Music Hall of Fame: AEnima (Tool)

Note: I know the title isn't written correctly; I tried using the percent signs and such to make the combination A/E but it didn't work. You know what album I'm talking about, so stop complaining.

In high school and the summer to follow, this album was featured heavily when hanging out with "the group," which included Nitin, Sam, Sam, Chip, Laura, Scott, Joe Perez, Carmack, and a few other stragglers from time to time like Lu and Victor. Oh, Victor. Anyways, back to the album. I used to get pissed off when someone (read: Nitin or Perez) would put it on. I found the music abrasive and disagreeable, and a stark contrast from the bands I enjoyed most at that time in my life, like DMB, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and Counting Crows.

I don't know exactly when it was, though if I were to guess, I'd say sometime during my freshman year of college, but I quietly started to enjoy the album. I think I warmed up to it a little bit before then, when we all went to North Carolina for our senior spring break trip. Then, a few trips to visit Nitin at UMD, and I was on the path to Toolville...I know it's not a real place, it's a metaphor, dick.

Anyways, eventually I acquired a Tool CD from Scott. He had made his own "Best of Tool" CD, but then changed his mind about what he wanted to put on the album, rendering the original obsolete. The winner, of course, was me.

Among my favorite songs from this album are H, Stinkfist, Eulogy, and the title track, but the first song I truly embraced was Forty-Six & 2. It's more along the lines of a standard song rather than the industrial/electronic sound that surrounds a lot of their other music. It still hits as hard as any of them, but I think I found it easier to enjoy Forty-Six & 2 earlier because it wasn't all that different from traditional music. The guitar hook is tremendous, one of my favorites from the 90s.

But what really defines this album is the tracks that aren't truly "songs" by the standard definition. Message to Harry Manback is...well, you've really just got to hear it. Also, if you're familiar with Ana Nuckols, you've really got to imagine her saying the stuff from that track, it's a riot. Die Eier von Satan is perhaps the most memorable track on the whole album, drawing its lyrics from a baking recipe, but reciting it in German and making it sound like a political rally...think Nazis.

"Die hard" Tool fans will say Undertow should be the hall of fame inductee, and they're not wrong. Undertow is a tremendous album, and I'd venture to say it may even have more of a broad appeal. But I don't have any stories about Undertow. I've got plenty about this one, so this is the one that makes it...first. Stay tuned, maybe Undertow gets the nod down the road.