Review Summary: Tool powers it's first full-length album with Maynard's personal demons.
If you ask the average Tool fan what their favorite album is, about 99% percent of the time, the answer is not Undertow. In fact a lot of people seem to unknowingly dismiss this album as being Tools weakest album, for the simple fact that it isn't quite as progressive as their other albums. And while musically this may not be the most complicated or interesting Tool albums, this is easily the most personal, and emotional Tool album by far.
Not to say this album isn't just brilliant musically, Danny Carey as always throws down some of the best beats in all of metal, and also does something almost unthinkable in 90's rock...he keeps steady time. Paul D'Amour Might not be anywhere near the as good as Justin Chancellor, but that doesn't stop him from playing some incredibly dark and brooding bass lines that complement the rest of the group very well. Adam Jones is easily the weakest link in this in this album, while his riffs are very dark and well written, there are many occasions were it feels like Adam is unnecessarily hiding behind Paul during parts of the song were he should be showing of his true skills as a guitarist.
Now Maynard is easily the star of this album, and it shows most prominently in songs such as Sober and Swamp Song. This album is about Maynard getting rid of Demons from the past and this raw and pure emotion is what helps pull this album past just being really good to being amazing. Maynard goes from crying howls to dark and enchanting near spoken word lyrics all while maintaining one of the best voices in all of rock and roll.
This would be the part were I tell you about the messages that the songs contain but...no. In my opinion part of the fun with Tool is taking the time to delve into each song and figuring out just what kind of message there trying to get across. Everyone has there own interpretation on what each song means and for the most part there all right, which is the fun part.
Now, all this is not to say this album doesn't have problems, because it most certainly does. The biggest of which being the length of the album. Not to say it's too long, but it feels like theirs a lot of time wasted time on this album, the biggest offender being Disgustipated. There are multiple times in this song were almost everything drops for lengths of almost half a minute at times, and it just feels unnecessarily dragged out. I feel like if they had cut some of the fat from this album we would have a very fluid and aggresive album that never let go, but there are to many occasions where it takes too long for a song to get to the point.
In closing this album was a great way to start off Tools careers (not counting Opiate), and is one of the few times Maynard really writes personally aside from 10,000 Days, and I will get to that masterpiece later, but for now Undertow contains some of m favorite material from Tool, and easily deserves to stand next to all of their other albums as a showcase of near musical perfection.
