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It's hard to express my dislike for extremely bigoted people when it comes to the subject matter of music, more specifically bands and the big "T" word which happens to be talent. I don't have a doubt in my mind that a lot of everyone's favorites today have the proficiency to produce great music but it's the lack of continual innovation that labels the band as boring and talentless. Such a band like this is Tool and just by typing this, I'm possibly upsetting a lot of Tool fans. That's actually a good thing because they need to know that not everyone has to conform with society's favorites. However, I would use Adam Jones' guitar riffing as the means of finding a way to fall asleep when I'm unable to. Sure, someone can argue that every single musician out there employs repetition in some way or other and my response to that is yes, most artists today use the same guitar riffs for one, two, maybe three different verses. But is the same sound generally going to garner the same respect from listeners, from album to album?
There have been countless arguments and debates I've participated in regarding the direction a musician or band may choose to go, or in some cases, stay. There are two sides to the equation. The fans who hate the new and the fans who like it, though, I personally support a musician's creativity and evolution, which is why I brought up the band Tool. Whenever I have talked about Tool with a friend I used to hang out with, he would talk of nothing but praise about the four-man group, who for so long, has attempted to remain anonymous from the public eye, to project a shroud of mystery upon their fans, which so far has been an attractive trait for the band. But like some musical projects, nothing from the Tool albums I've listened to stands out besides a change in album artwork. Is that truly creativity or the vine to steady, commercial success?
While continuing a conversation with my friend about Tool, we migrated into musical ability, most notably Danny Carey's drumming, which I can vouch for. I'm not one who could say I could completely mimic his style but then again, I'm not one who could say he is the best either. An average Tool fan would have to disagree, claiming nobody can out-drum this "god" of all men. I mean, obviously he has to be since my friend once told me, "Danny Carey is without doubt, the best drummer in this century." If so, then I'm sure Danny Carey can play every song with drums in it just by hearing it one time. I'm sure Danny as the physical prowess to play at any tempo with every ounce of creativity the original musician has. Who am I kidding? That's a joke. Also, no metal drummer on earth could compare to Danny Carey's odd time signatures. They can only play bass drum really fast. That's all they're apparently good at regardless of whether anyone claiming the following has listened to any heavy metal or not. Afterall, heavy metal, specifically extreme forms of metal, is played by 30-some-year-old guys with long hair who growl into microphones like the cookie monster from Sesame Street.
That being said, I'll cease to point out the flaws of the other band members and focus on the fans, who would honestly and obviously die, just to keep Tool's reputation from failing. According to a lot of Tool fans I've spoke with, Tool is "by far the best band on earth". Although they are well known, played on the radio, and have many albums, they are NOT mainstream according to my friend. Also, the fact that they choose to remain so mysterious and secretive to the point that they don't even appear in their videos is just another genius way of telling the public that, "Hey, we're different!" Lastly, removing the lyrics from album booklets disallows any Tool fans from understanding the lyrical content that Maynard writes, just because every member in Tool is an apparent genius and they want to seem so while producing their "brilliant" compositions.
I can't fully say that I hate Tool because I enjoy one or two of the songs that aren't annoying but a full dose of them would surely give me a headache. By the way, if you asked what kind of music I like, I would stick with what everyone else says and say I listen to a bit of everything. However, instead of going out of my way and saying something obnoxious like, "I listen to everything...oh, except country," I would say I thoroughly enjoy a few country classics like "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" by Kenny Chesney and Lonestar's "I'm Already There". Why? Because apparently nobody else does. |
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