“Yeah, it’s all about language,” says Maynard. “I always think that we’re a heavy psychedelic band.” “It depends what you mean by heavy metal,” argues Justin. “I can understand that maybe we’d get compared with Pink Floyd…” “I don’t think that we were ever a metal band,” says Danny Carey. They are unarguably heavy, and there are a lot of metal inspirations, from Zeppelin to Meshuggah, in their sound. Tool have often been lazily dubbed ‘the heavy metal Radiohead’, though whatever their roots and wherever they get filed in the record shop racks, you’d be hard pressed to describe Tool as a heavy metal band these days. “Radiohead are a band who just kept pushing things out and out, who took their success and used it as an opportunity to go further,” argues Justin. “Yeah, but I think that when Radiohead in the 90s started doing these long introspective pieces, that also set the stage for The Mars Volta and for a lot of bands like them,” nods Keenan sagely. “You listen to At The Drive In and they were setting themselves up for the next thing, that whole Santana jam thing.”īut you could argue that without Tool there wouldn’t be a mass audience for what they do. I think that they would still be doing what they are doing without us,” says Maynard. Regardless of whether or not you actually hear the direct influence of Tool in these bands, they probably wouldn’t exist if Tool hadn’t been there first. They all agree, however, that they are big fans of The Mars Volta. “All the time I’m told that this band or that band are inspired by Tool but as one of the biggest fans of this band, I have to say that I don’t get any of the emotional feel from them that I get from Tool.” “I don’t hear that,” says Justin Chancellor. There are also hundreds of Tool impersonators, bands such as Mudvayne who seem to lurk in their wake, providing vaguely acid-tinged metal with a touch of the enigmatic and esoteric when Tool are in one of their now-frequent retreats. They never used to give interviews and now, when they do, they dole out the information that everyone needs to know in small, tantalising doses. Their albums are the subject of a flurry of disinformation and rumour that usually has no basis in fact, though there remains a suspicion that the band themselves are responsible for their own gossip. Tool often perform in total darkness, with the disturbing videos made by guitarist Adam Jones projected behind them. I need to hit some difficult notes, so I need as uncluttered a live sound as I can get.” “I don’t need to scream over the bass and the guitar to be heard. “That set-up is purely for the sound,” he claims. Frontman Maynard James Keenan never actually stands at the front, he lurks in the shadows at the back of the stage. Their music is complex and wilfully difficult. Their lyrics are dense, and loaded with gnostic and alchemical significance. Tool have spent years carefully cultivating an impenetrable cloak of occult conundrum around themselves.
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