Tool is an American rock band formed in 1990 in Los Angeles. Originating as a grunge act (the genre of their first album Undertow can be described as grunge), Tool later became one of the most famous progressive bands, starting with their second studio album Ænima. The effort to combine musical experimentation, the visual arts, and text-messages of continuous personal development that began with Lateralus and peaked with 10,000 Days eventually propelled the band to worldwide fame and commercial success. Tool have received three Grammy Awards, toured several worlds and produced albums that have topped the charts in several countries. Because of their relatively long and complex productions, as well as their artistic content, the band has been described as disruptive and an integral part of progressive and art rock.

 

Members

Maynard James Keenan, Adam Jones, Danny Carey, Paul D. Amour

Releases

UNDERTOW

A continuation of what came before on Opiate but with a sicker, darker and more menacing tone; Tool’s debut full-length album saw the band begin the process of pulling away from the rest of the scene around them.

As of 2020, Undertow has sold over three million copies in the United States, and is certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.

 

Aenima (1996)

The first Tool album to be recorded by the classic line up, with former Peach bassist Justin Chancellor joining the band for the first time, was to be the record that really established the band as genuine one-offs. Aenima is the first time where Tool sounded like nobody else but Tool. Weird, esoteric, sarcastic, unsettling, progressive, complex, involving… it is a masterclass in teasing the listener and keeping them on their toes.

 

Lateralus (2001)

Released in May 2001, “Lateralus” was Tool’s pinnacle. The album didn’t just debut at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. A conceptual, almost hour and a half rock record stuffed with instrumentals, drum solos with tapping the Fibonacci sequence, strange meanings and strange references (for example, “Eon Blue Apocalypse” is dedicated to Adam Jones’s dog, who died from osteosarcoma) is at the top of the list of the best-selling US albums.

 

10,000 Days (2006)

The reason that 10,000 Days isn’t held up as a genuine masterpiece of this millennium and instead viewed as a disappointment by some is purely due to the length of time it took to arrive, and the album that it had to follow. The disc “10,000 Days” really became the saddest, but at the same time the most beautiful and brightest work in Tool’s discography. This semi-rock-semi-ambient farewell album, many of which sound like Keenan’s confession to his recently deceased mother — a deeply religious woman who spent 27 years after a stroke, chained to a hospital bed — was written long and hard.