Employing dark, violent images and an abstract sonic palette, Tool pummels its listeners with a primal sound as distinct as it is disturbing. With a fixed, fiery glare, vocalist Maynard James Keenan assaults the audience with bone-chilling whispers and blistering hollers of unparalleled hatred and loathing. Behind him, heavy, ominous music swells and gives, building uncomfortable tension that makes your hair stand on end, then releasing that tension in frantic bursts of intensity.