UNDERTOW

The aura of mystery and secrecy that forms part of the Tool universe began to build from their debut "Undertow" (1993), an album immersed in an introspective and complex subject matter (hypocrisy, sexual abuse, alcoholism and religious beliefs, among other delicate topics) and developed on an original instrumental base that combines outbursts of rough metal, glimpses of progressive rock and echoes of the grunge wave in full swing in those years.

The appealing proposal of the North Americans flows like a powerful and raw dark force, from the saturated and bogged down guitar riffs of Adam Jones and the heartbreaking and raging singing of Maynard James Keenan, in tracks like the disenchanted and realistic "Intolerance", the disturbing "Prison Sex", the excellent mid-tempo of the anguished "Sober", or the industrial and threatening "Crawl Away".

And on the other hand, the band also showed its experimental streak, still in the formative process, in the hypnotic middle section of the grunge "Bottom" including a Henry Rollins ('Black Flag') phrasing, in the oriental chords of the rough "4°", and above all in the somber "Flood", one of the album's best moments with its very long intro sustained by Paul D'Amour's bass (later replaced by Justin Chancellor) and Jones' thick, delay-filled riffs that lead to an intense instrumental group catharsis.

Maintaining the dense character that predominates throughout the album, "Undertow" concludes with the interminable digression "Disgustipated" that intermingles dialogues, dissonant sound effects and megaphonic arrangements, a sensorial exercise that Tool would also resort to in their following works.

Despite the fact that the evolution of the band made the relative importance of "Undertow" somewhat lag behind, it is undoubtedly one of the first stones on which one of the most experimental and corrosive currents of the progressive genre was built.

3/3.5 stars

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