Any Tool fans out there.

I think Tool is one of the most original bands today. I have "Undertow" and "Lateralus". Both are excellent. I also have A Perfect Circle - "Mer de Noms", which I like a lot, but I agree with Boa2 - they're too rote. They are none the less a good listen, mostly because Maynard James Keenan is such a great vocalist. He's one of the best rock voices there is.

Tool is great and I think you have started with by far their best album. Aenima is also really good as well as Opiate. This was my favorite rock band of the 90s and I saw them live a few times which was a real treat. I know I may be in the minority but I thought that Lateralus sucked. Super boring and monotinous, missing much of the awesome time signatures and changes of the early stuff, to me it sounds like with the earlier stuff they really sat down together as a band and worked the hell out of a song till it was really something special, but with the newer stuff I get the feeling everyone is sort of just dropping their parts in individually.

I liked as well the first A Perfect Circle album, Mer De Noms. They seemed to get crappier with time as well, maybe I haven't given some of the latest stuff a fair shake, but to my ear Maynard (the singer) just lost a lot of the edge and weirdness he had as a younger man.

Of course it's all an opinion, but it seems with many awesome raw rock bands the more polished they get the more of the raw edge you loved so much about the first albums seems to get lost with time

I have been listening to Tool and Perfect Circle for years now, I agree Undertow is the best by Tool and i prefer 13th step by Perfect Circle. They have been reference discs for me for a while, if a system can reproduce Tool well then most anything else will sound good. Have you guys heard Tool on vinyl? Check out my pic of my turntable. The album you see is Lateralus. I recently saw them in Seattle, they rocked!

I've been a fan ever since my wife turned me on to them a few years ago. She's been a fan since the mid/late 90's. I can't say that I have a favorite CD, though I'm sure she does. Each of the CDs has some great songs on them. She surprised me a couple years ago with tickets to a Tool show, great seats and I remember walking out of the show saying that was a rock show for the new millennium. They certainly jammed, though it's odd watching a band where the front man never steps into the bright lights. Maynard wears a skin tight black body suit that covers every portion of him and sings and jams with lighting hitting him so it looks like a shadow...very strange. He did the same thing at a Perfect Circle show I saw him in; this time he had a wig, but still only in the shadows. I've been told by my significant other, that 10,000 days is the last Tool CD they are going to put out. Maynard is going to focus on Perfect Circle. Perfect Circle, for those not too familiar with them is Maynard's other band where he can explore his more feminine side. GREAT music, but mellower than Tool. They only have 2 studio albums out as far as I know, and while the first was good, I really like the second one, Thirteenth Step. Thought provoking lyrics, great sonics.

Snipes-Perfect Circle has three albums out, their latest is called Emotive. Its a very politically charged album. Their rendition of Imagine is incredible, definetly more aggression in this album than 13th Step. I really like it but i think its less popular than the first two. maynard was dressed as a cowboy for the show i just saw, tight blue jeans, cowboy boots, big belt buckle , no shirt and a cowboy hat. Kind of wierd to see him dress like that, i was hoping to see him cross dress like he use to or maybe as reverend Maynard.