BY MIKEY MIGO
Song: Hush
Year: 1992
The video is basically the members of the band standing there nude with "Parental Advisory Explicit Parts" signs over their crotches and their mouths taped shut. As it build foam starts coming from their taped and untapped mouths. It ends with smiles. There's not much here visually outside of the underlying point they're trying to get across. For 1992, it's cutting edge. If it were released today it would be very forgettable.
Rating: 6.5
Song: Sober
Year: 1993
I've talked about this video many times before. It's creepy, dark, sinister, and gives a great vibe for what Tool's music provides us. The little stop motion animated man gets out of bed and gets out a box. He struggles to open the box, to never reveal what's in the box. Outside of the visuals being very enthralling and slightly uncomfortable, I've always loved (my perceived) meaning behind the video. I forget the man's name, but he once said that everyone carries their secrets and demons around in a box that no one can see inside of. As the video progresses more creepy creatures are revealed with flashes of the band going crazy quickly intertwined with the great stop motion work that's here.
Rating:9.0
Song: Prison Sex
Year: 1994
The visuals and direction of Tool videos are starting to keep a theme set by Sober. This time it starts with a stop motion creature inside of what appears to be a mental asylum. Pages are ripped from a book as our lead character is tortured and dissembled. If you aren't slightly creeped out by the roaming eye ball in the animated creature then you're a better person than I am.
Rating: 8.0
Song: Stinkfist
This is one of my favorite Tool songs , but not my favorite video of theirs. It's not the same stop motion stuff as the prior two, but the human creatures are just as creepy. The warm colors and choppy motion gives this one a great visual motif. The main character starts to fall apart, but resembles himself. Other characters are in pieces, as the video takes a turn for the even more bizarre. A female figure starts to seduce the male figure as something from outside startles them.
Rating:7.0
Song: Ãenema
Year:1997
Again, one of my favorite Tool songs and one of my favorite Tool videos. The video has a similar male figure from Stinkfist, but less "creepy". The surroundings, directing, and music tone makes up for it. The man carries what appears to be a baby in a blanket that is revealed as a similar little creature from past videos. The creature still is connected to an umbilical cord and starts to embrace water more and more as the video goes on. The human throws a box around that appears to be where the little creature is located. This one is harder to decipher, which says a lot.
Rating:7.5
Song: Schism
Year: 2001
It starts off simple enough with a lot of white and what appears to be a transmitter or something visually similar. It's a man like creature who pulls another figure out. They begin doing odd like human trapeze motions and choreography. It goes back to a single figure who walks on their hands and feet and rocks their head back and forth. It's simple, but visually awesome. It expands to two figures going in unison. One figures pulls a worm like creature from the other's neck. The creatures start to morn together as the cool fire spiral starts to engulf the screen. It ends with the same transmitter looking item. When I first saw this video it creeped me out and while reviewing it for this column, it did the same thing.
Rating: 9.0
Song: Parabola
Year: 2002
It beings as weird window into a Alien's like world. Finally it goes to reveal a wall with a man walking into the scene. It's a meeting as the man is in front of two other suit clad men. He opens a bag and slowly pulls out a knife. He cuts a piece of fruit in half. The men vomit what looks to be feces as they float in a circular motion to make a circle. As the song picks up the motion of the video does as well. We see another stop motion type of figure in the middle of a lot of bizarreness goes on. Tricky makes an appearance in the video touches a tree figure shaped as a face. The story seems to start to evolve around the character Tricky is portraying. He is struggling with the smaller creature and seems to of cut it in half. A leaf that starts on fire engulf the man and it goes into a beautiful imagery collection of from what I recall was the actual album art for this. If not, very similar.
Rating:8.5
FINAL RATING: 8.0
Adam Jones(Tool guitarist) is the man responsible for the visuals and madness of these videos. His video work has taken the music video world by storm and has always been often imitated and never really duplicated. Their videos tell a story only to those that let it. In true art work form, these videos are mainly abstract. This lets you; the viewer, fan, and curious bystander form your own story, opinion, and emotion for each one. I love how after all these years, the videos still have the same lineage with the use of stop motion, warm colors, and overall direction. If you're flipping through the channels and come across a Tool video, you have no doubt who it is and will probably watch in awe for the remainder of the song. If I could change anything, it would be to mix it up a bit more. I'm not saying spoon feed the viewer like 90% of all videos out there, but in color usage, visuals, and things like that. Then again, if there are a dozen more videos of the same nature put out there I'll watch each one and most likely enjoy it's artistic value and musical connections. Be on a look out for "Vicarious" as it's supposed to be the next video released!
|
