Tool might eventually release a new album someday
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Synj
Dystopian Dreamer
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I remember Tool played a club called The Edge in Orlando back in like 93-94ish. There were 500 people there and I was in fucking heaven when this song came on.
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Opiate was the first album I bought, but I wasn't really a big fan until Undertow. It's probably still my favorite record if I had to choose one. There's just something great about Paul D'Amour's work with that Rickenbacker that sets it apart. However, I still love their later albums. I liked the new song well enough, but I'll reserve final judgement until the whole album is released. For me, tool is one of those bands where I have to listen to the whole album in one sitting or something is lost.
Julian The Apostate
Vyemm Raider
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Whenever I watch old live tool videos with Paul he never seems to mesh well with the band. He danced around a lot and always tried to compete with Maynard for attention and to talk to the crowd between song. Just felt out of place.
pharmakos
soʞɐɯɹɐɥd
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i met a guy that supposedly knew Paul D'Amour from high school. i was supposed to sit in alongside him while he video chatted Paul, but i had a falling out with the dude. i hadn't known him that long, and he was kind of a douche. he got pretty pissy when i wasn't super impressed that he knew Paul D'Amour (i wouldn't be impressed over the majority of celebrities, they're just people, idk), and then a couple days later he lost his patience while i was trying to show him how to play the intro riff to Jambi and pretty much just grabbed his stuff and walked home. we had a few other disagreements over the short time that i knew the dude, but yeah, those were the two funny / relevant ones haha. some other friends of mine ended up sitting in on that Skype with him tho, and confirmed that it really was Paul D'Amour, so *shrugs* i almost Skyped Paul D'Amour, cool story bro eh?
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The first time I remember seeing Tool was for the Lateralus tour, and Maynard spent the entire show in a shadow with a bunch of acrobats hanging from the ceilings of the arena. I guess their shows weren't always that artsy fartsy? The videos I've watched of APC live look the same. But when I look his performances with Pucifcer it looks like someone rolled out the circus freak show.
Alex
Still a Music Elitist
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pharmakos
soʞɐɯɹɐɥd
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unless my ears deceive me, the whole new section is in a different key. it's the transition into the new section that sounds kind of ham fisted to me. the transition out of it was done well, relying on the common pedal tone between the two modes they were playing.
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Alex
Still a Music Elitist
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pharmakos
soʞɐɯɹɐɥd
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That F5 in the chorus doesn't jive with that. They're real similar modes, I think they just shifted for one or two notes to be "wrong" in the mode of the new section, some sort of pentatonic jam over it probably did sound "right".
iannis
Musty Nester
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Keys are constructed to avoid tritones. You've got to go modal for those.
So yeah it they're using thematic tritones they're intentionally slipping out of key. And it's super common in metal. The tritone is a strong, unstable interval that lacks a strong resolution.
They can either sound hackey if used poorly or ominous and disturbing. It's hard to make them pleasant, but it is contextually possible.
So yeah it they're using thematic tritones they're intentionally slipping out of key. And it's super common in metal. The tritone is a strong, unstable interval that lacks a strong resolution.
They can either sound hackey if used poorly or ominous and disturbing. It's hard to make them pleasant, but it is contextually possible.
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pharmakos
soʞɐɯɹɐɥd
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really surprised it doesn't sound off to you. these sorts of discussions can frustrate me, because even tho i know music theory now, i've had an ear for this stuff since childhood, before i received any music training. it was only later after learning theory that i was able to put words to many of the things that i had previously felt about music.
anyway, i sat down with my guitar and the tabs and really tried to figure out what it is about the transition that sounds so off to me. it took me a minute, because it wasn't until i paid attention to what was going on with the bass that i realized what was up. the chorus to Opiate sounds very "major" to me. tool largely plays out of D Dorian or D Aeolian or modes that are one or two notes off from those. i looked at the guitar tabs, pretty standard power chord progression, B5 -> D5 -> E5 -> F5. that wouldn't sound as "major" as i was hearing tho, that third chord of the riff definitely sounded major, and sure enough the bass is playing a G# there, making an E Maj tonality instead of the E Min tonality you'd expect if you were to extend that E5 out to the third it would be implied to have by all the surrounding notes. this gives the chorus to Opiate a pretty different feel that the usual Tool D Dorian grooves. they switch back to regular D Dorian for the bit they added to the song in the middle. so yeah, it's not what the guitar is doing, but what the bass is doing that makes it end up sounding so ham fisted to me.
edit -- probably more appropriate to call it B Locrian? idk, it's been a long time since i've had to write any of this stuff down, my head is starting to hurt haha
anyway, i sat down with my guitar and the tabs and really tried to figure out what it is about the transition that sounds so off to me. it took me a minute, because it wasn't until i paid attention to what was going on with the bass that i realized what was up. the chorus to Opiate sounds very "major" to me. tool largely plays out of D Dorian or D Aeolian or modes that are one or two notes off from those. i looked at the guitar tabs, pretty standard power chord progression, B5 -> D5 -> E5 -> F5. that wouldn't sound as "major" as i was hearing tho, that third chord of the riff definitely sounded major, and sure enough the bass is playing a G# there, making an E Maj tonality instead of the E Min tonality you'd expect if you were to extend that E5 out to the third it would be implied to have by all the surrounding notes. this gives the chorus to Opiate a pretty different feel that the usual Tool D Dorian grooves. they switch back to regular D Dorian for the bit they added to the song in the middle. so yeah, it's not what the guitar is doing, but what the bass is doing that makes it end up sounding so ham fisted to me.
edit -- probably more appropriate to call it B Locrian? idk, it's been a long time since i've had to write any of this stuff down, my head is starting to hurt haha
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