want to get into tool - where do i start?

[jacksabbath]

after playing 8bits lets rock game for a while it seems tool has a lot of fans here, yet id never heard of them. so im looking to get into them, can anyone suggest a good starting point, maybe a song or an album?

cheers

[Billy Underdog]

I've never been the greatest Tool-fan (actually, now i hate them a bit, couse a friend of mine has overfed it to me), but the album i've always found most listenable is Lateralus. Real fans will probably rather suggest Ænima.

[devstorm]

their debut ep OPIATE is about the only thing I can recommend. Everything else sounds the same to me.

[Sabbathman]

after playing 8bits lets rock game for a while it seems tool has a lot of fans here, yet id never heard of them. so im looking to get into them, can anyone suggest a good starting point, maybe a song or an album?

cheers

There isn't a good starting point for Tool!

Try some other band that you've not been listening to so far.

[8bit Fighter]

Opiate is good. Lateralus is pretty good too. It's been a long while since I heard all of Tool, but I highly suggest you start there. For Lateralus, there is two ways you can listen to the album:

1. The Original Track listing.
2. Lateralus: Holy Gift Method

[IommiRules]

LOVE Tool. While I will be the first to agree that they have "a certain sound", I dig it. My advice to anyone seeking out an album to get started into a new band, always start at the beginning. See where they came from, see where they progessed or regressed and get a total picture of how the band developed.

[Josef_K]

I think of Tool as an OK band, I won't slap you if you say you like them (as I would with a Coldplay fan ^^) but I don't find anything particularly interesting in the little I've heard from them. I can "recommend" one song you definitely want to stay away from though, if you are a Led Zeppelin fan. Don't ever listen to their cover of "No Quarter". Sure, they bring their own sound into the song, but that song cannot stand being metalized, it sounds awful. They should have picked a less progressive song, imo progressive rock and progressive metal are much further away from each other than people seem to think.

[Buffalo Bill Scruggs]

I actually find Tool to be bottom-of-the-barrel when it comes to progressive music tbh.

[RLP4ever]

jacksabbath, I vaguely remember there already being an old Tool thread in the forums. And no, I honestly didn't find too many 'fans' of the band around here. Indeed, Tool does seem to get more than their fair share of sneers and put-downs from a lot of people in the metal fan community, at large. Trivium is another band that pops to mind which seems to attract similar degrees of derision. I quite like certain bits of that band's music, as well. Tool and Trivium seem to get the kind of hate that I actually feel for something like System Of A Down, for example.

That said, I'm a minor fan of the band. I don't find them especially great or anything, but they are still a very decent, listenable metal act with a bunch of very good songs. I guess I've heard all the Tool albums, save one. I still think that their Opiate EP is their strongest release, and I'd say it's just as easily a great place to begin with Tool.