Tool – Experimental Rock Band Makes it Big with LP Releases And Band Merch

Tool – Vicarious Music Video

(Read Part One of Tool) — Tool is an experimetal rock band from Los Angeles, California, most noted for combining hard rock with progressive structures, strange time signatures and lyrics that range from anger to philosophical and social matters that made it big with their LP releases along with an increase in sales with Tool band merchandise. They formed around 1990. After performing a handful of shows in the Los Angeles area and up the West Coast, they toured in the United States with Rollins Band in the summer of 1992 in support of their EP Opiate. Their first full length recording, Undertow, was released in 1993.

Emerging with a groovy heavy metal sound on their first release, when the genre was dominated by thrash metal, they were later seen at the top of the alternative metal movement with the release of their second full-length studio album Ænima in 1996, the first recording the band made after original bassist Paul d’Amour left the band to form Lusk. After an ongoing evolution of their sound and continuous efforts to unify musical experimentation, visual arts, and a message of personal evolution on Lateralus (2001), their most recent album 10,000 Days (2006), as well as respective tours, they are generally described as a style-transgressing act and part of progressive and art rock.

Tool, however, had a knack for conveying the strangled, oppressive angst that the alternative nation of the early ’90s claimed as its own. So, the band was able to slip into the definition of alternative rock during the post-Nirvana era, landing a slot on the third Lollapalooza tour in 1993, which helped their first full-length debut album, Undertow, rocket into platinum status. By the time the band delivered their belated follow-up, Ænima, in 1996, alternative rock had lost its grip on the mainstream of America, and their audience had shaped up as essentially metal-oriented, which meant that the group and the record didn’t capture as big an audience as their first album, despite debuting at number two on the charts. After a co-headlining slot with Korn on Lollapalooza ‘97 wrapped up, Tool remained on the road, supporting Ænima until well into the next year.

During their usual extended hiatus between albums, Maynard James Keenan decided to use his downtime productively by forming a side project, dubbed A Perfect Circle. The band’s 2000 debut, Mer de Noms, was a surprise hit, while their ensuing tour was a sold-out success as well. With Tool breakup rumors swirling, the band put the speculation to rest by re-entering the recording studio and issuing the stopgap B-sides/DVD set Salival late the same year. Finally, May 2001 saw the release of Tool’s third full-length release, Lateralus, which debuted at the number one position on the Billboard album chart and became the band’s biggest hit. After the obligatory several-year sabbatical to pursue other projects, the group returned with another chart-topper, 10,000 Days, in 2006.

(Read Part One of Tool)

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