UNDERTOW

While Tool would later develop their sound to have a far more distinctly proggy nature to it, early on with Undertow, there was a lot more alternative metal and grunge in the mix. That's not to discredit this album, as I do find it quite enjoyable however, full of powerful riffs and such an overbearing sense of utter contempt that you can't help but enjoy it on those merits of rawness alone, which is good, since those are the main qualities this has for the most part. What this album lacks in variety and complexity, it makes up for in how filthy and angry everything sounds, Maynard being able to convey such hatred in his excellent vocal delivery. While having some weaker moments here, that's also not to say that the material here is worth nothing, as many of the songs here are enjoyable at the least, especially when taking into account the quality of the riffs, which manage to hit hard and be exceptionally memorable for the most part.

One other smaller issue I have with the album is that it's very top loaded, as it kicks off with 3 of the best tracks, Intolerance, Prison Sex and Sober. The main draw of Intolerance, other than the amazing transition between riffs in the chorus and verse, is the way that the song progressively becomes more frustrated sounding as it goes on, the chorus that once was a moment of particular reprieve and melody becoming more scream filled and echoey, providing a disorienting atmosphere, further accentuating the almost blind rage that Maynard seems to be in by the end of the song. Prison Sex is far and away the best song here however, while far moer traditionally hard rock in approach, the bass and riffs are nothing short of incredible, and the disturbing imagery really lends itself to the gradually more unsettling tone conveyed. Sober is the Tool song that a person is most likely to know when the band is mentioned (other than possibly Schism) and for good reason, the vocal melody being absolutely amazing, with the guitar work being able to display a great amount of emotion. The song in general is just an extremely good alternative metal song, full of passion and a considerably cleaner sound all around, which is a nice bit of change after the previous two songs. This is where the album unfortunately begins to lose steam, as Bottom, while having an awesome first couple of minutes, gradually becomes less interesting as it goes on, the faster pace of it eventually settling back down to sound similar to the other tracks, at which point there's just not too much of interest going on, the vocal performance, while being good, simply not matching up to previous songs, the spoken word section in the middle adding absolutely nothing of substance.

Unfortunately, the album continues going down hill with what is what consider to be the weakest track on this album, Crawl Away, which even after countless listens to this album over the last couple of years, I still can remember absolutely nothing about other than heavy, groovy riff near the start of the song, which is admittedly pretty great, shame that the rest of the song is so insignificant and inconsequential. Swamp Song is thankfully able to allow the album to go back to being highly enjoyable, as I find this to be a very underrated track, being quite a fan of the mid paced, yet driving beat of the song, the chorus continuing along this same tempo and simply sounding absolutely monstrous, highlighting that rawness that makes this album so entertaining in a lot of ways. The next two songs go back to being fairly unremarkable, the title track having some pretty cool riffs, but not too much else going for it, and 4 Degrees feeling as if it's really not going anywhere at all, despite the cool sitar-esque sounds in the intro. Flood, , while not incredible, manages to still end up being really enjoyable due to being able to reinvoke the insanity unleashed in the earlier tracks with the awesome chorus. The rest of the song isn't anything amazing, but still, far from a bad one. Disgustipated, while generally considered to be the worst thing that Tool has ever done, is actually a fairly interesting song in my opinion, far darker and more harrowing than anything else in their discography, the slow, almost primal beats combined with the repetition of the vocals provides a ritualistic image that is nothing short of great, sure, the song then devolves into cricket noises, but I treat this the same way I treat those song with a good 10 minutes of silence at the end of them for no reason, that ending part just doesn't exist, and now we've got ourselves a great song.

On the whole, despite having some downright incredible moments, the album from a holistic standpoint really doesn't hold up the best, the sound between tracks often being incredibly similar to the point where they can tend to blend with one another, not to mention that quite a few of these songs are very forgettable. When this album is good, it's really good however, so I can't judge this too harshly, especially since I do find myself listening to this quite frequently whenever I feel like listening to Tool. Definitely rough, but nonetheless decent, despite some flaws, and having a Tool album that isn't filled with pointless interludes is definitely a massive positive aspect of this.

Best songs: Intolerance, Prison Sex, Sober

Weakest songs: Bottom, Crawl Away, 4 Degrees

Verdict: Definitely leans much more heavily on the grunge and alternative metal side of things, but is definitely decent despite teh relative roughness. I'd recommend giving this a listen if you're in the mood for an angry, dirty sounding alt metal album, because on that front, this album rarely falters.