SALIVAL

Salival is a boxset release for the fans as it had been four years since the band had released any material, and it also prepared tool fans for the new studio album that would follow the year after. This boxset shows of the incredible live performances of the band and also contains some exclusive studio tracks.

Third Eye is an incredible performance and a great way of opening the album. It is good to see how the band have evolved the song from the studio version and made it more suited for a live performance. "Part of Me" was originally from the debut EP "Opiate" but this new version is much better and sounds more like the modern day tool sound. As maynard proclaims at the beginning of "Push!t", "we are looking at this song under a different light". This is a very good alternate version of the song which replaces the heavy guitars and angry vocals with mellow music and soft vocals. This helps to build up the song in a different direction. This is one of the best things about Tool because istead of playing the same song ever show, they experiment with them and make them to make them fresh and exciting.

"You Lied" and "Merkaba" are covers of songs from some of the band members side bands including peach. The best song on the album is the cover of Led Zeppelins "No Quarter" which has epic effects, production and a melee of guitars and stretchy vocal harmonies. This is probably the best cover song i have ever heard, an odd one for tool who dont believe in cover songs but its just for the fans. The last track is ok if you can be bothered to listen to it.

This isn't meant to be a proper album but it strongly achieves its job of being a good collection of outakes for the fans. The album comes in a velvet laced boxset with a large colour photo collection and a bonus DVD with the bands amazing videos on.