Review by Saxy S for Tool - Ænima (1996)
I have a long history with this band. Tool were the band that initially forced me to crossover into the world of heavy metal back in the year 2001. I guess you could say they were my "Gateway" band (forced pun intended). And for a while, I believed the hype when it came to the bands 1996 album, Ænima, regarded by many as the bands best studio album, even ahead of Lateralus. Now I gave that album the illustrious perfect score when I reviewed just a few months ago. And while my opinion on that album may be tainted by rose coloured glasses, I still consider that record to be one of the all time greats, and a top ten greatest album of all time.
Ænima meanwhile, has not aged nearly as well. For starters, Ænima continues following the trend of the bands debut LP, Undertow by having a decent blend of progressive rock song structures/forms, while still maintaining some solid hooks from Maynard James Keenan on vocals, anchored by strong fundamentals by Justin Chancellor on bass and Adam Jones on guitar. "Stinkfist" starts the album with a thud and that carries on well into "Eulogy", but it does not stay in that vein for very long. "H." and "Hooker With A Penis" feel more like free-form tunes that yes do have good grooves, mostly on the former, but no hook to speak of. "Forty Six & 2" has more form, but lacks a melodic hook beyond the introductory bass groove. "Jimmy" and the title track are very good, the latter being one of Tool's top ten songs, while I personally have a strange fascination for "Pushit".
The sound of this album is unique for Tool. It was clear from the beginning that these guys were fans of some of the heavier grunge rock bands of the early nineties (Soundgarden and Alice in Chains specifically) and were working on creating a hybrid of Alice in Chains' heaviness, and Soundgarden's more progressive songwriting/structure. But this time around, Tool made the pivot to make a sound all their own. And I wished I liked it more. Many of the individual tracks seemingly run together after a while without any discernible key change or drastic tempo alteration. On their own, they are quite fine, but as a collective unit... I dunno, just really falls flat.
But outside of the music itself, what really holds this album back from the higher echelon that is the rest of Tool's discography? One word: framing. This album is FAR too long and trying way too hard to be tongue in cheek. Tool have never taken themselves very seriously; for god's sake, Undertow has a song called "Prison Sex"! The title of "Stinkfist" is another that tries to be provocative, while hiding a message/observation at large of people taking extreme measures to obtain pleasure, or "Hooker With a Penis", which responds to fans who claim they "sold out" as well as with "Pushit".
But what really grinds my gears is the interludes. My god. "Useful Idiot", "Intermission", "Cesaro Summability" and "(-) Ions" are literal noise interludes that contribute nothing to the experience. While "Message To Harry Manback" and "Die Eier Von Satan" might invoke a chuckle or even a full on laugh upon first listen, but what was the point of including a cookie recipe in German, over some percusssive, industrial groove? It loses it humour very quickly and these tracks have become near immediate skips with every subsequent listen of Ænima.
I understand the gatekeeping that Tool fans have, but much of that is at the hands of the band themselves. Tool are clearly not interested in dumbing down their music to a wider audience. They demand your attention in order to appreciate the songwriting and the word painting in the music. But Ænima is the album that achieves this the least effectively. You might like the singles: "Stinkfist", "Forty Six & 2", "Ænema", but be prepared to be left confused if you try and listen to this album in its entirety. It actively feels like the band is trying the alienate themselves from the mainstream, and perhaps, even their audience. And in one humble reviewers case, it almost worked...