A Short Review of the December DVD Releases

[flipmojo]

Received both DVDs today as an early Christmas gift.

The artwork is cool. The Parabola artwork has the Lateralus appearance to it. However, it seems a bit simplified when compared to alot of Alex Grey's other stuff. There are some cool pictures of people on the set of the Schisn video filming, and some cool storyboards of the Paraola video inside the coresponding booklets. I enjoyed looking through them both. The menus are cool as well.

The content of the DVDs justifies its cheap price of $8 for Schism and $10 for Parabola. The only things of "real" value are the videos themselves. It is nice to have both full-length videos at your fingertips. On the other side, the commentary is just ridiculous. It is another Tool hoax. A bunch of noise and nonsense. It sounds like two or more people talking over each other about the videos as they play on your screen. Most of the time, the speakers aren't even talking about the videos. I got a small chuckle or two from them, and turned them off. Like we would actually get a serious interpretation from the band about there music... :o( What was I thinking?

The remixes are kind of cool. They are not really remixes of the songs though. They are more like extremely long pieces of music that contain some of the Tool songs in them. They are both about 20 minutes long each. For those with LOADS of spare time, you could probably spend hours trying to decypher the distorted vocals and sounds. I don't see how someone would want those "remixes" as mp3s though. They might be used as background noise or something? They aren't very good songs, if you can call them that.

Overall, I am content with getting the videos. I'm glad they released them. If you are a collector of Tool merchandise, you will definitely want these. But they are only a mere nibble of things to come. I would bet that these two DVDs have received the least amount of attention, when compared to all the new Tool stuff in the works. The live DVD and new album will be a MUCH larger release that exceeds most expectations. April cannot get here soon enough.

[delysid]

I really think you need to listen to the Parabola commentary again.

[cacophony]

I really think you need to listen to the Parabola commentary again.

Definately... I thought it was great!

[steve99_9]

the Parabola remix is like 12 minutes long and the Schism one is 20 minutes

Schism one is MUCH better but the Parabola one is good, i have the mp3s of both and listen to them quite a bit in the last few days

[Kelly]

If you are a fan of ambient you are going to like the remixes, and yes they are songs, just because you don't understand what is going on doesn't mean others don't.

[waffel]

So someone explain how to get the remix into mp3 format.

[D-Day_Daddy]

Overall, I am content with getting the videos. I'm glad they released them. If you are a collector of Tool merchandise, you will definitely want these. But they are only a mere nibble of things to come. I would bet that these two DVDs have received the least amount of attention, when compared to all the new Tool stuff in the works. The live DVD and new album will be a MUCH larger release that exceeds most expectations. April cannot get here soon enough.
Who is this guy? Did he even listen to the remixes before shelving the disks? And with the commentary, you have to listen to the whole thing before you can justify reveiwing it for people. I'm sorry to have to say this you Ebert wanna-be, but until you do the required study of the DVDs; you can stick that thumb up your ass.

[LeMarchand]

You can play it back and record it with software such as Total Recorder from http://www.highcriteria.com/

[varg]

The remixes were fucking great.
Schism better than Parabola, though.
If anyone else enjoy a little band called Sunn 0))), you'd like them both.
Also, the Parabola commentary by Jello Biafra were pretty cool.

[paraflux]

Yeah... someone deleted my thread asking about how to do that... it's not stealing music... it's putting them onto your computer for further listening

If all the thread asked was how to do it, then it was deleted in error. Do you guys seriously not know how to convert wav files to mp3 files?

[TenSpeed]

They do probably, but how to convert DVD-Audio to wav is where most are lost.
Unless DVD-Audio is wav...I'm not all that familiar with DVD-Audio.

[5th Eye]

I just recorded them directly with playback, it's not hard at all.

I listened to all of the commentary. Most of it is crap, the guys try to be funny but I don't think they really know much about the videos. I was really looking forward to some insight or "the making of" narration, but what I got was a guy rambling about Ikea and furniture shopping. What the hell.

[paraflux]

Yeah, proceed with the knowledge, someone. Tell us how to convert DVD-audio into mp3's. I mean, if you have a program like Soundforge or Acid or Vegas or any multitracker or two-track editor, you can plug the outs of a dvd player into your ins of your computer and just record it realtime, then save it as an mp3. Other than that, I dont know.

[5th Eye]

I put the DVD directly in my computer and used Audacity to recorde the Wave Out Mix, then exported the mp3. It's a lot easier than messing with cables.

[metalforever]

You can play it back and record it with software such as Total Recorder from http://www.highcriteria.com/



or windows movie maker, which is already installed on your comp if you are running windows

[endokrin]

As I said in my previous post which was deleted:

You can download them from [no] via a [no].

Of course, I only condone this if you already own both releases and need to download the mp3 for backup purposes only.

[paraflux]

That's why it is not condoned here. Links to downloadable material which is in the store for purchase will always be deleted.

[endokrin]

Well it wasn't a link.

Anyways, the Parabola remix should be called the Parabol remix.

[TenSpeed]

On a semirelated note:

----- Original Message -----
From: blair blake
To: --
Sent: Tuesday, December 27, 2005 5:25 PM
Subject: Re: Schism/Parabol(a) DVD Singles

Hello

I'm not really sure to tell you the truth. They probably are limited,
but maybe more were made than Salival. I'll try to find out and let
you know.

Kind regards,

~ BMB

On Dec 26, 2005, at 8:44 PM, [email protected] wrote:

Hey, Blair.
I just went out to Best Buy and purchased the two new Tool DVDs
earlier today. What can I say about them?
Amazing. If you get a chance, relay my words back to Adam and the
rest of the guys.

Anyway, the main reason of this email is not to praise the DVDs'
brilliance. On the stickers, it said to expect a new Tool release
in Spring 2006. Similar stickers were found on Salival before
Lateralus. Salival went out of print as well.
Will these DVDs go out of print and become collectors' items, or do
you think they'll be around for a while?

If you get a chance, please respond, and thanks.
-Brandon

[waffel]

good thing the mods are deleting all the useful links. cant have people converting their dvd audio into something they can listen to in winamp.

heaven forbid people dont BUY the dvds which contain 1 new thing, a single remix. Tool's going to go out of business cuz of this! thank god we got the mods here!

[killershears]

If I were you, I wouldn't spend a dime or even care about the remixes.

The Parabola dvd...did not impress me at all.

[reign3]

Am I the only one who is pissed at myself for wasting $20 on these dvd's? I get the impression that the only reasons they've been released are to garner more attention for the forthcoming release, and to make a profit for the videos which got no airplay time and must have cost the band serious money.

The last time I saw the videos was a few years ago, and I thought they were interesting. After seeing them again, I find them ridiculous. It's as if the band made these videos to satisfy their own occultish, religious tendencies, then thought, "Hey, why not sell these?" The Schism video is embarassing, as it looks like it was edited by a freshman AV class, though I will admit the Parabola video is much more visually impressive, though to find any correlation between the video and the song is difficult aside from Alex Grey's conclusion. I wonder why they decided to become so pretentious after the Aenima videos, which I personally think are some of the best music videos to date.

And finally, these dvd's could so easily have been combined on one disk, it's almost insulting that they did this. Tool has always been my favorite band, and will continue to be, I'm just let down with this. I expect so much from them, perhaps it is my own fault.

[paraflux]

My question to everyone is...

What the fuck did you expect? You have seen the videos, if you did any research on Lustmord before you spent your parents' well-earned money on something you would bitch about, you would know the remixes would be ambient and long and drawn out. You have already seen the videos. What did you want when you bought it? Were you expecting some holographic image of Maynard to appear in your living room and offer you some wine? I mean, christ.

[paraflux]

good thing the mods are deleting all the useful links. cant have people converting their dvd audio into something they can listen to in winamp.

heaven forbid people dont BUY the dvds which contain 1 new thing, a single remix. Tool's going to go out of business cuz of this! thank god we got the mods here!


What the fuck are you talking about? It isnt your position to determine what products are going to put bands out of business. It isnt your business. The links that were provided were torrent links. That has nothing to do with conversion. So lighten up.

[gerbil]

My question to everyone is...

What the fuck did you expect? You have seen the videos, if you did any research on Lustmord before you spent your parents' well-earned money on something you would bitch about, you would know the remixes would be ambient and long and drawn out. You have already seen the videos. What did you want when you bought it? Were you expecting some holographic image of Maynard to appear in your living room and offer you some wine? I mean, christ.

Thank you.

[Tantobourne]

Were you expecting some holographic image of Maynard to appear in your living room and offer you some wine?

hahahaha. well now...that'd be a sight to see. ;)

[D-Day_Daddy]

[QUOTE=reign3]Am I the only one who is pissed at myself for wasting $20 on these dvd's?



Are you the only one pissed for supporting your "favorate band"? Probably not, but get over it. They are nice collectibles, and if you looked around you could have gotten them for $15. As for your opinion of the videos, you should have tried to remember what they were before buying them. Maybe this was a ploy to get some money, so that they can get the new album out, and go on tour. If that's the case I might buy a few more. Besides, what else would you have spent your money on?

[gerbil]

[QUOTE=reign3]Am I the only one who is pissed at myself for wasting $20 on these dvd's?



Are you the only one pissed for supporting your "favorate band"? Probably not, but get over it. They are nice collectibles, and if you looked around you could have gotten them for $15. As for your opinion of the videos, you should have tried to remember what they were before buying them. Maybe this was a ploy to get some money, so that they can get the new album out, and go on tour. If that's the case I might buy a few more. Besides, what else would you have spent your money on?

Drugz d00d.

[reign3]

My question to everyone is...

What the fuck did you expect? You have seen the videos, if you did any research on Lustmord before you spent your parents' well-earned money on something you would bitch about, you would know the remixes would be ambient and long and drawn out. You have already seen the videos. What did you want when you bought it? Were you expecting some holographic image of Maynard to appear in your living room and offer you some wine? I mean, christ.

Ok, I already stated that buying the dvd's was a mistake on my part, so you can forgo berating me with your holier-than-thou attitude. Lighten the hell up man.

Are you the only one pissed for supporting your "favorate band"? Probably not, but get over it. They are nice collectibles, and if you looked around you could have gotten them for $15. As for your opinion of the videos, you should have tried to remember what they were before buying them. Maybe this was a ploy to get some money, so that they can get the new album out, and go on tour. If that's the case I might buy a few more. Besides, what else would you have spent your money on?

I really don't have any sympathy (financially speaking) for any platinum-selling band, especially Tool. They don't need to fund their tour; tours are what make bands a great majority of their money, not to mention the forecoming album that will surely sell itself, assuming it's of great quality, which I suspect it will be. I'll support my favorite band if it means buying a quality product. If Tool released a series of piss-poor albums are you going to go out and buy them just so you could support them?

[Sheepy]

I really don't have any sympathy (financially speaking) for any platinum-selling band, especially Tool. They don't need to fund their tour; tours are what make bands a great majority of their money, not to mention the forecoming album that will surely sell itself, assuming it's of great quality, which I suspect it will be.

You're right, they don't need to fund their tour with these DVDs, but they never said the reason for the DVDs is funding a tour as far as I know. They aren't asking for our sympathy either, just our patience... ;)

I'll support my favorite band if it means buying a quality product. If Tool released a series of piss-poor albums are you going to go out and buy them just so you could support them?

I haven't bought the DVDs yet, I can't be bothered buying them online and the store didn't have 'm yet. Still, I will buy both of 'm when I come across them, even if it's only for something Toolish to stuff my CD rack with. Fact is, they are not releasing piss-poor albums, they released some (superfluous, to some) material for a decent price.

[cureformax]

So there is no way to legally get the remixes into an audio format for my iPod? Shitty if that is the case.

[Ktuluvic]

I really don't have any sympathy (financially speaking) for any platinum-selling band, especially Tool. They don't need to fund their tour; tours are what make bands a great majority of their money, not to mention the forecoming album that will surely sell itself, assuming it's of great quality, which I suspect it will be.

They don't have a label supporting them, they pay for everything themselves. That means the tours, recording, new website, all that stuff. While the tours will certainly make them money, they still need funds to make the tour happen. I'm sure the lateralus tour wasn't a cheap thing to put on. So if spending $20 helps them put on a great tour, then I've got no problems with it.

[Laxku]

Frankly, it was exactly what I expected from Tool. The videos themselves (which I like very much, actually), some strange commentary that had me either chuckling or saying "what the hell?" to myself, and two very strange ambient tracks that I'm still not sure if I liked or not.

I guess my point is...this is Tool, and you should expect their DVDs (as well as CDs, shirts, etc.) to reflect that. This is something I expected from Tool, and would have been taken aback if anyone else had done.


Also, I jumped at the opportunity to buy these because I feel a little guilty for not having Salival yet.

[fraz]

Salival kicks ass - except for Merkaba

[TenSpeed]

Plus, I think everyone was expecting new material here.
No one complained when they released the CDS of Schism, did they?
Because it was a single.

That's what these DVDs are. Singles. So calm down, and if you don't want to, don't fucking buy them.

They don't have a label supporting them, they pay for everything themselves.
What are you talking about?
There's a Volcano Records logo on both DVDs.

[killershears]

Salival kicks ass - except for Merkaba
WHAAAAAAT?

I LOVE Merkaba.

[5th Eye]

It's boring.

[delysid]

It's boring.


"...its some kind of psychedelic experience."

[5th Eye]

Yeah, maybe listening to it as background music whilst clean isn't the way to go, but whatever.

[Ktuluvic]

What are you talking about?
There's a Volcano Records logo on both DVDs.

Yea, Volcano Records handle distrobution, nothing more.

[Novus_Opiate_Seclorum]

"...its some kind of psychedelic experience."

Merkaba is great.

I'm probably going to get raped for this, but you fine fellows have heard of ZAUM, yes?

[D-Day_Daddy]

I'll support my favorite band if it means buying a quality product. If Tool released a series of piss-poor albums are you going to go out and buy them just so you could support them?


If they were to release a series of terrible, mainstream trash, or got over inflated heads and put out pompus music; then that would mean they no longer are my favorate band. It's not like they need me, or I need them. I just love the material they have put out so far, so I will support them until that changes.

[Novus_Opiate_Seclorum]

TOOL IS THE GREATEST BAND EVER.

[Novus_Opiate_Seclorum]

TOOL IS THE GREATEST BAND EVER.


well I picked them up and I think the quality of the CG in the menus was worth the price alone. I don't think you guys realize how much that costs. We're talking at least 50K for a very short animated sequence. I know that won't break the bank for tool, but they are doing it for us to enjoy.

Anyways, I loved the remix off of parabola haven't listened to schism yet. Anyone know if all of Lustmord is like that?

[Isac Khrondor]

I'm probably going to get raped for this, but you fine fellows have heard of ZAUM, yes?

Bend over.

[KJM]

I could've sworn you said you wouldn't come back

[Hubbard]

Salival kicks ass - except for Merkaba

Maybe you just need to listen to a it a few more times and let it grow on you... or maybe you really just don't like it. I didn't like it that much at first either.

[Isac Khrondor]

Schism and Parabola arived in the post today.

Videos are great, commentary was kind of annoying, it sounded funny every now and again, but was hard to make out most of the time.
The remix for Parabola was amazing, it's less of a remix and more of a completley new song, Schism was pretty good too.

[ARMZ]

Maybe I have overlooked another posting by someone here but the commentary is dual commentary, which is left and right speaker, so turn off one side to hear the other more clearly.

"Oh Seal's mad".....classic

[Isac Khrondor]

The schism one is the best, when you first see the alien people and the guy goes "Whoa, whats up with that guys head!? " and other such comments, while in the other speaker he's talking about someguy who designs him furniture.

[TenSpeed]

On the Tool remixes you did for the DVDs released two months ago, do you know if the vocal tracks they gave you were re-recorded recently or were they the originals?
Well... there has to be some mystery ;)

So I think Maynard's voice is still good at his age and the new Puscifer song is just Puscifer.

[/V\agina]

Who keeps bumping all these old threads!? GOD

[TenSpeed]

Who keeps bumping all these old threads!? GOD
[looks around innocently...]

[dracomordag]

Maybe I have overlooked another posting by someone here but the commentary is dual commentary, which is left and right speaker, so turn off one side to hear the other more clearly.

"Oh Seal's mad".....classic

they did some overlap (its not pure left and right), but that is an easy way to hear each individual one...

the Schism right channel is classic. All that shit about IKEA and stuff. I ellohelled all over.

[SpiralOutKeepGoing]

Who keeps bumping all these old threads!? GOD

I think we should bump all of the old threads so we can laugh at our illogical nonsense. August 16th haha.

[awaking]

I got the parabola dvd.. im wondering if theres a way to upload it to my ipod video

this dvd is very confusing at first.. I gave up after 5mins trying t find the remix/tool comments

and WTF Tool? whats with the damn double audio./. i mean i guess it is somewhat cool.. but at the same time stupid as hell

[SpiralOutKeepGoing]

I got the parabola dvd.. im wondering if theres a way to upload it to my ipod video

this dvd is very confusing at first.. I gave up after 5mins trying t find the remix/tool comments

and WTF Tool? whats with the damn double audio./. i mean i guess it is somewhat cool.. but at the same time stupid as hell

Tool is not doing the commentary.