is a little much lol