So here I am on day one of Jimah's Music Experiment. After racking my brain trying to decide what band to start with, I decided that the best possible place to begin would be with TOOL. The simplest reason for this is that I've been hearing a lot of people talk about them lately so they were in the front of my mind. The complicated reason is that, for me, my love of music starts with TOOL. This isn't to say that they are my favorite band because they aren't. However, I can tell you that in the 27 years I've been on this planet, never have my music conceptions been so assaulted and warped as they were the first time that I heard 'Prison Sex'. In a time when The Flaming Lips were singing about jelly, Radiohead were singing about being a creep and Counting Crows were singing about Mr. Jones, here was this new band called TOOL singing about shit, blood and cum. And they had the cojones to be metal when it was desperately uncool to be metal. Shortly afterwards I heard Undertow in it's entirety for the first time and started to wonder where these guys had been my whole life. Only being 12 at the time, the album simultaneously exhilarated and frightened me. I loved the song structure, the drumming in particular. I loved the energy they injected their music with; a swirling combination of disgust, frustration and entrapment with an under current of winking sarcasm that no one has really duplicated since. I was terrified of their music videos. Absolutely terrified.
Of course, if this has been the end of the story, it would have been tragic but they would have made their mark on the music community and moved on. Thankfully, that isn't where their story ended because three years later, roughly six months before I discovered just how much marijuana enhances music, they released what I still hold to be their best album Aenima. Here we have a band who took the best elements of their two previous albums (including the Opiate EP) and combined them with Egyptian mythology, geometry, Jungian psychology and Armageddon. Aenima was the first album I listened to that prompted me to go to the local book store and start researching the themes and concepts they were exploring. Because of this album, I discovered Drunvalo Melchizedek and his theory of chromosomal evolution. I discovered the artwork of Cam de Leon. I discovered the comedy of Bill Hicks. I learned about the third eye, the path to enlightenment and the kundalini. In short, by releasing this and their subsequent albums, TOOL helped me along the path to becoming the person that I am today.
And it is for these and I'm sure many other reasons which will come out over the course of the day that I have selected TOOL as the first band that I will listen to in their entirety.
Opiate
Released March 10th, 1992
"I should kick you, beat you, fuck you, and then shoot you in your fucking head."
Released March 10th, 1992
"I should kick you, beat you, fuck you, and then shoot you in your fucking head."
I'm going to start by saying right off the bat that when I first got into TOOL, I didn't listen to Opiate very often. It wasn't really due to disliking it but if I were going to sit down and listen to a TOOL album, this was probably going to be the last one I chose...well, except for 10,000 Days but that wasn't out yet. The first thing that struck me about TOOL was that their instrumentals were so rich and complex and when I listened to Opiate for the first time, I thought it was a let down. I always enjoy listening to a band's older material just to find out where they came from but I've found more often than not that it's usually better to just leave this stuff alone.
That being said, over the course of the past 15 or so years that I've been listening to TOOL, Opiate has emerged as being a much strong effort than I had previously thought. While it doesn't have some of the more progressive elements that their later albums do, it does hold up well as a document of their technical artistry. It also does a great job of establishing Danny Carey as being who I feel is one of the five best drummers ever.
I think that the biggest problem that I have with Opiate is that it, in a way, demystifies the band. I always wanted to think of TOOL as being this band that just wandered out of the swamp one day with all of this music already recorded and then gave it to the world. I never really thought of them as human beings. During the Aenima days, they rarely gave interviews. Rumors abounded that Maynard would spend the time leading up to a show tripping on acid in his dressing room alone. The lyrics inspired thoughts of the metaphysical and the collective subconcious. With Opiate, they explore the side of themselves that is grounded in reality. It sounds like it was recorded in a garage and at a biker bar.
As this blog evolves, I am going to experiment with different formats for the reviews. With this one I'm going to try a track for track break down but I will be tinkering with this to figure out what works best.
1 - Sweat. The first thing that strikes me about this song is that it doesn't start right away. I don't think that's something I've ever noticed before. It's a full 10 seconds after you hit play before the drums kick in. This song almost reminds me of something that we would have heard from Metallica, after Ride the Lightning but before the self-titled. I'm assuming it's about drug addiction but I could be wrong.
2 - Hush. The intro to this song sounds like something I would hear promotion a skateboard company. Immediately launches into Maynard screaming "Fuck you!" on the top of his lungs. This one is about censorship which seems to be a common theme with a lot of their albums. I remember with fondness the "be yourself" speech that Maynard gave live before they played 'Pushit' in the late nineties. Yes, sometimes it's trite and sometimes it sounds artificial but I think that this song serves as proof that they believe in the concept of individuality.
3 - Part of Me. If you listen very closely, you can hear Maynard talking before the start of this song. He says: "Yeah. Ready. I was having fun sitting down and having a cup of coffee but now I need to sing." Not sure if you have heard the live version of this that appears on Salival but this song has evolved quite a bit over the years. I always thought it odd that for all that anger on Opiate, 'Part of Me' always seemed a bit more sedate. This song seems to me to be a statement of love on the most primitive level possible. Whenever I hear it, I think about cavemen clubbing women and dragging them back to their caves.
4 - Cold and Ugly. The theory behind Maynard's "Bob Marley wannabe motherfucker" thing is that there was a guy at their show when this was recorded that had dread locks and kept blowing an air horn. The band had to keep restarting the recording of this and 'Jerk-Off' because he kept making noises with it. Out of all the TOOL songs made to this point, I think that the lyrics to this one are among the most cringe worthy. Actually, overall, most of Opiate is fairly weak lyrically when compared to the rest of their discography. I just think that this one is the biggest offender. "Wide awake and keeping distance/Nothing seems to penetrate her/She's scared as hell" Really? This sounds like a Linkin Park song.
5 - Jerk-Off. Probably the most overtly violent of TOOL's songs. Maynard took this song out of the live roster for three or four years because he was uncomfortable with how aggressive the song was. He eventually worked it back into the set list in 1998 with modified lyrics.
6 - Opiate. Definitely the cornerstone of the album and the best track on here. This is the song that best defines the qualities we would find in TOOL on their later albums. Whereas most of the other songs on Opiate are harder, this one takes it's time building and culminating with Maynard's infamous "We both want...to rape you!" yelp. It's good stuff for sure. The name of the album and this song is in reference to Karl Marx's asseration that "religion is the opiate of the masses" This song embodies that perfectly.
7 - The Gaping Lotus Experience. A hidden track that starts during track 6 at 6 minutes and 6 seconds. Get it? 666. Yep. Not really a whole lot to say about this one because I'm not generally a big fan of it. I do think the parts where he keep repeating "Satan" over and over again are funny just because it seems like their attempt to piss off people as much as possible.
In retrospect, you really have to respect Opiate if only on the level of it being a great place to hear the beginnings of one of the best metal/prog rock bands of our generation. There is also a great demo tape that was leaked to the internet called Toolshed which is also worth checking out. While they may not have been at their best during the recording of this album, they were certainly well on their way.
Tomorrow, Undertow.
That being said, over the course of the past 15 or so years that I've been listening to TOOL, Opiate has emerged as being a much strong effort than I had previously thought. While it doesn't have some of the more progressive elements that their later albums do, it does hold up well as a document of their technical artistry. It also does a great job of establishing Danny Carey as being who I feel is one of the five best drummers ever.
I think that the biggest problem that I have with Opiate is that it, in a way, demystifies the band. I always wanted to think of TOOL as being this band that just wandered out of the swamp one day with all of this music already recorded and then gave it to the world. I never really thought of them as human beings. During the Aenima days, they rarely gave interviews. Rumors abounded that Maynard would spend the time leading up to a show tripping on acid in his dressing room alone. The lyrics inspired thoughts of the metaphysical and the collective subconcious. With Opiate, they explore the side of themselves that is grounded in reality. It sounds like it was recorded in a garage and at a biker bar.
As this blog evolves, I am going to experiment with different formats for the reviews. With this one I'm going to try a track for track break down but I will be tinkering with this to figure out what works best.
1 - Sweat. The first thing that strikes me about this song is that it doesn't start right away. I don't think that's something I've ever noticed before. It's a full 10 seconds after you hit play before the drums kick in. This song almost reminds me of something that we would have heard from Metallica, after Ride the Lightning but before the self-titled. I'm assuming it's about drug addiction but I could be wrong.
2 - Hush. The intro to this song sounds like something I would hear promotion a skateboard company. Immediately launches into Maynard screaming "Fuck you!" on the top of his lungs. This one is about censorship which seems to be a common theme with a lot of their albums. I remember with fondness the "be yourself" speech that Maynard gave live before they played 'Pushit' in the late nineties. Yes, sometimes it's trite and sometimes it sounds artificial but I think that this song serves as proof that they believe in the concept of individuality.
3 - Part of Me. If you listen very closely, you can hear Maynard talking before the start of this song. He says: "Yeah. Ready. I was having fun sitting down and having a cup of coffee but now I need to sing." Not sure if you have heard the live version of this that appears on Salival but this song has evolved quite a bit over the years. I always thought it odd that for all that anger on Opiate, 'Part of Me' always seemed a bit more sedate. This song seems to me to be a statement of love on the most primitive level possible. Whenever I hear it, I think about cavemen clubbing women and dragging them back to their caves.
4 - Cold and Ugly. The theory behind Maynard's "Bob Marley wannabe motherfucker" thing is that there was a guy at their show when this was recorded that had dread locks and kept blowing an air horn. The band had to keep restarting the recording of this and 'Jerk-Off' because he kept making noises with it. Out of all the TOOL songs made to this point, I think that the lyrics to this one are among the most cringe worthy. Actually, overall, most of Opiate is fairly weak lyrically when compared to the rest of their discography. I just think that this one is the biggest offender. "Wide awake and keeping distance/Nothing seems to penetrate her/She's scared as hell" Really? This sounds like a Linkin Park song.
5 - Jerk-Off. Probably the most overtly violent of TOOL's songs. Maynard took this song out of the live roster for three or four years because he was uncomfortable with how aggressive the song was. He eventually worked it back into the set list in 1998 with modified lyrics.
6 - Opiate. Definitely the cornerstone of the album and the best track on here. This is the song that best defines the qualities we would find in TOOL on their later albums. Whereas most of the other songs on Opiate are harder, this one takes it's time building and culminating with Maynard's infamous "We both want...to rape you!" yelp. It's good stuff for sure. The name of the album and this song is in reference to Karl Marx's asseration that "religion is the opiate of the masses" This song embodies that perfectly.
7 - The Gaping Lotus Experience. A hidden track that starts during track 6 at 6 minutes and 6 seconds. Get it? 666. Yep. Not really a whole lot to say about this one because I'm not generally a big fan of it. I do think the parts where he keep repeating "Satan" over and over again are funny just because it seems like their attempt to piss off people as much as possible.
In retrospect, you really have to respect Opiate if only on the level of it being a great place to hear the beginnings of one of the best metal/prog rock bands of our generation. There is also a great demo tape that was leaked to the internet called Toolshed which is also worth checking out. While they may not have been at their best during the recording of this album, they were certainly well on their way.
Tomorrow, Undertow.
