what year did tool aenima album come out

But when purists raged against the introduction of hip-hop into hard rock, they missed the broader story. This frenzy gave rise to the most maligned musical movement of recent memory, nu metal. Record companies gobbled up new artists, trying to meet the exploding demand for hard rock.

Audiences seemed thirsty for edgy music, and the music industry was anxious to cash in. In 1991, Nirvana and Metallica had unleashed a new kind of aggressive storytelling on the Billboard charts, with Nevermind and Metallica (aka “The Black Album”) each becoming the No. This decision to walk two roads, high and low, helped Tool stand out among the crowded field of crunchy guitars in the early ’90s. I can’t think of a better introduction to this notoriously dense band than that word Ænima lyrically, musically, and especially in the title, the album covers all of the ground between meditations on the nature of consciousness and jokes about poop. Of course, the title of Tool’s second album isn’t Anima, and that’s very important. For their second album, Tool drew on the writings of Carl Jung, Freud’s most brilliant disciple, who gave us the language of introverts and extroverts, the idea of a consciously constructed persona, and the Jungian archetypes, of which the anima is but one. Others have drawn imagery out of the Bible, Norse mythology, or the bloodier epochs of European history. This goes double for horror and fantasy fiction: Led Zeppelin meditated on The Lord of the Rings, Black Sabbath wailed about “The Wizard,” and Metallica thrashed to the monster Cthulu. Many musicians have been influenced by books, but there seems to be something especially literary about the genres of hard rock and metal.

Editor’s Note: This article originally ran in 2016, but has been updated in 2021 to reflect the 25th anniversary of Ænima. This piece celebrates Tool’s acclaimed sophomore album Ænima. Dusting ‘Em Off is a rotating, free-form feature that revisits a classic album, film, or moment in pop-culture history.

What year did tool aenima album come out