When Tool can on the scene, metal was thought to have been killed by Nirvana. That may have been true for hair metal, but for “metal,” the genre that is known more for its melodic ferocity than the outfits and sexual conquests of its band members, there was still some life courtesy of Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. Tool, perhaps the heaviest of the successful mainstream metal acts, created a buzz thanks to its creepy, stop-motion videos and the ability to make music catchy enough to hit the airwaves despite having a title like “Prison Sex.”
The follow-up to Undertow was one of the most anticipated releases of 1996. For most fans, it wasn’t a question of whether Aenima was going to be good, it was a question of how good. Already having a panache for reserving their most disturbing song title for their catchiest song, “Stinkfist” hammers you with an inescapably brutal riff from Adam Jones. For a typical metal band, the theme of the song could be dismissed as a juvenile, and the lyrics occasionally reaffirm that (e.g. “Knuckle deep within the borderline / this may hurt a little but it’s something you’ll get used to” … “elbow deep within the borderline”). However, with Tool, there is always a deep well of subtext in most of their songs.
With Aenima, Tool unleashed a blitzkrieg of heady concepts. The loose, overlying theme of the album is change. The album’s title is a hybrid of the word “anima” (Latin for soul) and “enema.” And as anyone who has had the latter can attest, change can sometimes be discomforting. In Aenima, change come via a cataclysmic event of a major earthquake washing away southern 
For such a large, overwhelming theme, Aenima’s lyrics, for the most part, live up to their ambitions. “Eulogy” is an indictment against so-called generation spokespersons. In interviews, drummer Danny Carey said the song is about L. Ron Hubbard. However, lead singer Maynard James Keenan said the song is about making your own decisions. Coming two years after Kurt Cobain’s death, it’s hard not to draw comparisons with lyrics like “Standing above the crowd / He had a voice that was strong and loud / We’ll miss him” and “Ranting and pointing his finger / At everything but his heart.” The indictments are sharp and focused, but Keenan’s solution doesn’t offer much more than vague generalities like “Get off your fucking cross” and “Try to read between the lines.”
The same can be said for the title track. The music is brutally efficient. The lyrics could have easily come from the journal of “Watchmen” vigilante Rorschach’s. Half of the song could be described as the rantings of a left-winged zealot, wishing for “mom” Mother Nature to wash away all the materialistic and shallow people off the face of the Earth, starting with
Arguably the most straightforward song to interpret is “Hooker With a Penis.” Most fans would be flattered to have their favorite band write a song about them, but in this case, the fan (wearing Vans, 501s) expressed concern that Tool were selling out. Keenan ferociously tears the fan a new one, screaming “If I’m the man, then you’re the man and he’s the man as well so you can point that fuckin’ finger up your ass.” Not exactly Tool’s “Ballad of a Thin Man.” Once again, musically, it’s powerful enough to whip up an insta-mosh pit with a few opening bars, but for all its rage, it amounts to little more than a cheap shot aimed at an ignorant fan that probably didn’t deserve a song dedication. Still, “Hooker With a Penis” is one of the most popular crowd pleasers for their live shows, so what do I know?
When Tool rails against the easiest targets in society, they falter slightly, and Aenima certainly has its faults. But when they can focus their bile and match it with their musicianship, they’re unstoppable. “46 & 2,” perhaps the best song on the album, melds all of the concepts in Aenima into an insanely catchy and heavy as hell masterpiece.
The album was dedicated to Bill Hicks, who was also featured in a neat little artwork piece in the liner notes. The 13-minute plus closer “Third Eye” is built around a routine by the late, great comic. The desire to transcend ones limitations is a prominent theme for both Hicks and Tool. With Aenima, Tool elevated metal in the ‘90s to a higher plane. The journey may not have been pretty, but Aenima is a flawed, but defining moment for modern progressive metal.