March 10, 1992 - Tool and Opiate

Two weeks after my last release a new band enters my library when Tool released their EP "Opiate" on March 10, 1992. But who are Tool? They are an alternative metal band from Los Angeles, California consisting of vocalist Maynard James Keenan, guitarist Adam Jones, bassist Paul D'Amour and drummer Danny Carey. Tool were formed in 1990 and this EP was their first major release, although they had already formed an underground following. Tool play a pretty heavy style of metal on this EP that hits very hard and that sounds great to me. Let's check it out!

The EP begins with "Sweat" and both Jones and D'Amour play some nice low and heavy guitars to form the main riff and Carey plays a solid drum beat to match. Maynard begins to sing the first verse and he starts off singing in a bit of a hushed voice that sounds alright, but when he starts yelling his vocals louder in the chorus he sounds pretty good and holds some nice long notes. Carey plays some nice drums in the chorus and Maynard shows us that he has a nice soft voice as well as his solid yelling metal voice and he switches nicely back and forth between them as the song goes on. Another verse and chorus later they move into a heavy new part with some more cool low guitars from both Jones and D'Amour but the highlight is Carey who plays some fast and pretty sweet drums. This leads nicely into a final chorus before they finish things off on a long distorted guitar note. Up next is "Hush" and D'Amour starts us off by himself with a pretty cool bass riff, then Carey comes in with some nice drums, then Jones with some long guitar notes and finally Maynard joins in and screams "fuck youuuuuuuuu!" and man does he sound great holding that scream for a good amount of time while the guitar becomes louder. Jones then cuts off his guitar as Maynard begins the first verse overtop D'Amour's cool bass riff and Adam joins in mid-verse with some cool lead guitar and Maynard holds some more long yells as well. There is no chorus to this short song, they just play the same verse but louder, but it sounds pretty cool still. They do another quiet verse/loud verse before Jones moves to a short but heavy new part and I love how Maynard says "go fuck yourself, you piece of shit, WHY DON'T YOU GO FUCK YOURSEEEEEEEELF". He has some great long yells that he his somehow able to maintain his intensity all the way to end of the yell and he seems like a phenomenal vocalist. A short but very intense and cool song. Track 3 is "Part Of Me" and we hear the band talking before Carey finally starts us up with a nice fast drum beat, D'Amour falls in with some more cool bass and Jones plays a sweet lead guitar riff that is both fast and slow at times and he starts and stops things to an epic effect, making even simple riffs sound very cool. Maynard sings a few lines of the verse before Jones goes off on a short but sweet guitar part and they continue to play off each other nicely with everything sounding heavy and sweet. There's no chorus in this song either but they play slightly different variations on the main verse and all of them contain some great contributions from everyone as this song rocks heavily along with some great guitar, bass, drums and some more great yells from Maynard. The next two songs were both recorded live at a New Year's Eve show Tool played a few months before, starting with "Cold And Ugly (live)". The first thing we hear is Maynard say "throw that Bob Marley wannabe motherfucker outta here", a very interesting way to start off a song before Jones comes in with a hard-hitting lead guitar riff that is pretty catchy. Maynard lets out a nice long scream as D'Amour and Carey form a heavy rhythm section and things sound really heavy and I love it! Maynard sings in a soft voice to start the verse but it's not long before he's yelling very nicely overtop the heavy music. Jones plays some nice guitar in the chorus and Maynard sounds great singing overtop. Another verse and chorus later Jones slows things down and breaks the song down very nicely for a new part. Maynard sings a few lines and then things start to speed up again as they ramp nicely into the EP's first solo! Jones nails the solo with some distorted and pretty great sounding guitar and it flows perfectly back into the main riff for a final verse and chorus and then they end the song with a classic rock and roll flourish! Jones, D'Amour and Carey all go crazy on their instruments in a fantastic end to what sounded like a rockin' show! It flows directly into the next song "Jerk-Off (live)" and Maynard prefaces the song once again, this time by saying "they're used to be a bunch of assholes that lived in this part of the building here, but we systematically removed them like you would any kind of termite or roach". Maynard seems like quite the frontman and after this intro Jones cues up another cool guitar riff and Carey comes in with a fast and cool drum beat and then D'Amour's bass adds another layer of heaviness to what sounds like another pretty cool song. Maynard sounds great again singing in a bit of a haunting voice at first that morphs nicely into his usual yelling vocals. Jones switches to some much faster guitar for the short chorus and Maynard ends the chorus by holding a really long note very nicely as Jones switches back to the slower and heavier main riff. After another verse and chorus the guitar falls away and D'Amour leads the way on bass as Maynard sings a quiet new part overtop. It ends with him saying "I should play god and SHOOT YOU MYSELF" as Jones guitar comes thundering back in. It's a really great transition and the awesome heavy guitars continue for another minute-plus and Maynard has a few really great screams that sound just phenomenal, especially for a live recording. They nicely end the song with Maynard yelling "shoot you in your fucking head" and these live songs were the best ones yet! The final song on this long EP is the title track "Opiate" and it's also the longest song on the EP. I really love the lyrics in this song which I think are about how easily manipulated some people are by religion and cults. D'Amour starts it off with a trippy and cool bass lick and Maynard dives right into the verse singing in a nice high voice before the rest of the band falls in with a simple but solid metal main riff. Everything comes to a sudden halt as they shift to the chorus and I love how Maynard softly sings "my God's will becomes me, when he speaks, he speaks through me. He has needs, like I do we both want, to rape you". That is some dark stuff and they do a great job of making it sound very epic and heavy. They play another verse but this one is much louder and has some more great lyrics that could've been sung by a religious figure, or a cult leader, it's hard to tell the difference. They do the same epic shift to the chorus and this time Maynard screams the final "to rape yooooooouuuuuu" with all of his voice and I love the visceral sound of his scream as he holds it for a good long time and doesn't break at all. Such an awesome scream! Carey's drums continue to sound great as he plays some fast stuff and they bring this wicked song to a nice finish at the 5:20 mark, but the track is eight and a half minutes. After 50 seconds of silence we hear the bonus song "The Gaping Lotus Experience" and it has some very psychedelic guitar by Jones as Maynard sings us a pretty funny little song about some friends of his on drugs. "I had a friend once, he took some acid. Now he thinks he's a fire engine. It's okay, until he pisses on your lighter". That line still makes me laugh and the funny lines keep coming overtop of this psychedelic music that is not like the rest of the EP at all, but it's interesting and pretty trippy. Another great line is about a friend on ecstasy who "kinda tried to fuck my la-z-boy". I think it's a cool little bonus song to finish off this debut EP.

That is the end of "Opiate" and I thought it was a pretty awesome EP. Every song was solid and I love Tool's heavy and hard-hitting sound. Adam Jones, Paul D'Amour and Danny Carey all sounded great and each of them had some moments where they really showed off and they play together really nicely. And Maynard James Keenan is an unbelievable vocalist. He can sound good singing high and low, soft and loud and I love his yelling vocals and his uncanny ability to hold his yells and screams for so long. This is only an EP, I can't wait to see what Tool does on their first full-length release!