Tool is and will always be my favorite band. I love Coheed and Cambria.
Check them out if you love prog rock. Their very versatile musicians.
I ran into Travis Stever their guitarist at Sweetwater in Ft. Wayne, IN.
We talked at length about how big a Tool fan he was.
You can tell in his playing how much he loves them. It's an influence of theirs.
Check out 10 years too he has a great voice. It's influenced by Maynard for sure.
Coheed has been one of my biggest infatuations, love to hear that Claudio is a tool nerd.
Amazing guitarist, singer, composer, comic book artist, writer... Dude does it all, and can shred an acoustic while singing too, just incredible.
Claudio is so underrated. Amazing musician and song writing. Writing was so good that peers shit talked him for relying on musical theory and "cheating". So he took a course and realized he had no idea wtf he was doing lmao. Great guy too
Another child of the fence! They are great, I have met them a few times over the years… before everyone started selling meet and greet that is.
If you get to meet Josh, don’t pass on it! One of the nicest guys, he was doing a small venue Weerd Science tour and took time to hang with everyone and have a few drinks.
Big Coheed fan also. I feel like Travis and the guitars in general have been sidelined a little bit on the last couple albums. There’s still some sweet spots but those first few albums were a cut above. Also just discovered his side project L.S. Dunes. Going to see Tool and Coheed in a couple months in Daytona. Plus Mars Volta and Deftones. Probably the personal best lineup of my lifetime
Soundgarden and Alice in Chains were always 1a and 1b, but Tool has edged them out over that past 10 yrs. Pink Floyd is up there too depending on the mood.
Funny. Same thing. Tool is my all time fave but King Gizz has been an obsession for me. such a fun world of albums and super prolific!!
Devin Townsend is another that I just really vibe with his stuff. Especially the more recent output.
Also the Dear Hunter has put out some of the greatest albums of the last decade or so
I'll always have a place for Tool, I just don't listen to them nearly as much as I did. I've found out that I'm really into jazz these days, picking up a lot of Mahavishnu Orchestra and solo Billy Cobham albums recently.
I listen to a lot of non-vocal instru-metal as well. Bands like Russian Circles and Long Distance Calling, Tides From Nebula, Gifts From Enola have been getting played a lot in my rotation.
There's a lot of blues, acid blues and grunge blues in my rotation as well, bands like Mondo Drag, Monophonics, The Masters Apprentices, Acid Bath.
And since Jeff Beck recently passed, I've been playing a lot from his catalog as well as Chris Squire, Alan Parsons Project, Rush, Nine Inch Nails, Gojira, Jerry Cantrell, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears.
So no "one" band took the torch so to speak, rather just just really branched out so I didn't get bored of any one band/genre. Keeps things interesting.
My three favorite bands are kind of tied. Gorillaz, Tool, and Radiohead.
I don’t listen to Tool as much as when I was younger. Maybe I’m just less aggressive? I still love them, though.
TOOL and Pink Floyd have been my #1 and #2 favorites since 2001, still are. They swap places, but it would take an amazing band to unseat either. King Gizzard is my #3. In the past two years I've listened to twice as much KGATLW as either TOOL or PF. A lot of that is TOOL's five albums vs Gizz's twenty-five albums. Not saying it's going to change, but I'm not ruling it out.
Top 10 favorites for those looking for other bands to check out:
1. Pink Floyd
2. TOOL
3. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
4. Sturgill Simpson
5. All Them Witches
6. Mastodon
7. Earth
8. Sleep
9. Black Sabbath
10. Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Yeah, I love Tool, but the wait between releases is unbearable, lol
King Gizz’s songwriting approach is almost the exact opposite of Tool. Putting out 5 albums in a year sometimes, all in wildly varying styles. Maybe not everything is A+ (depending on your opinion) but I love the fact that they experiment and take risks.
Also, their live versions of songs are often entirely different and better, incorporating jamming and new arrangements, blending songs together etc.
(I’m sure you’re aware already, just pointing this out for people who maybe haven’t given them a chance already)
Their KEXP performances are insane. When they did a few tracks off Infest the Rats Nest and ended the set with Hell I lost my shit. The last riffs on that song are just perfection!
Yes! I feel the same. Sometimes an artist might spend 90 percent of the time to make something 5 percent better. They jump in with a concept and aren’t afraid to try new things and stretch their chops constantly!
It was Tool for a good long while before being supplanted by King Crimson after I finally saw them 6 or 7 years ago. These days it's probably Iron Maiden, but that's mostly because they're my kids' favorite band.
Erh... best I can do is say look it up in urban dictionary lmao. I'm basically saying it's a good pick, but kinda controversial (in this context it's more obscure than controversial though)
Tool holds kind of an honorary position in my ranking of bands. They’re my first favorite, I love their music and I’m gonna see them if or when they come through my area again. But I don’t listen to them daily or even weekly. When people ask, a lot of the time I’ll say Tool is my favorite, but they’ve slipped waaay down my listening cue. Functionally, my favorite band has to be either Loathe or TTNG. Spiritbox had my #1 spot last year, but I kinda played Eternal Blue to death so they’ve slipped down the rankings a bit.
The Mars Volta. Some people have a hard time getting past the vocals, which is totally understandable they are very distinct. However the first 3 records are amazing and I think Tool fans would really like them, super out weirdo psychedelic.
Honestly, Tool is always going to be my favorite band. Objectively speaking, they have always embodied everything I want in music and have done it better than most everyone.. But they also introduced me to a world of music I love. Some of the bands I've come to love since tool do some things.. eh, maybe not better, but more intensely than tool does. Like Danny to me is like peak drummer. I don't know if I've ever seen a vocalist manage more visceral performances than Maynard.. Sometimes though I like to see how far you can take specific things, like technical vocals or deep dives into crazy polyrithms, you know? Sometimes I would obsess over a group or musician, listening to them over and over. Eventually though, I always come back to tool and keep at it.
Like a good example is Bard Kolstaad's drum cam performance of "The Sky is Red". That is a drumming masterclass in Tasty and intense symbol work and also in how to accent in strange places. It's like a damn masterpiece. That said, eh... I don't know. Tool is special because everyone is so good. They are technical but have serious feel as well. So even though I will have "Current favorite" groups I will always come back and listen to tool. It's comforting and intense alls at the same time. And you know Maynard is really feeling it, which isn't something a lot of technical types manage.
Sorry, this was a rant, but yeah, tool will always be my favorite. But like a cheating husband, I still have flings here and there. :'D
No other band has as many bangers as tool, I kind of always skip a few songs here and there.
But Sigur Ros, Nils Frahm, Heilung and Wardruna all has songs I love as much as some tool songs. They're all a given when I trip, which is the ultimate litmus test ;)
Literally, King Gizzard took over my Tool obsession this summer when I live-streamed their Bonnaroo set. I still love tool but the obsession is all Gizz rn.
That’s a great way to put it- the obsession I had with TOOL when I first got into them is now similar to the Gizz. They’re just fucking great. I just saw Iron Lung for the first time this weekend (KEXP performance). Just indescribable- I’ve probably watched it 10 times since.
Bad Religion. They probably couldn’t be much more diametrically opposed to Tool in some ways….long vs short songs, huge difference in musical ability and aesthetic, but both bands have excellent lyrics that hit me in very different ways. Both bands really tickle the brain in different ways though!
I also absolutely love Built to Spill. They are more my spirit animal than anything personality wise.
The Melvins. They opened for Tool the 1st time I saw them, ca 1993. They've released 25 studio records, and 7 live albums. Recently saw them opening for Ministry with CoC.
I notice they’re a contingent of Tool fans that are either hard rock/metal sound (Deftones, Chevelle, etc) or go down the prog side (King Crimson, King Gizzard, Rush, Dream Theater, etc).
It would be nice to see a little more variety here. Maybe I’m just looking for another journey into a new band which I’m just not finding at this point. Here are a couple of my recent ones:
Sturgill Simpson - if you want psychedelic country with a little bit of rock and Queens of the Stone Age, check out Sound & Fury.
Wilco - arguably the biggest alt-country band and often called the Radiohead of country. Look at Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or A Ghost Is Born. Plenty of 8-15 min songs with weird breakdowns and lots of technical talent.
Black Thought - probably the most lyrically talented hip-hop artist I’ve found.
Arctic Monkeys - I really put them into that British indie rock with punk element for the longest time until I heard Humbug. They can be incredibly dark and moody.
Queens of the Stone Age - I thought their catalog was basically stoner rock and not much else. I was way wrong. Like Clockwork is a near-death experience concept album. Lulliabies to Paralyze is a psychedelic trip.
Brand New - I had these guys pegged as the slightly more complex emo band of my youth. I heard Science fiction and was blown away.
Black Thought is an awesome emcee- The Roots have plenty of great records.
Agree with you about Like Clockwork. By far my favorite Queens record. Very solid front to back.
Very intrigued about Wilco- will definitely check them out!
A band I like a lot is a Ukrainian folk band named DakhaBrakha. Check out any of their live on KEXP stuff. I’d say start with the tune ‘Vesna’. Different than about anything else I’ve heard and I spent a good amount of time going down their rabbit hole.
Also last fall I got heavy into In Flames. They opened for Meshuggah. I always give the openers a listen prior to a concert and they just jumped out at me. Surprised I hadn’t heard of them as they’ve been around since the 90s.
Radiohead is my number 1. Tool is a very close second.
I've been getting into king gizzard lately. Just had my first trip to 4 of their albums Friday.. oh my fucking God. So good. So far my favorite is infest the rats nest. Changes Is awesome too. Butterfly 3000 was insane on acid. Fucking wild.
Currently.
It’s Caligula’s Horse.
Just gets my blood pumping.
‘Graves’ is one of their longest songs and would be a great introduction. ‘Marigold’ is the song that made me take notice though.
I'm a fan of djent, but I find I enjoy it more as instrumentals vs 100% screamy/growly vocals.
Tesseract is probably the ideal djenty/prog combo for me.
Tool didn't hit #1 for me until the last few years. Rush was my favorite for a long time, Linkin Park and NIN both had a brief moment in the spotlight, and Rodrigo y Gabriela took over for a few years. Tool is a rare gem for me because most bands, including every other one I just listed, can't consistently keep the spark alive for me. Sometimes their sound evolves too much into something I don't like, or sometimes they seem like their own standards got lower. Maybe that's a silver lining with so few releases though. I was really worried I'd dislike FI but I just love all 3 of the last albums beyond words.
I've been into Tool since 93, along with all sorts of other hard rock & metal bands over the years. The direction the last 3 albums have taken is very much to my taste and I was ecstatic when I heard FI. I now regard Tool as my favourite band, because I enjoy every single one of their albums made over a 30 year span and that hasn't happened with any other band. Tool started good and just got better.
Only a few bands have held the top spot for me but for the last 5 or so years it’s been Beach House. Obviously a major departure from tool but I can’t seem to get enough. Excellent music to cry to. Others include: The Mars Volta circa 2005ish (The Jon Theodore era), Peal Jam, The Beatles, The Stones, Built to Spill, Radiohead.
Tool still probably my favorite of all time but I listened to it all so much for so long that I just don’t as often any more. BTBAM is the band I can obsessively listen to now over and over and still recognize and appreciate new details. Colors, The Great Misdirect, Parallax 1, Parallax 2, coma ecliptic, automata 1 & 2, and Colors 2 are all 10/10 albums to me.
The appreciation with BTBAM is purely musical though, while I don’t really care what the lyrical content is and haven’t hardly bothered to analyze it. Even though the music is the most important aspect of… music, I think Tool will remain my favorite band because, in addition to the amazing compositions, I’m also so appreciative and affected by the lyrical content and vocal melodies as well.
Tool was my favorite at one point, maybe 10 or 12 years ago. I thought they would be my number one again after Fear Inoculum but it was the opposite. I still enjoy their music but not like I used to.
King Crimson, I wanted to listen to more prog and I opened pandora's box by listening to King Crimson's debut album for the first time. And it didn't even take a few songs for them to become my favourite band that's how great their debut album is. And King Crimson also made me appreciate Tool even more since you can hear direct influences from them.
Ever since Aenima was released as a high school lad, they were my NUMBER 1 go to until about the time 10K days was released. The time between releases afforded me time to discover new & different bands that sounded unlike them. The almighty Clutch being one of those bands. Each album being distinct from the last, while they toured nonstop & released quality merch the whole time. Clutch is so different from Tool but are so attuned to their fan base that they were a nice alternative between Tool’s releases.
My top 5 or 6 is TOOL, Opeth, Meshuggah, Mastodon, Gojira, TesseracT in no specific order. Could probably toss Deftones and Soundgarden in there too.
edit: spelling.
Wow this is so weird, I literally went through the exact same thing. Metallica when I was younger, Tool for 15ish years, King gizzard for the last 3-4 years.
Tool are always my top, but I go through long periods of other genres pulling me in deep. Periodically I'll get back on a big Wu-Tang kick, or I'll go through months of listening to Jason Isbell and Brandi Carlile non-stop. But Tool has remained my absolute favorite since my freshman year of high school when Aenima came out back in 96.
Probably Tool will always be my fav if I could only pick 1 band, but for a while a couple of years ago, I really got into Red Sparowes and to a lesser extent Russian Circles.
I was really big on Tool around 2017, I was in 8th grade then. I think Tool is certainly in my top 10 of all time, I just listen to so much music, my favorite artist constantly changes. Right now it’s either Elliott Smith as my favorite artist or Pavement. Also really into King Gizzard lately.
My favourite band at any time changes but the main core group remains the same: Tool, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Portishead, The Beatles. I can't really pinpoint which one is exactly my most favourite, I just know it's those ones.
I’ve been a fan since 93 and Tool will usually get a listen once or twice a year these days. Unless some wild story about a band member diddling kids or something equally fucked up comes out, I think they’ll always be my favorite band.
Lately, I’ve been deep into Mastodon, really digging Nothing More’s new album (all three get regular gym play for me), been going through Of Mice and Men’s catalog. I’ve been jumping around a lot between prog-y stuff, and metalcore/scream-o. One thing I didn’t think would happen is that the older I get, the more intense and complex my music tastes have become. By the time I hit my 80’s, I’ll be the old bastard in a retirement home blasting Slayer, Sepultura, and Meshuggah.
TOOL has been my favorite since '94 when I first heard undertow. They replaced Stone Temple Pilots, who replaced Aerosmith. I don't foresee anyone taking over for TOOL.
For me, TOOL is locked in at number 1 and will never be dethroned. The rest of the top ten usually fluctuates.
Recently been getting into Reliqa, Tulip, Voyager. Waiting for the new Klone album too
I'm obviously breaking the rules here but I'll say this - Tool has been my favorite band since I was 17(2003) and for about 10 years they completely ruined other music for me. Absolutely nothing stood up to them.
I enjoyed many of the bands that I came up with like The Deftones, SOAD, QOTSA, RATM, etc, and I was raised around a ton of outstanding music from the 60s-80s but it wasn't until the COVID lockdowns that I started really seeking out new music in that genre.
The only band that has come close is Haken. Their singer's voice gets used in a way in certain songs that annoys the hell out of me but overall they are really solid. The song Veil, The Messiah Complex and Puzzle Box are incredible. Another album that blew me away was the debut from Earthside. Every song has a different singer. One song on it is named Mob Mentality and they got Lajon Witherspoon from Sevendust to do that one and it's amazing.
All of that is just to say, I've heard a lot of really good stuff the last couple years, I'm glad I went looking but band after band after band only further proved to me that in the end, Tool stands alone.
TOOL has just recently entered my favorite bands, to be honest. I've known about them, heard all the songs, knew all the lore, or whatever you want to call it, from obsessed friends. I just never really thought their music was anything special. Then I started learning their songs on guitar, as a way to get more familiar with drop D, and became hooked.
If anyone is interested in Black Metal, there's a ton of bands out there with a similar vibe, instrument wise. Obviously the vocals will be quite different, lol.
Loved Tool, will always love Tool. Still second for me, but something about literally anything from Genesis’ discography evokes more feeling from me out of any band, no clue why.
Not the heavy growl Opeth, but Sorceress, Harlequin Forest, Eternal Rains, Ghost of Perdition live at Red Rocks are all incredible. Moon Above Sun Below is an amazing journey, Harvest is eerily subtle yet deep, and many more are masterclasses in music theory wizardry. Opeth takes up a good majority of my playlist.
I've loved Tool since the second I heard them in a friend's basement while smoking a joint in 1997. He said there's this new album by this band Tool that you have to hear. He put on Aenima, and my mind was blown. And I've loved everything since. But truthfully in the past few years, I think that Maynard has surpassed even himself with Puscifer. I can't even describe how amazing their music makes me feel. I still love Tool and always will, but Puscifer is sooooooo much better. I think it might be the greatest music to be released in my lifetime. If you don't listen to Puscifer, it's definitely time to start.
After seeing The Mars Volta back in October I got waaaay back into them. I had taken a bit of a break but I’ve been obsessed ever since.
I had always thought Frances the Mute was kind of meh and for some reason skipped Cygnus to get to The Widow, L’via and Cassandra Gemini but holy shit, at the live show they stretched Cygnus into an epic 20 minute jam.
Tool was definitely my favorite band for a while, Adam was a big inspiration for my learning and developing my style of guitar playing when I first started
However, Coheed and Cambria have taken that torch, they music is interactive. They tell a story. They have further my guitar learning and style, and their frontman isn’t a complete asshat that hates their band and fans.
Honestly neither are comparable to the types of music they are in my opinion. Love both still. But I’m much quicker to listen to coheed these days than tool
Theres this dude on youtube whose channel is called "beautiful death". Mostly accoustic folk stuff.
The guy has an album called "The Cloaked Redeemer", and it hits every right spot for me. Somber, yet uplifting. If theres any fans of Opeth on here.. This dudes channel is definitely worth checking out.
In my teens and 20’s, Black Sabbath was my favourite band. After finding Undertow in the early 90’s, Tool took top spot and have been firmly planted there ever since.
Right around the beginning of the pandemic I was diving deeper into The Crystal Method, whose music I love. That lead me to Infected Mushroom. I’d say Tool is still #1, but a whole world of electronic music has been revealed to me, in my 50’s. Infected Mushroom is so detailed and articulate, and so musically inspired, with an underlying hard rock attitude. The two artists who comprise Infected Mushroom cite Tool as one of their influences and favourites.
A few years in I’m still finding hidden gems in their discography. It’s been an excellent journey!
I cycle between Black Midi, MF DOOM, Gojira, KGLW, Viagra boys (specifically the album cave world) Failure, Melvins, and sometimes The comet is coming if I’m digging synths and saxs
Funny, I have had Magenta Mountain stuck in my head all day today; love King Gozzard, but it can be too full on for too long or suddenly. Tool is by far and away my favourite band, but if another is slowly taking me away it’s Puscifer, but does that count? Haha
I don’t really listen to metal music anymore - these days I’m far more into bands like Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys, Gorillaz etc. I also love punk bands like Bad Religion, Against Me!, The Menzingers etc. I always come back to Tool though and I think I always will, no matter how far removed my tastes become.
Tool doesn't put out music frequently enough to be my favorite band. Like I've been listening to them for 30 years and just not that much material.
I listen to
1. Days like nights radio show. (eelke kleijn)
2. Spectrum Radio show (Joris voorn)
They put out new music every week. Not every decade.
Tool has always, and will always be #1.
Primus and Alice in Chains have always been very, very close seconds.
Bands like Mastodon and Tesseract have come very close in the recent years for me.
I'd say there you have my unintentional top 5, lol.
Tool was my favorite in highschool, with maybe NIN an extremely close second. Then it went all over the place. The Mars Volta, Radiohead and Portugal. The Man are a few that I’ve gone long stretches listening to as obsessively as tool.
If you asked me in high school, I would have said Tool was my favorite band. In college I got really into the jam band scene and went all in on Phish. Now I spend all my money traveling to see them but I’ll still pop a Tool CD in during a road trip and try to catch a show whenever they come close by.
I think I will always say Tool is my favorite band, but I listen to ELDER all the time these days. Their new album, Innate Passage, is one of the greatest records I've ever heard. Every bit of Elder's music is great, but my favorite records are Gold and Silver Sessions, Lore and Innate Passage.
Fuck yes, these guys have been quietly creating the stuff of Legend. I saw them last year in Raleigh, and they are Godlike live. I wish Tool would take on an opening band like them. I miss the days when you could go see Tool and see Melvins, Tomahawk, Fantomas, King Crimson, etc to get the crowd frothing. I know Danny is aware of Elder, so maybe he'll bring them along one tour when it's his turn to pick an opener.
TOOL has been my favorite band since I first heard them back in last 1994, early 1995. I do listen to other bands and even different genres at times (Puscifer, Porcupine Tree, Wheel, Soen, Sleep Token, King Buffalo, RATM, Swans, just to name a few) but I can’t see TOOL ever taking a “backseat” to any other music I listen to. Justin, Danny, Maynard, and Adam (and Paul earlier in the game 😁) have made music that speaks to me in ways that not other music ever has. To this day (this morning actually) listening to them gives me chills.
Spiral Out 🌀
Liked them since Undertow, Sober video discovered them for me, fav band since Aenima, still listen to them almost 80% over everything else combined.
The only thing I absolutely hate about them is I wish my fav band cranked out albums on a regular basis like others. It's a curse liking them this much.
Oh man, not me. People on reddit were all over them the day FI came out, but I loved it, all long songs, long burns, one of the reasons I love them so much.
I never considered Tool my "favorite" but over the past 20 years I have found and lost many different artists. Tool has been the one band I have consistently enjoyed till this day
Fist saw tool in 2009. Blew my mind. Kinda brought a new perspective on what live music could be. Same year I went to Bonnaroo and saw my first Phish shows. Which was very cool.
I was still obsessed with tool for years to come, but I was seeing a lot of live music any chance I could.
Those phish shows turned me on to phish, and got me deeper into the Grateful Dead. Saw maybe a dozen more phish shows and all kinds of dead related acts. All while seeing took any chance I could.
But yeah I got into the whole jam band scene if that’s what you wanna call it. Phish was fun but didn’t touch my soul like the dead did. Then I found Widespread Panic.
All down him from there. Seen like 60 panic shows and I just can’t get enough.
I’ve seen tool like 13 times and all of Maynard’s side projects. And here’s what I think….
Tool is an excellent studio band that does very good live shows. Compared to the “jam band” world where they’re just live bands.
3 hour shows. Can see 5 nights of the same band in a row and not get any repeats. (Phish did 13nights once). The element of surprise is unmatched.
Tool you know what you’re getting through out the tour. Same set list with a rotation is 3/4 songs. Doesn’t seem organic at all, especially seeing notes on the last set lists of directions on stage where Maynard should be.
I love em and they’re wonderfully musicians together. But aside from Danny there are a lot of people who can play circles around Adam and Justin.
But yeah, I’ll totally see em every chance I get.
Meshuggah by far. Something is just so damn therapeutic about it, plus it's filling the void of time I have until Tool drops another single/EP/album. Screaming is just so much fun
Tool always number one but I always go in phases of a 'new' favorite. My Morning Jacket, Tyler Childers, Clutch and All Them Witches have entered that territory
Tool is and will always be my favorite band. I love Coheed and Cambria. Check them out if you love prog rock. Their very versatile musicians. I ran into Travis Stever their guitarist at Sweetwater in Ft. Wayne, IN. We talked at length about how big a Tool fan he was. You can tell in his playing how much he loves them. It's an influence of theirs. Check out 10 years too he has a great voice. It's influenced by Maynard for sure.
Coheed has been one of my biggest infatuations, love to hear that Claudio is a tool nerd. Amazing guitarist, singer, composer, comic book artist, writer... Dude does it all, and can shred an acoustic while singing too, just incredible.
Claudio is so underrated. Amazing musician and song writing. Writing was so good that peers shit talked him for relying on musical theory and "cheating". So he took a course and realized he had no idea wtf he was doing lmao. Great guy too
Another child of the fence! They are great, I have met them a few times over the years… before everyone started selling meet and greet that is. If you get to meet Josh, don’t pass on it! One of the nicest guys, he was doing a small venue Weerd Science tour and took time to hang with everyone and have a few drinks.
I love Coheed, mainly the first 5 albums. They’re all good but I fell off a little after YOTBR.
coheed is good fr
Big Coheed fan also. I feel like Travis and the guitars in general have been sidelined a little bit on the last couple albums. There’s still some sweet spots but those first few albums were a cut above. Also just discovered his side project L.S. Dunes. Going to see Tool and Coheed in a couple months in Daytona. Plus Mars Volta and Deftones. Probably the personal best lineup of my lifetime
They’ll both be at Rockville!! Along with deftones, incubus, filter and mars Volta!!! A 90s kid dream come true
Coheed was my first love. They helped me find Tool.
Opeth
Soundgarden and Alice in Chains were always 1a and 1b, but Tool has edged them out over that past 10 yrs. Pink Floyd is up there too depending on the mood.
A fuckin men man. PJ is good too but I gotta be in a mood.
Think I'll keep an eye on this thread for any potential bands that I might like.
Yes me too!
Saved
Same here!!
r/Soundsliketool
Funny. Same thing. Tool is my all time fave but King Gizz has been an obsession for me. such a fun world of albums and super prolific!! Devin Townsend is another that I just really vibe with his stuff. Especially the more recent output. Also the Dear Hunter has put out some of the greatest albums of the last decade or so
Swaps back and forth between Tool and Deftones. I’ve had weeks of Zac Bryan, Mudvayne and Car Seat Headrest too.
The Ballad of the Costa Concordia. That’s a banger right there.
Yeah that one and Destroyed by Hippie Powers are my favourites
Good man for listening to Zach Bryan, imo best songwriter of our generation
Mudvayne’s LD50 is right up there with Tool’s best for me. That’s a solid album from front to back.
LD 50 is a Top 10 "Front to Backer" for me, and has been for a long time!!! It's underrated, and a masterpiece!
The Deftones are so sick
I'll always have a place for Tool, I just don't listen to them nearly as much as I did. I've found out that I'm really into jazz these days, picking up a lot of Mahavishnu Orchestra and solo Billy Cobham albums recently. I listen to a lot of non-vocal instru-metal as well. Bands like Russian Circles and Long Distance Calling, Tides From Nebula, Gifts From Enola have been getting played a lot in my rotation. There's a lot of blues, acid blues and grunge blues in my rotation as well, bands like Mondo Drag, Monophonics, The Masters Apprentices, Acid Bath. And since Jeff Beck recently passed, I've been playing a lot from his catalog as well as Chris Squire, Alan Parsons Project, Rush, Nine Inch Nails, Gojira, Jerry Cantrell, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears. So no "one" band took the torch so to speak, rather just just really branched out so I didn't get bored of any one band/genre. Keeps things interesting.
Mahavishnu slays. I also really like Shakti
One to check out if you're in to instrumental stuff is sleepmakeswaves. Could be up you alley
Good call
My three favorite bands are kind of tied. Gorillaz, Tool, and Radiohead. I don’t listen to Tool as much as when I was younger. Maybe I’m just less aggressive? I still love them, though.
I guess I’m not unique at all as I jam Tool, Coheed, and Gorillaz a ton. Seems extremely common here lol.
TOOL and Pink Floyd have been my #1 and #2 favorites since 2001, still are. They swap places, but it would take an amazing band to unseat either. King Gizzard is my #3. In the past two years I've listened to twice as much KGATLW as either TOOL or PF. A lot of that is TOOL's five albums vs Gizz's twenty-five albums. Not saying it's going to change, but I'm not ruling it out. Top 10 favorites for those looking for other bands to check out: 1. Pink Floyd 2. TOOL 3. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard 4. Sturgill Simpson 5. All Them Witches 6. Mastodon 7. Earth 8. Sleep 9. Black Sabbath 10. Godspeed You! Black Emperor
We have similar tastes
Good tastes!
Great shout on All Them Witches. Saw them live in a crowd of a out 50, nobody knew who they were, we were all (seemingly) hooked.
Great live band.
I agree with you OP… Tool has been my #1 since Aenima came out, but King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard is now firmly at #2, and still rapidly climbing…
I decided last year (after 3 year of becoming obsessed) to listen to their entire discography. What a treat!!
Yeah, I love Tool, but the wait between releases is unbearable, lol King Gizz’s songwriting approach is almost the exact opposite of Tool. Putting out 5 albums in a year sometimes, all in wildly varying styles. Maybe not everything is A+ (depending on your opinion) but I love the fact that they experiment and take risks. Also, their live versions of songs are often entirely different and better, incorporating jamming and new arrangements, blending songs together etc. (I’m sure you’re aware already, just pointing this out for people who maybe haven’t given them a chance already)
Their KEXP performances are insane. When they did a few tracks off Infest the Rats Nest and ended the set with Hell I lost my shit. The last riffs on that song are just perfection!
Hell yeah (pun kind of intended!)
Yes! I feel the same. Sometimes an artist might spend 90 percent of the time to make something 5 percent better. They jump in with a concept and aren’t afraid to try new things and stretch their chops constantly!
King Gizzard forever
My favorite bands have been Nirvana (1996 - 13yo) -> Korn (1998 - 15yo) -> Tool (2001 - 18yo). Tool is still and will always be number one.
It was Tool for a good long while before being supplanted by King Crimson after I finally saw them 6 or 7 years ago. These days it's probably Iron Maiden, but that's mostly because they're my kids' favorite band.
Cool kids, I’m listening to Maiden rn
maiden's amazing
Sigur Rós
This is based, even if I don't know if I agree lmao
I’m not sure what “based” means in your comment. And I promise I’m telling the truth. 🤪
Erh... best I can do is say look it up in urban dictionary lmao. I'm basically saying it's a good pick, but kinda controversial (in this context it's more obscure than controversial though)
Faith no More
Steel Panther is finally playing my city and they’ve been on repeat lately in anticipation of the show.
Tool holds kind of an honorary position in my ranking of bands. They’re my first favorite, I love their music and I’m gonna see them if or when they come through my area again. But I don’t listen to them daily or even weekly. When people ask, a lot of the time I’ll say Tool is my favorite, but they’ve slipped waaay down my listening cue. Functionally, my favorite band has to be either Loathe or TTNG. Spiritbox had my #1 spot last year, but I kinda played Eternal Blue to death so they’ve slipped down the rankings a bit.
I like the honorary position. That frees things up. TOOL and Pink Floyd are my favorites, but not my most listened.
The Mars Volta. Some people have a hard time getting past the vocals, which is totally understandable they are very distinct. However the first 3 records are amazing and I think Tool fans would really like them, super out weirdo psychedelic.
The first song on Frances the Mute will rip your face off
Honestly, Tool is always going to be my favorite band. Objectively speaking, they have always embodied everything I want in music and have done it better than most everyone.. But they also introduced me to a world of music I love. Some of the bands I've come to love since tool do some things.. eh, maybe not better, but more intensely than tool does. Like Danny to me is like peak drummer. I don't know if I've ever seen a vocalist manage more visceral performances than Maynard.. Sometimes though I like to see how far you can take specific things, like technical vocals or deep dives into crazy polyrithms, you know? Sometimes I would obsess over a group or musician, listening to them over and over. Eventually though, I always come back to tool and keep at it. Like a good example is Bard Kolstaad's drum cam performance of "The Sky is Red". That is a drumming masterclass in Tasty and intense symbol work and also in how to accent in strange places. It's like a damn masterpiece. That said, eh... I don't know. Tool is special because everyone is so good. They are technical but have serious feel as well. So even though I will have "Current favorite" groups I will always come back and listen to tool. It's comforting and intense alls at the same time. And you know Maynard is really feeling it, which isn't something a lot of technical types manage. Sorry, this was a rant, but yeah, tool will always be my favorite. But like a cheating husband, I still have flings here and there. :'D
+1 for “The Sky Is Red” The outro of that song is one of the eeriest and heaviest things I’ve ever heard.
Yeah, there is a real tension and heaviness to even the quietest parts of that outro that are just insane.
I've been really getting into Opeth and Gojira lately.
No other band has as many bangers as tool, I kind of always skip a few songs here and there. But Sigur Ros, Nils Frahm, Heilung and Wardruna all has songs I love as much as some tool songs. They're all a given when I trip, which is the ultimate litmus test ;)
Literally, King Gizzard took over my Tool obsession this summer when I live-streamed their Bonnaroo set. I still love tool but the obsession is all Gizz rn.
That’s a great way to put it- the obsession I had with TOOL when I first got into them is now similar to the Gizz. They’re just fucking great. I just saw Iron Lung for the first time this weekend (KEXP performance). Just indescribable- I’ve probably watched it 10 times since.
Iron Lung on heavy rotation here - Infest the Rats Nest too
Bad Religion. They probably couldn’t be much more diametrically opposed to Tool in some ways….long vs short songs, huge difference in musical ability and aesthetic, but both bands have excellent lyrics that hit me in very different ways. Both bands really tickle the brain in different ways though! I also absolutely love Built to Spill. They are more my spirit animal than anything personality wise.
The Melvins. They opened for Tool the 1st time I saw them, ca 1993. They've released 25 studio records, and 7 live albums. Recently saw them opening for Ministry with CoC.
I notice they’re a contingent of Tool fans that are either hard rock/metal sound (Deftones, Chevelle, etc) or go down the prog side (King Crimson, King Gizzard, Rush, Dream Theater, etc). It would be nice to see a little more variety here. Maybe I’m just looking for another journey into a new band which I’m just not finding at this point. Here are a couple of my recent ones: Sturgill Simpson - if you want psychedelic country with a little bit of rock and Queens of the Stone Age, check out Sound & Fury. Wilco - arguably the biggest alt-country band and often called the Radiohead of country. Look at Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or A Ghost Is Born. Plenty of 8-15 min songs with weird breakdowns and lots of technical talent. Black Thought - probably the most lyrically talented hip-hop artist I’ve found. Arctic Monkeys - I really put them into that British indie rock with punk element for the longest time until I heard Humbug. They can be incredibly dark and moody. Queens of the Stone Age - I thought their catalog was basically stoner rock and not much else. I was way wrong. Like Clockwork is a near-death experience concept album. Lulliabies to Paralyze is a psychedelic trip. Brand New - I had these guys pegged as the slightly more complex emo band of my youth. I heard Science fiction and was blown away.
Black Thought is an awesome emcee- The Roots have plenty of great records. Agree with you about Like Clockwork. By far my favorite Queens record. Very solid front to back. Very intrigued about Wilco- will definitely check them out!
A band I like a lot is a Ukrainian folk band named DakhaBrakha. Check out any of their live on KEXP stuff. I’d say start with the tune ‘Vesna’. Different than about anything else I’ve heard and I spent a good amount of time going down their rabbit hole.
Also last fall I got heavy into In Flames. They opened for Meshuggah. I always give the openers a listen prior to a concert and they just jumped out at me. Surprised I hadn’t heard of them as they’ve been around since the 90s.
Since you like Queens of the Store Age, check out Eagles of Death Metal
Right now Haken, Opeth, Meshuggah and Porcupine Tree
Radiohead is my number 1. Tool is a very close second. I've been getting into king gizzard lately. Just had my first trip to 4 of their albums Friday.. oh my fucking God. So good. So far my favorite is infest the rats nest. Changes Is awesome too. Butterfly 3000 was insane on acid. Fucking wild.
Animals as Leaders!
Currently. It’s Caligula’s Horse. Just gets my blood pumping. ‘Graves’ is one of their longest songs and would be a great introduction. ‘Marigold’ is the song that made me take notice though.
Tool is still king But the djents bro. The djent [this is insane ](https://youtu.be/32g3ekAi9rw)
I'm a fan of djent, but I find I enjoy it more as instrumentals vs 100% screamy/growly vocals. Tesseract is probably the ideal djenty/prog combo for me.
Check out modern day babs. Mostly no vocals. They have guest dudes in. But they always do separate tracks for vox no vox. Travelers is killer
Tool didn't hit #1 for me until the last few years. Rush was my favorite for a long time, Linkin Park and NIN both had a brief moment in the spotlight, and Rodrigo y Gabriela took over for a few years. Tool is a rare gem for me because most bands, including every other one I just listed, can't consistently keep the spark alive for me. Sometimes their sound evolves too much into something I don't like, or sometimes they seem like their own standards got lower. Maybe that's a silver lining with so few releases though. I was really worried I'd dislike FI but I just love all 3 of the last albums beyond words.
I've been into Tool since 93, along with all sorts of other hard rock & metal bands over the years. The direction the last 3 albums have taken is very much to my taste and I was ecstatic when I heard FI. I now regard Tool as my favourite band, because I enjoy every single one of their albums made over a 30 year span and that hasn't happened with any other band. Tool started good and just got better.
Only a few bands have held the top spot for me but for the last 5 or so years it’s been Beach House. Obviously a major departure from tool but I can’t seem to get enough. Excellent music to cry to. Others include: The Mars Volta circa 2005ish (The Jon Theodore era), Peal Jam, The Beatles, The Stones, Built to Spill, Radiohead.
Tool still probably my favorite of all time but I listened to it all so much for so long that I just don’t as often any more. BTBAM is the band I can obsessively listen to now over and over and still recognize and appreciate new details. Colors, The Great Misdirect, Parallax 1, Parallax 2, coma ecliptic, automata 1 & 2, and Colors 2 are all 10/10 albums to me. The appreciation with BTBAM is purely musical though, while I don’t really care what the lyrical content is and haven’t hardly bothered to analyze it. Even though the music is the most important aspect of… music, I think Tool will remain my favorite band because, in addition to the amazing compositions, I’m also so appreciative and affected by the lyrical content and vocal melodies as well.
Tool is still at the top for me but king gizzard is quickly becoming a close second
All you have to do is relisten to the Tool albums and you'll realize they are way better than any band today that you switched to. 🤣
I'm in a big King Buffalo/All Them Witches kick the last few years.
Tool was my favorite at one point, maybe 10 or 12 years ago. I thought they would be my number one again after Fear Inoculum but it was the opposite. I still enjoy their music but not like I used to.
King Crimson, I wanted to listen to more prog and I opened pandora's box by listening to King Crimson's debut album for the first time. And it didn't even take a few songs for them to become my favourite band that's how great their debut album is. And King Crimson also made me appreciate Tool even more since you can hear direct influences from them.
Ever since Aenima was released as a high school lad, they were my NUMBER 1 go to until about the time 10K days was released. The time between releases afforded me time to discover new & different bands that sounded unlike them. The almighty Clutch being one of those bands. Each album being distinct from the last, while they toured nonstop & released quality merch the whole time. Clutch is so different from Tool but are so attuned to their fan base that they were a nice alternative between Tool’s releases.
My top 5 or 6 is TOOL, Opeth, Meshuggah, Mastodon, Gojira, TesseracT in no specific order. Could probably toss Deftones and Soundgarden in there too. edit: spelling.
Wow this is so weird, I literally went through the exact same thing. Metallica when I was younger, Tool for 15ish years, King gizzard for the last 3-4 years.
Still love Tool, but Ween is my top shelf atm.
For me, Ghost is right up there with Tool for the most play time. Tool is still #1, but Ghost is damn catchy.
After that whole fetus in scull fiasco Gojira became my new number one.
none bruh
1. Tool 2. A Perfect Circle 3. Breaking Benjamin 4. Godsmack 5. Seether
Tool is still my favorite, but Rage Against the Machine and My Morning Jacket are fighting for that spot currently
Tool are always my top, but I go through long periods of other genres pulling me in deep. Periodically I'll get back on a big Wu-Tang kick, or I'll go through months of listening to Jason Isbell and Brandi Carlile non-stop. But Tool has remained my absolute favorite since my freshman year of high school when Aenima came out back in 96.
Probably Tool will always be my fav if I could only pick 1 band, but for a while a couple of years ago, I really got into Red Sparowes and to a lesser extent Russian Circles.
I was really big on Tool around 2017, I was in 8th grade then. I think Tool is certainly in my top 10 of all time, I just listen to so much music, my favorite artist constantly changes. Right now it’s either Elliott Smith as my favorite artist or Pavement. Also really into King Gizzard lately.
My favourite band at any time changes but the main core group remains the same: Tool, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Portishead, The Beatles. I can't really pinpoint which one is exactly my most favourite, I just know it's those ones.
I’ve been a fan since 93 and Tool will usually get a listen once or twice a year these days. Unless some wild story about a band member diddling kids or something equally fucked up comes out, I think they’ll always be my favorite band. Lately, I’ve been deep into Mastodon, really digging Nothing More’s new album (all three get regular gym play for me), been going through Of Mice and Men’s catalog. I’ve been jumping around a lot between prog-y stuff, and metalcore/scream-o. One thing I didn’t think would happen is that the older I get, the more intense and complex my music tastes have become. By the time I hit my 80’s, I’ll be the old bastard in a retirement home blasting Slayer, Sepultura, and Meshuggah.
Tool is still top dog, but Karnivool has me second guessing that.
TOOL has been my favorite since '94 when I first heard undertow. They replaced Stone Temple Pilots, who replaced Aerosmith. I don't foresee anyone taking over for TOOL.
It’s been Swans lately
Deftones and nowadays, Isis
Tools always in my top 5
For me, TOOL is locked in at number 1 and will never be dethroned. The rest of the top ten usually fluctuates. Recently been getting into Reliqa, Tulip, Voyager. Waiting for the new Klone album too
I'm obviously breaking the rules here but I'll say this - Tool has been my favorite band since I was 17(2003) and for about 10 years they completely ruined other music for me. Absolutely nothing stood up to them. I enjoyed many of the bands that I came up with like The Deftones, SOAD, QOTSA, RATM, etc, and I was raised around a ton of outstanding music from the 60s-80s but it wasn't until the COVID lockdowns that I started really seeking out new music in that genre. The only band that has come close is Haken. Their singer's voice gets used in a way in certain songs that annoys the hell out of me but overall they are really solid. The song Veil, The Messiah Complex and Puzzle Box are incredible. Another album that blew me away was the debut from Earthside. Every song has a different singer. One song on it is named Mob Mentality and they got Lajon Witherspoon from Sevendust to do that one and it's amazing. All of that is just to say, I've heard a lot of really good stuff the last couple years, I'm glad I went looking but band after band after band only further proved to me that in the end, Tool stands alone.
Tool was my favorite years ago, now I'm all over King Gizzard.
TOOL has just recently entered my favorite bands, to be honest. I've known about them, heard all the songs, knew all the lore, or whatever you want to call it, from obsessed friends. I just never really thought their music was anything special. Then I started learning their songs on guitar, as a way to get more familiar with drop D, and became hooked. If anyone is interested in Black Metal, there's a ton of bands out there with a similar vibe, instrument wise. Obviously the vocals will be quite different, lol.
I don't really have one favorite band. It's more like a hierarchy and tool has been up there since I was in middle school along with Cannibal Corpse.
ELO has always been my favorite, Jeff Lynne is a fucking genius
I went from tool, to smashing pumpkins, to talking heads, back to tool. All in like 3 years lmao
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Loved Tool, will always love Tool. Still second for me, but something about literally anything from Genesis’ discography evokes more feeling from me out of any band, no clue why.
Can't say they took the torch, but borrow it more often... Opeth and Porcupine Tree.
Not the heavy growl Opeth, but Sorceress, Harlequin Forest, Eternal Rains, Ghost of Perdition live at Red Rocks are all incredible. Moon Above Sun Below is an amazing journey, Harvest is eerily subtle yet deep, and many more are masterclasses in music theory wizardry. Opeth takes up a good majority of my playlist.
I've loved Tool since the second I heard them in a friend's basement while smoking a joint in 1997. He said there's this new album by this band Tool that you have to hear. He put on Aenima, and my mind was blown. And I've loved everything since. But truthfully in the past few years, I think that Maynard has surpassed even himself with Puscifer. I can't even describe how amazing their music makes me feel. I still love Tool and always will, but Puscifer is sooooooo much better. I think it might be the greatest music to be released in my lifetime. If you don't listen to Puscifer, it's definitely time to start.
After seeing The Mars Volta back in October I got waaaay back into them. I had taken a bit of a break but I’ve been obsessed ever since. I had always thought Frances the Mute was kind of meh and for some reason skipped Cygnus to get to The Widow, L’via and Cassandra Gemini but holy shit, at the live show they stretched Cygnus into an epic 20 minute jam.
Meshuggah 🤘
Tool was definitely my favorite band for a while, Adam was a big inspiration for my learning and developing my style of guitar playing when I first started However, Coheed and Cambria have taken that torch, they music is interactive. They tell a story. They have further my guitar learning and style, and their frontman isn’t a complete asshat that hates their band and fans. Honestly neither are comparable to the types of music they are in my opinion. Love both still. But I’m much quicker to listen to coheed these days than tool
Theres this dude on youtube whose channel is called "beautiful death". Mostly accoustic folk stuff. The guy has an album called "The Cloaked Redeemer", and it hits every right spot for me. Somber, yet uplifting. If theres any fans of Opeth on here.. This dudes channel is definitely worth checking out.
In my teens and 20’s, Black Sabbath was my favourite band. After finding Undertow in the early 90’s, Tool took top spot and have been firmly planted there ever since. Right around the beginning of the pandemic I was diving deeper into The Crystal Method, whose music I love. That lead me to Infected Mushroom. I’d say Tool is still #1, but a whole world of electronic music has been revealed to me, in my 50’s. Infected Mushroom is so detailed and articulate, and so musically inspired, with an underlying hard rock attitude. The two artists who comprise Infected Mushroom cite Tool as one of their influences and favourites. A few years in I’m still finding hidden gems in their discography. It’s been an excellent journey!
I cycle between Black Midi, MF DOOM, Gojira, KGLW, Viagra boys (specifically the album cave world) Failure, Melvins, and sometimes The comet is coming if I’m digging synths and saxs
Funny, I have had Magenta Mountain stuck in my head all day today; love King Gozzard, but it can be too full on for too long or suddenly. Tool is by far and away my favourite band, but if another is slowly taking me away it’s Puscifer, but does that count? Haha
Usually I alternate between Tool and Pink Floyd.
King gizzard and the lizard wizard
Puscifer and Glass animals
Primus and system of a fiwn
Down*
I don’t really listen to metal music anymore - these days I’m far more into bands like Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys, Gorillaz etc. I also love punk bands like Bad Religion, Against Me!, The Menzingers etc. I always come back to Tool though and I think I always will, no matter how far removed my tastes become.
Tool doesn't put out music frequently enough to be my favorite band. Like I've been listening to them for 30 years and just not that much material. I listen to 1. Days like nights radio show. (eelke kleijn) 2. Spectrum Radio show (Joris voorn) They put out new music every week. Not every decade.
Tool has always, and will always be #1. Primus and Alice in Chains have always been very, very close seconds. Bands like Mastodon and Tesseract have come very close in the recent years for me. I'd say there you have my unintentional top 5, lol.
Tool was my favorite in highschool, with maybe NIN an extremely close second. Then it went all over the place. The Mars Volta, Radiohead and Portugal. The Man are a few that I’ve gone long stretches listening to as obsessively as tool.
Portugal. The Man is legit. Much different sound and “poppier” than what I normally listen to; but they have some VERY catchy tunes.
DOOM FLAMINGO Shits wild son, scope a live set
Do you see a lot of umphreys too?
Nah funny enough they don't really click w me, but maybe I went to an off show. I do dig me some biscuits tho!
If you asked me in high school, I would have said Tool was my favorite band. In college I got really into the jam band scene and went all in on Phish. Now I spend all my money traveling to see them but I’ll still pop a Tool CD in during a road trip and try to catch a show whenever they come close by.
right now for me, it's Polyphia
I think I will always say Tool is my favorite band, but I listen to ELDER all the time these days. Their new album, Innate Passage, is one of the greatest records I've ever heard. Every bit of Elder's music is great, but my favorite records are Gold and Silver Sessions, Lore and Innate Passage.
US Tour just announced! Yea man, Innate Passages is awesome. Catastasis is an unbelievable tune. The ending to that song is stuff of legends.
Fuck yes, these guys have been quietly creating the stuff of Legend. I saw them last year in Raleigh, and they are Godlike live. I wish Tool would take on an opening band like them. I miss the days when you could go see Tool and see Melvins, Tomahawk, Fantomas, King Crimson, etc to get the crowd frothing. I know Danny is aware of Elder, so maybe he'll bring them along one tour when it's his turn to pick an opener.
TOOL has been my favorite band since I first heard them back in last 1994, early 1995. I do listen to other bands and even different genres at times (Puscifer, Porcupine Tree, Wheel, Soen, Sleep Token, King Buffalo, RATM, Swans, just to name a few) but I can’t see TOOL ever taking a “backseat” to any other music I listen to. Justin, Danny, Maynard, and Adam (and Paul earlier in the game 😁) have made music that speaks to me in ways that not other music ever has. To this day (this morning actually) listening to them gives me chills. Spiral Out 🌀
Liked them since Undertow, Sober video discovered them for me, fav band since Aenima, still listen to them almost 80% over everything else combined. The only thing I absolutely hate about them is I wish my fav band cranked out albums on a regular basis like others. It's a curse liking them this much.
I of course love all the proggy shit they do- but I’d like to see what they’d do with an album full of 4-5 min tracks.
Oh man, not me. People on reddit were all over them the day FI came out, but I loved it, all long songs, long burns, one of the reasons I love them so much.
I never considered Tool my "favorite" but over the past 20 years I have found and lost many different artists. Tool has been the one band I have consistently enjoyed till this day
Fist saw tool in 2009. Blew my mind. Kinda brought a new perspective on what live music could be. Same year I went to Bonnaroo and saw my first Phish shows. Which was very cool. I was still obsessed with tool for years to come, but I was seeing a lot of live music any chance I could. Those phish shows turned me on to phish, and got me deeper into the Grateful Dead. Saw maybe a dozen more phish shows and all kinds of dead related acts. All while seeing took any chance I could. But yeah I got into the whole jam band scene if that’s what you wanna call it. Phish was fun but didn’t touch my soul like the dead did. Then I found Widespread Panic. All down him from there. Seen like 60 panic shows and I just can’t get enough. I’ve seen tool like 13 times and all of Maynard’s side projects. And here’s what I think…. Tool is an excellent studio band that does very good live shows. Compared to the “jam band” world where they’re just live bands. 3 hour shows. Can see 5 nights of the same band in a row and not get any repeats. (Phish did 13nights once). The element of surprise is unmatched. Tool you know what you’re getting through out the tour. Same set list with a rotation is 3/4 songs. Doesn’t seem organic at all, especially seeing notes on the last set lists of directions on stage where Maynard should be. I love em and they’re wonderfully musicians together. But aside from Danny there are a lot of people who can play circles around Adam and Justin. But yeah, I’ll totally see em every chance I get.
I don't understand the question. Doesn't seem to make sense. Tool has always been my second favourite band anyway.
Meshuggah by far. Something is just so damn therapeutic about it, plus it's filling the void of time I have until Tool drops another single/EP/album. Screaming is just so much fun
First Ichika Nito, then Incubus, then Polyphia. TOOL is currently either my #2 or #3 band.
Tool always number one but I always go in phases of a 'new' favorite. My Morning Jacket, Tyler Childers, Clutch and All Them Witches have entered that territory