I have an odd history with TOOL. I remember my mates listening to Aenima before me, and I thought it was ok. I never got into Undertow, still to this day I'm not familiar with that album and I don't care too much to check it out. I probably should considering. Aenima is a grower and I still haven't listened to it enough. I get Metroid vibes from some tracks, and I love the lyrics.
Then I remember the hype in the media (KERRANG! magazine probably) at how good Lateralus was, and my mates bought the CD and I asked to copy it (I was skint and rude). It was epic and we all loved that first listen. But it was still just another album over the years, even though it had already reached the immediate acclaim of classic.
I bought 10,000 Days second hand but didn't listen much until a few years after it was sitting on my CD shelf.
Then one day on the way to work I had it on my headphones just because... and I didn't listen to anything else on my commute for about 6 months. Nothing. Not even at home, it was just that album.
At one point after a few months, during Vicarious ("the universe is hostile" end build up of course), I had a realisation that this is it. Like, this is the pinnacle of musical bliss. Hundreds of years of Western music and this is it.
I tried to listen to Iron Maiden after that, I absolutely love Maiden, but it felt so stale, so slow, so plain in comparison.
Now, I know it isn't it, like, I recognise my own biased viewpoint, I'm aware music generally is subjective, and we all like different things based on our culture and background. But still.
I believe music can produce bliss, higher states of consciousness, happiness, whatever. One of my favourite Buddhist stories is of the Tibetan Yogi Milarepa, and he used to wander and sing and as the legends go, it was blissful to hear. But that's how I feel the TOOL album (10,000 Days/Lateralus) is, if you let it. There's no reason modern music can't have a transcendent touch. Which is probably why pop music, to me, sucks so much. There's no true bliss, it's all artificial.
I hope I don't sound like a douchebag. I just thought it'd be cool to share a story. Of course, I love all kinds of music, but it takes something truly special to have such a profound effect on the world. They say that The Beatle's album SPLHCB is the best album ever made because of the technological achievements and the pop perfection, but man, there is so much more to music than that.
consequenceofsound.net
music.apple.com
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but isn't inoculation a type of protection from something, therefore inoculum must be the drug itself (music). Which relates to the idea of what Maynard famously said about the meaning of their band name and the purpose of their music, i.e. "Save me, TOOL!" I can't wait for this!
