Tool
Undertow

Release Date: 1993 | Tracklist

There really is something to be said for the power of raw, unadulterated rage in music. It can save a train-wreck of an album, redeem a flawed one, or give credence to otherwise melodramatic-sounding lyrics. Whilst Tool's first full-length album, Undertow, isn't quite a train wreck, or 'flawed' in any fundamental sense, it really is carried by the sheer, terrifying sense of anger which permeates its dark, oppressive sound-scape, and Maynard's vocals sound so genuinely tortured as to make each fresh listen as harrowing as the last.

Undertow opens with a sledgehammer to the face, the savage-sounding 'Intolerance.' This track is the perfect introduction to, and summation of, the sound which Tool went for on this outing, as the riffs are uncompromisingly visceral, the production raw and the vocals are, as aforementioned, about the most furious and wounded sounding as one is likely to come across. It doesn't quite matter what Maynard's singing on this album (although the lyrics are more than passable throughout) - by the time he's screaming 'LIE CHEAT AND STEAL!' at the end of this first song, the listener's left unsure if they're witnessing some kind of positive catharsis or the sounds of a brutal murder. In truth, it feels like equal parts both. One cannot understate how important Maynard's vocals really are to this album, moreso than with any subsequent Tool releases, as they supply the much-needed humanity to fill the gaping voids of the album's impersonal, in-your-face instrumentation and production.

That's not to say that, musically, the album isn't 'good,' per se, just that it's a bit basic compared to what Tool would later go on to do. Sober's main riff (and entire verse progression) is simply based around two chords - but Tool are suitably economical with their sounds that this riff comes off as sounding like the most evil thing imaginable, until you remember that it really is just a chord change and the illusion is subtle. Still, there are some interesting ideas here; be they the disturbing, almost dark-ambient intro to Flood, or the unexpectedly glorious bass/guitar unison towards the end of the pleasantly titled Prison Sex, Undertow actually has a deceptively interesting offering for the refined musical palate, it's just a bit more stenographically hidden than, say, 10,000 Days in its virtuosity.

Frankly, the real appeal of Undertow is fairly difficult to put into words. Everything one would want from a decent grunge/metal album is present and correct here, but on paper it's nothing to write home about, despite being a serviceable release. Upon actually listening, though, Undertow transforms into one of the most harrowing, cavernously bleak and affectingly furious albums I've ever heard. It's successor, Aenima, might well have been 'angrier' in terms of angstiness and typical themes (and is also a better album overall, to my mind) but Undertow has a palpable sense of rage that, at its height, feels so genuine and relatable as to seem almost metaphysical. So whilst it might be the little brother of Tool's more 'important' albums, Undertow is still more than worthy of carrying the band's name, if only for the terrifying sense of fury that informs every second of this miserable, suffocating but perversely intoxicating release.

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3.8 excellent

Rank: #168 for 1993