OPIATE (EP)

First off, it is DUMB to see this album as "prog" and compare it to a prog release. The 92 version of Tool is metal, not (yet) prog. Ok I'm gonna go against the grain and give 4 stars to this album. Keep in mind they released this stuff about a year and a half after the creation of the band, and I think most of the material is GOOD. If half the new metal bands today released a first EP as good and as powerful as that, the metal industry would be a LOT better. This is their most raw, metal record. No electronic percussion, no oriental grooves and riffs, and Maynard is screaming. a lot. Sweat is good, but the lyrics are a bit too "teenage" for me. Hush is pretty ok, a very "fuck-off" song. Part of Me is probably their most metal song. I like the riff. But sounds better on Salival. Opiate: the reason this EP must be bought (and why it gets 4 stars). Intelligent lyrics, interesting structure, all the musicians are more connected than before. I think it showed a bit of Tool's future. It's my favorite song from the Opiate/Undertow era.

So, good EP, but not a good start for Tool in my opinion (unless you really want to experience the evolution of their sound and musical identity by listening to the albums in chronological order).

Tool owns. they're the modern days Pink Floyd (wanted to place that somewhere =p).