Spin (10/03, p.107) - "...One of the least likely MTV smashes of the grunge era, and one of the most enduring..."
Entertainment Weekly (5/28/93, p.66) - "...What puts this L.A. band a notch above the rest are better songs and the hints of vulnerability in singer Maynard James Keenan's voice..." - Rating: A-
Entertainment Weekly (12/31/93, p.116) - Ranked #10 in Entertainment Weekly's list of `The Best & Worst Records Of 1993' - "...[a] gristle-free slab of clenched-teeth metal...."
Kerrang (Magazine) (p.53) - "Raw, scathing and often deeply troubled, UNDERTOW is the sound of the tormented human soul..."
Tool: Danny Carey, Paul D'Amour, Maynard James, Adam Jones.
Additional personnel: Henry Rollins (vocals).
Recorded at Grand Master Studios, Hollywood, California.
UNDERTOW is an example of nimble heavy metal in the angtsy/artsy tradition of Jane's Addiction. Tool favors medium tempos, which gives several of the group's songs a modern-day Black Sabbath feel, but fortunately lead singer Maynard James mostly steers clear of the usual quasi-operatic yowling favored by most metal frontmen--he's a remarkably expressive singer in a genre not usually so noted. As for the band's world-view, it's pretty much summed up in the unsentimentally named "Prison Sex": "Do unto others, what has been done to you."