Tool
72826

Don't worry, unfortunately it's not the new Tool album (the album that the four Californians are working on), but a demo released way back in 1991, printed in limited quantities (maximum 1000 copies) and only on cassette tape; maybe some of you have downloaded it under the name "Toolshed", or "Tool": I have it with the mysterious title "72826", and on a cellphone keypad, the numbers correspond to the word 'Satan'...

Returning to the demo, it was recorded manually by Maynard James Keenan (singer and lyricist, for those who don't know), and the band lineup still included Paul D'Amour on bass. The recording quality is quite debatable, but by observing the six songs you can already tell that, despite being in their early stages, the band was already talented: indeed, "Cold And Ugly", "Hush", "Part Of Me" and "Jerk-Off" are present, which would end up on the "Opiate" EP (1992), and they are very similar to the respective final versions that fans know, although they are characterized by a certain recording poverty. The other two songs, which would end up on their first LP "Undertow" (1993), are "Crawl Away", however, without the intro with Andean chants that would only feature on the LP, and the demo version of one of my all-time favorite songs: "Sober". Every Tool fan must surely know this song, and those who don't know it should instantly make up for this absence.

I only give this demo three stars precisely because it's a demo, as the songs present are of exceptional quality. Here, the early Tool is still present, angry, direct, and no-frills, far from the peaks they would achieve later, but if you want to hear where the Tool story begins, give this demo a listen: from the subsequent EP, the story will become legend...