The songs on "Aenima" constantly shift, morph and transform themselves, sometimes raging with fury, sometimes settling into relaxed interludes that still boil with a dark menace underneath their calm surface.

Maynard James Keenan's vocal work is the key to Tool's power, heard to maximum effect in such songs as "Eulogy," "Stinkfist" and the title track. No singer in rock captures the ambivalence and terror of the human experience as well as Keenan. When he and his outstanding bandmates are at full speed, they're untouchable. "Aenima" will bore into your brain with all the subtlety of a jackhammer.

Without this record, your collection can't be considered complete.


Utterly compelling   July 26, 2002
 22 out of 23 found this review helpful

One would expect nothing less from a band with such a manifesto: 'Our goal remains to touch our audience on a deep, psychological level'.
This is a truly groundbreaking work for the band, and for 'metal' as a whole, that rather poorly defined musical genre. Yet, Tool create and sustain their own, personal genre.
The album may be dark, with snatches of spite, justified anger and self-depreciation creeping subtely into the lyrics, yet the melancholy tendencies and anger are focused: the sheer intelligence driving these purveyors of rage is unquestionable, while the emotive and cathartic qulaities of the music only serve to entice and excite the listener further.
Of course,the music itself is breathtaking: prominently bass driven song dynamics underpin stellar drumming from one of the best in the business, along with inspirational guitar lines and Maynard's honey coated, steel wrought vocals.
Sadly,it is hard to fully praise this work without mentioning the songs themselves in some detail: loathe as I am to drag up an old cliche, in Aenima's case hearing really is believing.
However, a brief overview of the themes contained can easily differentiate this album from anything else recorded recently, possibly ever recorded: 'Stinkfist' concerns opening up to another person on a previously unexplored level, with the songs meaning delivered to us shrouded in a metaphor rather crudely suggested by the song's title, whilst Eulogy tackles the status of an unnamed friend who 'Had a lot of nothing to say' as a martyr, or otherwise.
Later tracks such as '46&2' and 'Aenima' explore Jungian philosophy and the hypothetical benefits of that 'hopeless hole' LA being 'flushed away' by a cataclysmic earthquake respectively.
In short, the album is a masterpiece of stunning musicianship and lyrical complexity-even incorporating excerpts from the late comedian Bill Hicks and numerous (criminally misunderstood, let alone necessary) segues into its fabric.
Tool not only challenge on a psychological level, they fully justify the price of the album: years on it still spins in my CD player every day.
Essential, compelling, unforgettable.


A universal review   January 28, 2000
 21 out of 22 found this review helpful

If I could, I would put the first paragraph of this review with every album entry I see on amazon.com. Hey, music fans and others who appreciate art, at least TRY to behold all creative works on their own terms, whether you think it's a piece of art or a piece of s**t. No, perhaps its not a good idea to listen to Beethoven's Ninth or Metallica's Master of Puppets just before listening to Tool's AEnima - or maybe for some people, it's a great idea - the point is that, if one approaches a creative work expecting it to sound or look like something else, 90% of the time one will be sorely disappointed. Advice to others reading reviews: be wary of the extremes. If someone says "this is the greatest album ever made," don't put too much credence in it; if someone rips an album, ask yourself why they REALLY had such an aversion to it! - and if someone says "this is not real music," you can probably throw out that review for its snobbery! Another thing that gets tiresome while reading reviews is when people criticize music for its simplicity. Simplicity, in and of itself, is not a valid reason to criticize something any more than complexity alone is a valid reason to praise it.

Hey, "music fan from Texas:" could you try to be just a little less opinionated? One could easily say that your strong aversion to this album is a damn good reason to check it out. I did not approach this album as a Tool fan: in fact, after being a late '70s and early 80s headbanger (Blue Oyster Cult, Accept, Riot, Iron Maiden, Scorpions, early fan of Metallica, etc.) I have been mostly away from rock &roll for about fifteen years, exploring mainly classical and world music. Then, one day, I heard the haunting strains of "46&2" on the radio, and later, the brutal frankness of "AEnima" (to which I would think most people who've spent any time in LA could relate), and was blown away by the raw power of this music. I still love my classical and world music collection, but now it feels like I've made something of a homecoming to rock&roll, and it's encouraging to see that the "heavy end" of rock which (except for Metallica and precious few others) appeared to be going nowhere fast back in the mid-80s, actually was going somewhere, after all. I'm not a big fan of profanity in music, either, but, taken objectively, words are sounds, and if "explicit lyrics" add expression to music, then what the hell/heck? Whether they ADD anything to the music or not is up to the individual listener, but to dismiss music outright because it includes profanity seems a bit narrow- minded. Yes, every once in a while I catch myself listening to a piece of music, and thinking, "this is music?" - but really who's to say which sounds constitute music and which don't? Apologies for my verbosity. Bottom line: Joe Bob says check AEnima out!