Tool @ Copenhell 2024
I find my lack of faith disturbing
I used to be the biggest fucking Tool fanatic you'd ever meet. I was geeking out about the band for sometimes hours every day, seeking out trivia, analyzing lyrics, preaching their genius to my friends, and effectively spreading awareness about them in my circles, first- and second-hand. In fact, I wouldn't consider it unfair to say that Tool might ascribe a significant portion of their popularity in Denmark to lil' ol' me. Yeah, you're welcome.
Then, of course, things kinda changed, as they do. While my religious evening ritual once was to get high and fall asleep to "Ænima" ('96), its follow-up "Lateralus" ('01), while still a great album, had less of that dark esoterism and absurd quirkiness that had fascinated me about its predecessor. Rather, it was more streamlined, polished, jammed rather than composed, and all-round, well, less unorthodox, shall we say.
Then, another fucking five years passed – which is a long-ass time when you're around 20, lemme tell ya. And "10.000 Days" ('06) saw that aforementioned development continue in the same direction. And after that, as we all know, the band just plain pulled an Axl Rose and didn't put out a new album until long after I'd lost my patience. Especially seeing as how they didn't once pass by Denmark until after I'd moved outta there.
So much so that I didn't even bother listening to their newest album, 2019's otherwise highly acclaimed "Fear Inoculum". That's how much a guy can change (and how little a fan can learn from a song like "The Patient"). As such, my expectations for tonight have been...
Well, actually, and in spite of having seen them twice back in the day after all, I have no idea what I was expecting. But as it turns out, I might as well have been expecting magic.
Tonight, my old favorite band are taking me back to the years when their music kept opening for me like a vast parallel dimension, and they're making me rediscover why I fell in love with them in the first place.
Opener "Jambi", quite possibly the most captivating and versatile track off of "10.000 Days", is a wonderful revisit, catalyzing those same mystical, labyrinthine inner visions and associations from hearing the song for the first time. (And the second, etc.) Adam Jones' two guitar breaks – the first one a darkly arcane delay figure; the second a machine-like, aggressive Meshuggah figure – are genius. The sound, while maybe not as clear as when I saw them in 2006, is still among the best at the entire festival.
What really amazes me, though, are the new songs. While I obviously don't know them – Hell, perhaps exactly because I don't know them – they blow me away all the much more. This is not only the sound of musical mastery; this is the sound of human creativity seeking and transcending its own boundaries over and over. Tonight, my old favorite band are taking me back to the years when their music kept opening for me like a vast parallel dimension, and they're making me rediscover why I fell in love with them in the first place.
In fact, it's not until Justin Chancellor's magnificently sonorous bass chords signal the opening of the world's darkest breakup song, "Schism", that I realize that, oh yeah, "Lateralus" is also an album that exists. I could've been listening to those new songs all night. And how often is that the case at any fucking concert??
The biggest surprises are the inclusions from the band's first LP, 1993's "Undertow". Compared with the newer material, "Intolerance" sounds like punk rock. And I go from standing hypnotized with closed eyes and trying to count time meters to rocking out as if I were seeing AC/DC. In all its stark contrast to the rest, it is a lovely little memento, and it makes for an unimagined stylistic variation in tonight's set. As does even bigger surprise "Flood", its long instrumental first half showing how uncompromising and, well, patient this band is in their songwriting as well as their live performances.
This is not only the sound of musical mastery; this is the sound of human creativity seeking and transcending its own boundaries over and over.
Maynard James Keenan, while not sustaining his much-appraised howl in "The Grudge" for quite as long as he used to, remains one of the world's most unique rock vocalists. His tenor tone is instantly recognizable; his phrasings, ranging from softly fragile to animalistically raw, are as unique as they're virtuosic. And Danny Carey remains one of the world's most unique drummers, playfully complementing and elaborating on the mysterious atmospheres with both gentle tablas and percussion as well as intensely aggressive and technically mind-bending fills.
If you can't at least appreciate the level of musicality that's arguably going on here, you have no qualifications whatsoever when it comes to having opinions about music.
Two points of criticism:
- Like with other concerts this year, one detractor here is that the band doesn't have enough time for songs which I'd otherwise consider essential. At least "46+2" should be mandatory.
- Who in the sweet name of tits goes to a Tool show to crowdsurf?!? Well, as it turns out, several complete fucking ignorants who have 0% clue as to what kind of experience they're in for. As such, during several songs, there's a constant barrage of morons flying around our heads, making it impossible to give a musical wonder the focus it deserves. These must be the people who saw Limp Bizkit the other day.
With that outta the way, though, this is pure fucking magical, mystical majesty. For the last two days, the best shows at this festival have been getting better. How fitting, then, to end with a show that could not be surpassed by anyone. And how fitting to end the show with constantly crescendoing rollercoaster "Ænema" and the tender darkness and lamenting innuendo of "Stinkfist".
I am so sorry, Tool. I am so sorry that I ever doubted your mastery. You are fucking magnificent.
Rating: 5.5 out of 6
Genre: Progressive rock/metal
Venue: Copenhell, Helvíti stage
Date: Sat., June 22nd, 2024
Setlist:
- Jambi
- Fear Inoculum
- Rosetta Stoned
- Pneuma
- Intolerance
- Schism
- The Grudge
- Flood
- Invincible
-
Ænema
- Stinkfist