MAKING OF THE ALBUM: Tool Р̠nima
Published on May 22, 2011 by Christian Sellers · No Comments
Three years had passed since the release of Undertow when Tool finally offered their long-awaited follow-up Ænima. In that time they had lost a band member, changed producers and matured as both songwriters and musicians. The success of their first full-length album, coupled with the notoriety that had surrounded the accompanying music videos, had brought the group to a wider audience and so commenced work on their sophomore record. In the liner notes of Undertow Tool had cited several artists as inspiration, one of which being Bill Hicks. Having worked as a professional comic since the age of sixteen, Hicks had released two albums of stand-up material and had appeared on Late Night with David Letterman an unprecedented eleven times (his final would come in 1993 but would be cut from the show shortly before broadcast). Like many other musicians, including Henry Rollins, Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan had become a fan of Hicks and eventually invited him to introduce the group at Lollapalooza.
Following the death of Hicks in February 1994 at the age of thirty-two, Keenan began to incorporate various themes from his routines into their new material. Having written just five songs, bassist Paul D’Amour announced that he was leaving the band in order to focus on his new project, Lusk, and so the remaining three members were forced to search for a replacement, eventually settling on Justin Chancellor, an English musician whom they had met when his group Peach had supported on tour them the previous year. Prior to his departure, Tool had already commenced work on material that was intended for their second album, which included the tracks Eulogy and Stinkfist (continuing their habit of controversial song titles that had begun with Prison Sex in 1993). The lyrics to Stinkfist would suggest that the song was indeed about fisting, as the title would suggest, but the band have insinuated that the basic theme was penetration, although not necessarily in a sexual sense. Regardless, the words could be interpreted in numerous ways; “Show me that you love me and that we belong together. Relax, turn around and take my hand… Knuckle deep inside the borderline. This may hurt a little but it’s something you’ll get used to.”
Eulogy is another track that boasts a title that gives a preconception of its themes, which mostly deals with loss. The dubiously-named Hooker with a Penis was written by Keenan in retaliation to a fan who had accused the band of ‘selling out’ with Undertow, claiming that they had lost their way since the release of their 1992 EP Opiate. Keenan, understandably frustrated and angry at the comments, had responded in the song by stating; “All you know about me is what I’ve sold you, dumb fuck. I sold out long before you ever heard my name. I sold my soul to make a record, dip shit, and you bought one.” Jimmy would be a semi-autobiographical story told from the point-of-view of an eleven-year-old child who, much like Keenan, was raised in Ohio. It has been suggested that H (which had been composed under the working title Half Empty) was about a man with an angel on one shoulder and the Devil on the other, much like a comedic sequence from the 1978 comedy National Lampoon’s Animal House, yet in this instance the central character is being torn apart from the opposing forces; “What’s coming through is alive, what’s holding up is a mirror… They’re both totally void of hate but killing me just the same.”
The most obvious lyrical reference to Hicks was the song Ænema (it should be noted that there is a difference in spelling between the name of the track and album), which explored a concept that Hicks had put forth in which Los Angeles, which he had dubbed Hell-A, would collapse into the ocean; “LA is a nightmare city and the sooner it falls into the ocean due to a major earthquake and is flushed away like the turd city it is, into the Pacific Bowl the better this world will be.” He also mused that once this had happened what would remain on the coast would be Arizona Bay; a title given to his third album, which would be released posthumously in 1997. Keenan would make explicit references to this theme in Ænema; “Here in this hopeless fucking hole we call LA. The only way to fix it is to flush it all away. Any fucking time, any fucking day. Learn to swim, I’ll see you down in Arizona Bay.” There would be two more aspects of the album that would pay tribute to Hicks; a painting of the comic on the inlay, labelling him “Another dead hero,” and the final song Third Eye, which would include audio samples from his routines.
Whilst Tool are considered a serious and cynical group Ænima was not without a sense of humour. Although the song Die Eier von Satan, spoken in German with an aggressive tone, may sound like a Nazi speech, it was in fact a recipe for cookies that translated as The Eggs of Satan. Another spoken track, Message to Harry Manback, was allegedly a real answer phone message from an uninvited guest who had appeared at Keenan’s home. With a further ten tracks having been composed with Chancellor, Tool were ready to commence recording but instead of working once again with Sylvia Massy, who had produced both Opiate and Undertow, they instead approached David Bottrill, whose impressive résumé included King Crimson. Recording took place in Hollywood at two locations, Ocean Way (which had previously served Frank Sinatra and The Beach Boys) and The Hook, whilst mixing was overseen at Larrabee. It is worth noting that the guitar tech on the album was Billy Howerdel who, three years later, would form the side project A Perfect Circle with Keenan.
The artwork for Ænima would be as offbeat as the lyrics, with the inlay featuring sixteen fictitious album covers from Tool, including such ridiculous names as Spring Boner, I Smell Urine and Gay Rodeo. One curious error is that track three is listed in the inlay as H, with a running time of just 0.39, whilst the fourth track, Useful Idiot, is credited at 6.03. H is in fact the six-minute song and Useful Idiot is merely a short instrumental. Ænima was released by Volcano Entertainment on compact disc on October 1st 1996 (two weeks after the vinyl edition) and debuted in the US at number two. Promotional videos were filmed for both Ænema and Stinkfist (although the latter would be retitled Track #1), directed by guitarist Adam Jones, who had worked with Stan Winston Studios earlier his career. Both clips featured stop-motion animation and scenes of sexual and violent content, although portrayed in a typically obscure fashion. Tool would not release another album for five years.
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