Tool

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TOOL

Formed: 1990, Los Angeles, California

Members: Danny Carey, drums (born Paolo, Kansas, 10 May 1961); Justin Chancellor, bass (born London, England, 19 November 1971); Adam Jones, guitar (born Libertyville, Illinois, 15 January 1965); Maynard James Keenan, vocals (born Ravenna, Ohio, 17 April 1964).

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Aenima (1996)

Hit songs since 1990: "Sober," "H.," "Parabola"

Tool's rumbling, complex hard rock and dark, disturbing imagery have earned it a cult following. The group also enjoys widespread alt-rock appeal thanks to Keenan's intense tenor and Jones's chainsaw guitar rumblings. Made up of three midwestern Americans and an Englishman (Chancellor), the group released its debut EP, Opiate (1992), while building a following on the Los Angeles scene. Enjoying regional success, the group earned a spot on the 1993 Lollapalooza tour and released the full-length Undertow.

A memorable marriage of music and video made Tool's first single, "Sober," a radio and MTV staple. Displaying a sense of dynamics often missing from novice rockers, the band starts the song with soft, foreboding guitar and bass while Keenan sings in semi-croon mode. But he and the group blast into a cathartic, sing-along chorus whose drama is accentuated by self-loathing lyrics spiced with religious imagery. Jones's stop-motion animation video, featuring cutely macabre figurines, also makes an impression. Their second single, "Prison Sex," which made number thirty-two on Billboard 's Mainstream Rock Tracks airplay chart, is one of the most explicit songs to have ever received mainstream radio play; the title neatly sums up the lyrical content. While Undertow 's vaguely Satanic artwork and dark themes appealed to death-metal followers, the album's instrumental expertise and experimentation with odd time signatures attracted art-rock fans who otherwise had little to cheer about in the early 1990s. As Tool's fame grew, so did their reputation for being distant from fans.

As a band that had achieved success fairly early in its career, Tool still had room to improve, and their sophomore set, Aenima (1996), shows a group whose playing has grown tighter and more challenging. "Stinkfist" is a cynical take on an instant-gratification world that burns with hyped-up, hard-rock aggression. The album's signature song is the title track, "Aenima," which enlists a doowop beat in service of a grinding, apocalyptic anthem. With misanthropic, gallows humor, Keenan tells everyone from "gun-toting hip gangster wannabes" to "insecure actresses" that the end is near, so "learn to swim." The song won a Grammy for best metal performance.

Tool co-headlined Lollapalooza 1997 with Korn, but business disputes kept the group away from the recording studio. Keenan used the downtime to form A Perfect Circle, which scored a Top 10 album and three radio hits with its debut release, Mer de Noms.

Lateralus (2001) broke the silence, debuting at number one, beating out albums by R.E.M. and Weezer that were released the same week. The album takes Tool into more esoteric territory, complete with sound effects and extended song suites. "Schism," a symbolism-filled song about the difficulty of interpersonal communication, won the group its second Grammy for best metal performance.

Tool has avoided being pigeonholed and has maintained its reputation for innovation with philosophical, satirical lyrics, impressive musicality, and headbanger-friendly crunch.