Back in 2015, Maynard James Keenan, lead singer of the band Tool, referred to his own fans as “Insufferable”. With their new album “Fear Inoculum”, and their recent dethroning of Taylor Swift from Billboard’s top 200 chart, I now have a spattering of solid proof that rock isn’t
dead, but festering in its own bloated corpse. Call me old fashioned but I won’t stoop to listen to it. Nope. No way. I don’t need a prog metal act with low tuned guitars and a macabre smile rattling my innards. Especially one soaked in the grossness that is the misogynistic, drugged-out, pretentious LA metal scene. I’m sure without a doubt the riffs are heavy. Heavy enough to jar the masses down to the local mediocre tattoo parlor for a dose of cool tool ink. Heavy enough
to shake loose another lame, black t-shirt from the vine. One that lands squarely on the back pre-drenched with the perfect mixture of eyeliner, tears and shame. Heavy enough to send me into a self induced cough syrup coma until these washed up LA douche rockers slide back under the rock they’ve been hibernating under for the last 20 years. Actually, it is you who is insufferable, Mayard.
– Lee St Clair
Sure, Maynard is a jerk. But Tool is one of my top three favorite bands. Art can be appreciated while acknowledging that the artist is problematic.