Tool
Ænima

Released in 1996, "Ænima" is Tool's second album. Judging it solely as a good album is as superficial as it is very reductive; "Ænima" is a window into the most complex and profound darkness, a restless journey that leaves you breathless.
Within this album, you move from atmospheres to sounds to the most diverse colors, but in the end, I had the astonishing certainty that everything I heard during the 77 minutes of "Ænima" is a unique and indissoluble thing and that even one note less would have diminished everything else.

Technically speaking, let's say that Tool offers a Progressive Metal of blinding beauty and extraordinary refinement; although due to their amazing sonic refinement, it is very difficult to associate them with a genre or a type of metal in particular, their sound is unique and, probably, no metal band has ever come close to such refinement.

The journey inside "Ænima" begins with "Stinkfist," a track that alternates the unease of the voice with sonic majesty through brief angry passages; it almost seems like a preview of what will happen next.
Following is "Eulogy" with a relaxing and very hypnotic intro disrupted by the entry of a nervous guitar and the voice, first filtered, that then spills into the chorus; at this point, the track takes very varied directions but always stays tied to the first part. To follow with bated breath.
The third track, "H," begins with noises that draw attention, then moves to an excellent melody, with tension slowly rising until it reaches a finale of incredible instrumental intensity. This is followed by a small "noisy" interlude called "Useful Idiot."
The fifth track, "Forty Six & 2," conveys a strong sensation of anticipation mixed with unease right from the start, which spreads throughout the track like an oil stain only to reach a stunning ending. Right after, there's an interlude, "Message To Harry Manback," that leaves the listener bewildered: a melancholic piano background with distant bird calls, but with a cold and determined voice delivering insults of all kinds, in English, but also in Italian!
The seventh track, "Hooker With A Penis," is the most frenetic piece of the album; the melody seems completely absent, but everything is finely tuned to provide a continuous and lacerating emotion that pierces. "Intermission" is nothing but an interlude played on the organ that nevertheless remains in the theme of the album.
Following is "Jimmy," a track that alternates relaxed parts with very compelling ones; but always within the same context. In the final part, the tension rises and, consequently, the emotions. "Die Eier Von Satan" is a truly unsettling and very experimental interlude, with hammering and repetitive noises in the background that seem to come from an assembly line... or from hell? The voice, in German, goes over the ingredients to prepare the eggs of Satan(?) with, in addition to the unsettling noises, the screams of people agreeing. Right after, we move to "Pushit," a track on the brink between melancholy and hope, where the instrumental part has great relevance, but in the final part, it significantly changes rhythm with excellent solos and riffs not too hard but effective, almost suffocated. The subsequent interlude, "Cesaro Summability," begins with a child's laughter that turns into crying, followed by various soft noises of which one is highlighted.
The title track, "Ænima," heads towards the end of the journey; the rhythms become more urgent, though interrupted by an excellent percussive part, and in the track reigns a constant sensation of discovery, of realization, that the journey embarked upon has reached the most important point, the conclusion. And before reaching the final track, there's "(-) Ions," an interlude where an electric noise merges with something seemingly passing through the air.
The last track, "Third Eye," is the complicated yet effective conclusion of the album; in its considerable length (14 minutes), it passes through the most disparate atmospheres: from the dark and grating ones of the synthesizers to the restless ones of the guitars, with an incredible progression from the drums. An explosion of darkness in a thousand different shades, yet always linked to the dominant black. The perfect finale of the album, with a truly furious ending.

In this review, I wanted to describe the album step by step, track by track, solely to try to convey its incredible intricacy, because this is not an album of singles. Recommended to anyone who has the desire/patience to immerse themselves in these claustrophobic atmospheres with the utmost open-mindedness, beyond any musical preference. I assure you that by the end of this journey, you will feel fulfilled and will probably change your way of understanding music.