Aenima by Tool

This song takes me back to the summer of 1998. I was a graduate student in St. Louis getting my Master's degree and had to spend a summer gathering the data I needed for my thesis at Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico. Academically, the experience was amazing. However, personally it was a real struggle to stay focused when I was 1,200 miles form my fiance (normally we were 400 miles from each other St. Louis to Milwaukee). So finding some new music that grabbed me was just the prescription I needed while down there.

While I was there I met some very gifted students from all over the US and abroad. My roommate went to Vanderbilt and was a super nice guy. Across the hall was a another great guy from Germany who first introduced me to Tool and the song Aenima in particular. Being a drummer, I noticed quickly how awesome Danny Carey was throughout the album.

One evening we all gathered in the German guy's room (sorry, I can't remember his name), and he played the CD again. The song Aenima has some amazing drum parts including the middle section with the triplets. I could not get this song out of my head! Also, the lyrics really caught my ear as well. I was studying to be a seismologist and the song talks about how the material greed will cause the faults in California to sink Los Angeles. A song after my own heart you could say (the seismology references that is).

Now, I am not one for gratuitous swearing in songs but the f-bombs spoken in the middle section absolutely fit the song and the edited version played on the radio loses its bite when played. I eventually fell in love with the rest of the album while in New Mexico and as soon I returned to St. Louis I bought the DC and listened to it constantly for several months.

The curious aspect of Tool for me is that, as great as Danny Carey is as a drummer, I never tried to play their stuff a lot. His style is much different than mine and so I never caught on to playing along to Tool's music. I may do another entry on Forty 6 & 2 from the same album in the future but that is a whole different story. Let me know if this song has any special meaning to you. Thanks.