J_U_D_I_T_H

I think it's the age that has changed Tool. If you look at their records in order, each record is a lot more mature than the previous. Opiate was from the days when no one would EVER think about doing ANYTHING like Aenima and so it still has a slightly mroe conventional hard-rock style to it but there was still nothing else around quite like it at the time. With Undertow, they worked on that Opiate style and made a proper album out of it with a more clean production and a lot more maturity in it but the guys were still young at what they were doing and so Undertow is still thriving on the anger in Opiate. There was a big leap between Undertow and Aenima which many blame on the departure of Paul which is not excentially true as Paul was responsible for most of the bass work on the album. It just seems like they used the 3 years they had to really sit down and start from scratch on the sound instead of using songs that had already been played for years. Aenima was the most complete release out of the 3 so far and really showed Tool maturing although the anger is still apparant on songs such as Stinkfist and Aenema. Lateralus was the real jump because there was so much work put into it and it started at a different lyrical theme - the anger was no longer there, Lateralus was more of a spiritual album, an album of self exploration and exploration of human emotions - in all, musically, it was one big piece of complex math. This is probably escentially due to the member's "Coming of Age" both lyrically and musically. Maynard's voice was at it's majestic peak, Danny's drumming was about as complex as it could really get and there was a lot more darkness surrounding the musicianship in general. Maynard's lyrics were also reaching their peak, no more angry "silliness" as it were, this was something completely new for him, these lyrics might not have been so dedicated to a certain cause or feeling but they are definately his most meaningful and powerful.