Tool - Undertow

So, when people talk about Tool they say "alternative metal." However, when they do, they invariably include Alice In Chains and Stone Temple Pilots, so it's jibber jabber. Sometimes they say "thinking man's metal," but fail to compare them to Helmet (Tool is nothing like Helmet, that's a lie they both used dropped d tuning, but critics use the same description for both bands). Genres are dumb. 

Now, these essays aren't really in depth musical analyses, and they certainly aren't newspaper scuttlebutt, they are more like contextual frameworks, getting into the mindset of listening to them 30 or 40 more times for their real substance; trying to understand where they came from, or what they might mean for us now. Cultural artifacts. Yeah, my essays hold up the object and contextualize it from my personal point of view. 

Undertow. What's this thing about? Well, it's definitely not happy-time, beers with the bros music. If ever an album deserverd the explicit lyrics sticker, this would probably be one. That doesn't mean it's bad, or evil, or depraved, it just means you wouldn't really want a generation of children haphazardly reciting some of the more visceral lyrics in public. I'm totally against censorship, but i didn't need a councelling session after hearing this when i was 13 either, so proper definition of moot, i guess. Yes, a lot of this stuff is not suitable for polite conversation out of context, but which of the 1,000+ albums in my collection actually is? Still, we can't really walk through the world blissfully unaware of all the horribleness that lurks in the shadows, and we need to hear it expressed to fully come to terms with it. This album in particular requires an understanding that it comes from the perspective of being caught in the undertow of the polluted ocean of society. If you aren't ready for it, it can be quite a shock. 

More so than most bands, Tool's discography is completely chronolocked; you need the context of the albums as they unfold, because the albums themselves form a coherent narrative perspective. They are, in fact, the actual process of evolving into a better, more spiritually connected and psychologically complete consciousness. Partly that's the result of long-term legal and interpersonal struggles, but the result is that they strip away more and more of the facade of reality, and ultimately replace it with a kind of mental equilibrium, an adventure in real time, from 1992 to 2020. I could certainly flesh that out, but i think you should flesh that out for yourself. I'm probably hundreds of listens ahead of you, and i'm still not done yet. If Opiate is the expression of rage about the bad stuff, Undertow is an expression of what it's like to be stuck inside it. It is disturbing, grotesque, offensive, frightening. Opiate calls out the abuser in rage, Undertow gives a voice to the horrors of the cycle of abuse. A kind of method acting approach to making music. 

Now's a great time to delve into it, actually, what with the Joss Whedons and Marilyn Mansons and Boyd Tinsleys of the world being held accountable for their abuses of power. Sure, in the pantheon of depravity some might be more or less vile than others, but in reality they are very wealthy individuals demanding sexual gratification as the price of professional success (Sandra has a very convincing powerpoint presentation about why that won't be tolerated), and Jean-Luc Ponty reminded us that a "civilized evil" is still an evil. Terrible people defend their piles of garbage, so all we're ever really doing is searching for some psychological equilibrium from which to move on with our lives. However uncomfortable it might be for us to hear it, our first step is simply to hear the story being told. How could you ever hope to begin the healing if you can't even bear to hear the pain being expressed? 

Henry Rollins makes a guest appearance, that's rib cage on the cover, and Adam's pet pig poses above a field of forks on the back. It's almost like they planned that alliterative description, isn't it? I won't describe the rest of the artwork so you can be disgustipated on your own (that's the title of track 10/69, in case you didn't know. They actually recorded the sound of shooting pianos with shotguns in the parking garage of Grand Master Studio for it). Fantastic album, by the way, and fully deserving of it's hour and nine minute length.

Aenima