Log #216 - King Crimson To Tool

So the provenance of this week's listening is really via King Crimson. Specifically that band's last 3 albums which were of a style of music I was not really familiar with before. It sounded a bit like Heavy Metal but much more complex and progressive. So Prog Metal is unsurprisingly a term you could apply. But I've also heard the terms Nu-Metal, Industrial-Metal, Alt-Metal and Stoner-Metal. 

I heard that this version of King Crimson (circa the turn of the millenium) had toured with Tool. I can't say I've even heard of Tool before let alone any of their music. Possibly in the distant recesses of my mind I had an inkling they might be some sort of thrash metal band.

So Lateralus was a nice surprise being an excellent album of powerful heavy rock displaying the speed and musicianship of a band like Rush plus the chunky riffs of Black Sabbath = Metallica?

Comparisons are perhaps unfair as Tool do sound unique in my experience. They've only produced 5 albums over nearly 30 years so it won't take me long to catch up on the whole catalogue.

Save for a bizarre sarcastic review in Pitchfork where the music is described as excellent but the score is an appalling 1.9, Lateralus seems to be universally acclaimed. 

Tool - Lateralus

The Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno - Starless and Bible Black Sabbath

Primus - Sailing the Seas of Cheese

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew CD 1

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew CD 2

Steve Hillage - Rainbow Dome Musik

What the hell is this Starless and Bible Black Sabbath? Suffice to say it's nothing like either Black Sabbath or King Crimson. The album, if you can call it that, consists of one 35 minute noisy metal thrash in which I think I counted two chords, and one better single track of very shouty fast metal, but to be honest I wasn't really listening by then. 

The cover is a homage to Black Sabbath's debut album, the music not so much

The trading standards should be on to The Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno about that mis sold album title.

I span the Primus album, again, on hearing them being compared to modern King Crimson (there is a vague connection to both KC and Tool in the music-map below). 

I didn't like it. It's unusual and original in a way although the singer sounds more manic than the guy in The Decemberists and the over intrusive bass punch is straight out of Red Hot Chilli Peppers. No, no, no likey. An acquired taste (one that I probably haven't got time to acquire)?

I return to Miles Davis fairly frequently in my listening. The Bitches Brew album is of course one of his famous jazz fusion excursions from the early '70s. Is it sacrilege to say I enjoy the jazz rock fusion grooves more when Davis isn't playing?