There is no denying that Aenima was one of Tool's crowning achievements. At that time in their catalogue, almost everyone agreed it was their best work. Not Opiate or Undertow as so many bands fall victim to creating their "best" work early in their careers, Tool created a masterpiece with Aenima.
The amazing thing is now, not everyone agrees that Aenima was their best album. It's very often that a large majority of fans for most bands will tell you that one album stands high above the rest. A couple of quick examples come to mind. Not many will disagree that Pearl Jam's best album was Ten. Not many will disagree that Stone Temple Pilot's best album was Core. Not many will disagree that Soundgarden's best album was Superunknown (I do like Badmotorfinger almost as much though). Some other examples are Nirvana's Nevermind (this is probably up for debate with purists) or even Korn's debut album.
Great bands have albums which people will argue about were their best. Like Nine Inch Nails. You could probably find just as many whose favorite was Pretty Hate Machine as The Downward Spiral. My personal favorite was The Fragile. And some old school fans loved Broken. The parallels with Tool's catalogue are amazing if you think about it. Both incredible bands who wrote amazing music over a long period of time. Both who wrote albums of pure angst, and both who did amazing experimental works, and then tried returning somewhat to their roots with their most recent work.
For some Tool fans the best album is Lateralus. For some others it is 10,000 Days. I find it equally incredible that this band has continued to write music that people love over such a long period of time.
My personal favorite is Aenima and likely always will be. The fact that 10,000 Days got me BACK to how I felt when Aenima first came out, was one of the greatest feelings I have ever had in my life. I was wanting to LOVE music again for so many years. Lateralus didn't do it for me. Indeed the album had a few high points, and i can listen to it start to finish without getting bored (save Schism which bores me most of the time), but I didn't return to that vulnerable emotional state that Aenima had put me in until 10,000 Days came out.
I don't know that Tool has a "best" album, but they do have a "best album to me". That I can state unequivocally. To say otherwise, is ignorance at its finest.
I'll have to agree with so-and-so, Lateralus is probably the best produced album.
Tool's production was never super impressive, especially the bass-laden Opiate, the down volume of Undertow, and the inferior guitar production of Aenima which caused constant buzzing.
Leaving only 10,000 Days and Lateralus in the "best produced" album category, I'm very confident in saying that 10,000 Days sounds worlds better than Lateralus.
I agree with the original poster. Aenema is TOOL's best album... I listen to it on the way to school everyday, and it just is harder and more original than "10,000 Days."
Opiate and Undertow are the "Friends you can count on" Never dissapoint.
AEnima was the cd I didn't take out of the changer for 7 years. AEnima is the cd I had to replace because I listened to it too much. Its the cd that you consistantly hear something different and NEVER gets old. Its the cd that is so perfect that you could give 2 shits about production. Aenima was the cd that covers every emotion and really, every drug out there. AEnima was the cd that changed my life. Damn.
Lateralus= the first thing I said about Lateralus was that "it was no Aenima" Its their happy cd. Maynard isn't as pissed off cd. Don't get me wrong, I dig it and in fact, listened to it all last night on a road trip. Its just no AEnima.
10K days= They've matured and I really can't help but dig what they do. I miss the blue man days yes. I miss the naked people dangling from the ceiling. I miss some of the old songs. But, I really like where they are going. I haven't listened to 10k days enough to be in love with it but, love really does take time and with TooL, it always happens.
__________________ The only true currency in this bankrupt world... is what you share with someone else when you're uncool.
Ćnima is definitely Tool's best work, but you people need to get out of your Tool-phase imo
btw, 10,000 days sucks
__________________ A Serpent guard, a Horus guard, and a Setesh guard meet on a neutral planet. It is a tense moment. The Serpent guard's eyes glow. The Horus guard's beak glistens. The Setesh guard's nose drips...
I really have a hard time choosing between Lateralus, 10,000 Days, and Aenima. They're all extremely different;
Aenima focuses on psychology and satirical references, seemingly improvised passages, slick grooves, organic production, soaring vocals, amazing dynamics, and wailing guitar atmospherics droning over vague basslines, and is full of so many little details hidden sounds that I'm still finding new ones.
Lateralus is a colder, sharper, relatively minimalist album that focuses on clarity, alchemic and mystic references, very primative moods and imagery, cold melodies, and thick, precise, loud drums.
10,000 Days is a much more developed album than the rest, albeit less creative and subtle, which was certainly meant to be heard at full blast; full of self-parodies that shift into blatant, straightforward confessions, extremely intricate (especially melodically) and interdependent songs, and it isn't really out to achieve anything other than to show Tool for who they are and how they feel. It is, ultimately, an album that the band wrote for themselves (though I'm sure they'll say so about any of their albums to keep rabid fans on the edge). The dedication that went into this album is mind-blowing (I'd have to scan the dozens of documents I've worked out the arrangements on to show you why I think so. Right in Two and Wings are two of the most fully-realized rock songs I've ever analyzed, while shockingly featuring some of the most beautiful, buried melodies I've ever heard; i could go on and on about this), even if the material the songs were developed from is probably their weakest since Undertow. I used to really hate it, but as an artist myself, I am almost obsessed with the level of craftsmanship on this album, and more recently I have fallen in love with it simply as vast, delicious ear candy.
If I had to pick one, I would probably choose Lateralus, simply because it's the longest.
Aenima is a defining chapter for Tool, this is the album that they began exploring and progressing as artists on if you ask me. Kickass album, I liked it so much I burned out on it and didn't jam it for years. Jimmy is one of my favorite Tool songs ever.
Who's really to say which album is best........ Lateralus is probably my favorite
I agree, Aenima is Tools best album to date, It was the album where the heavy angry sound from there younger days clashed with the more exploreitory sound of modern day tool. Its just briallant. I should also note that some songs off of Aenima (Eulogy, Hooker with a Penis, Third Eye, Aenima) are constantly stuck in my head.
Pretty much every song on Aenima is great. The only ones that aren't so good are the fillers, such as Useful Idiot, or (-) Ions. ...such a smart album. Its like all dark and sarcastic. One thing i love about Tool is that Adam can make totally awesome riffs, melodies, and harmonics while not being all flashy and shit. Its very suddle. He demonstates this in this album probably the most. And Maynard's vocals are amazing on songs like Pushit and Eulogy. A definate staple in my music collection.
Lateralus => AEnima > 10,000 Days > Undertow > Opiate
Lateralus is the album I heard first and thought it was fucking ace. Then I heard AEnima and thought it was ace aswell, abit different and that's why I loved it. 10K Days has phatter production but I don't think it's as strong for song writing and lyric writing.
Lateralus and AEnima are the most outstanding Tool albums. Lateralus is my favourite because it has a level of maturity to it, a level of reflection about itself, which I think makes it a little more seminal than AEnima. AEnima is often as good for different reasons, but the constant segues are the worst on any of the Tool albums for me. Get rid.
Oh, and I think it's a little short sighted to say the atmosphere of Lateralus is hampered by Ticks and Leeches, and that it's let down by that track. Ticks and Leeches has the incredible extended break, it goes on for a long time, quiet and bleak, which maps quite nicely onto the effects a misplaced anger can have. After Ticks and Leeches, the album becomes it's most positive, as if the final release of anger and bleakness is the true 'letting go' of all the anger and greivance.
I hate ranking them. I love them all, and I glad each one of them is what it is.
What truly amazes me, is how they are each so unique (don't give me that shit about recycled riffs, they are similar, yet the songs have a different sound - you couldn't put a 10,000 Days song on Lateralus, and you couldn't put a Lateralus song on Undertow etc., it would seem out of place).
Opiate and Undertow are the "Friends you can count on" Never dissapoint.
AEnima was the cd I didn't take out of the changer for 7 years. AEnima is the cd I had to replace because I listened to it too much. Its the cd that you consistantly hear something different and NEVER gets old. Its the cd that is so perfect that you could give 2 shits about production. Aenima was the cd that covers every emotion and really, every drug out there. AEnima was the cd that changed my life. Damn.
Lateralus= the first thing I said about Lateralus was that "it was no Aenima" Its their happy cd. Maynard isn't as pissed off cd. Don't get me wrong, I dig it and in fact, listened to it all last night on a road trip. Its just no AEnima.
10K days= They've matured and I really can't help but dig what they do. I miss the blue man days yes. I miss the naked people dangling from the ceiling. I miss some of the old songs. But, I really like where they are going. I haven't listened to 10k days enough to be in love with it but, love really does take time and with TooL, it always happens.
Wow, talk about accurate. I couldn't have said it better myself. Opiate and Undertow are perennial angsty favorites. Ćnima is PERFECTION. Lateralus is solemn beauty. 10,000 Days is more of a meandering thought.
__________________ Integrity means that you are one.
the Aenima era was maynard's vocal zenith, imo.
he hit notes live that broke ground. like in Eulogy, 46&2, Pushit etc.
he changes stuff up nowadays because i don't think he can hit the notes that well anymore. most hard songs simply aren't in the set anymore.
Isn't that one of the 10 sins? Vicarious and Rosetta Stoned? Come one man! Oh shit! Anyway...
Aenima is by far the best album. Why?
A.) Controversy = Stinkfist. Can we say one of the best songs ever? And who the hell dared at the time to call a song Hooker with a Penis? These guys dared big, and it worked.
B.) Aenima = I hate Los Angeles with a passion. Consider it the fruit basket of humanity (if you catch my drift). This song perfectly represents my train of thought.
C.) Third Eye = "Shrouding all the ground around me....is this holy crow above me..." This song is probably the most powerful Tool song ever written.
D.) No Softies! All of Tool's songs had a hard, grinding and dark feel to it. None of it was "soft" like Intension or Disposition.
C.) H. Best Tool song written (in my opinion).
B.) Bill Hicks - Need I say more?
A.) The only CD that has the note. "Believe in nothing."
Point and case. Aenima is the greatest work of Tool art to be written.
I agree that the Aenima era was probably Maynard's peak and there's no doubt they went to new heights. I think Adam, Justin and Danny got better on Lateralus though. I can't say which album is better because they're both great.
Man, after a decade I still pop Aenima into my stereo and rock out. Even after listening to Aenima for so long I'm always hearing new things in the music. It f'ing rocks!
Aenima is a mood setter for me. Though I think Lateralus is the better achievement, Aenima will always be closer to my heart. It had everything. Singing highs, wrist-slitting lows, and eye-opening revelation. And the best packaging.
