"The music of Tool is the dark slime of a warm, black night. Tool is an escape, a subtle revolution of sound and perception. The musical landscape this band crafts…is the fulfilment of life, surreally black and purely haunting."

""This song goes out to," vocalist and songwriter Maynard James Keenan began slowly. And then he paused. And he paused still. And he finally finished, "Joey and Dee Dee." The band jumped into an extremely heavy cover of the Ramones' "Commando," baffling some fans and driving others into an approving fit of screams."

"What can I say about 10,000 Days, really? It sounds exactly and precisely like a Tool album. They might as well have not have released it at all, because anyone who's ever heard Tool could simply imagine what a new Tool album would sound like, and this is exactly what they'd imagine."

"Tool's songs encompassed sullen calm, rapid-fire onslaughts, spacious chords and nimble-fingered counterpoint. Standing room sometimes became a mosh pit. But midway through its two-hour set, Tool chose stasis with a patiently tolling guitar vamp like a mantra. Its fastest music also had a ritual quality, pounding and repeating like drummers in a trance ceremony. Songs that rev up and end abruptly on Tool's albums only accelerated further, riffing harder and harder as if, through furious motion, they could somehow break through Tool's perpetual tension to reach a long-denied release."

"Avoiding self-glorification, the band played in near-darkness under video screens on Monday. Maynard James Keenan, Tool's lead singer, stood on a platform behind Adam Jones on guitar and Justin Chancellor on bass, with his face in shadows, while Danny Carey on drums toiled meticulously by his side."

"Its songs hammer and seethe, melding the lowdown guitars of grunge, the odd meters of progressive rock and the whiplash stops and starts of thrash. Mr. Keenan's sustained, almost androgynous voice hovers within the music, desolate but impervious to the tumult around him."

"First up, "Vicarious": a Dateline Special Report on violence in the news media featuring guest commentator Maynard James Keenan. Excellent! I've been hoping to hear Maynard weigh in on the hottest issue of 1990."

"In an interview with Rolling Stone last July, Jones reiterated how the lawsuit was affecting the band. "It's costing millions and millions and millions of dollars to defend us. And the fans are all going, 'We want a new Tool album. What the fuck?'" Jones said. "But the point is, we're fighting the good fight. We're going to trial and we want to crush them. But every time we've gotten close to going to trial, it gets postponed and we've wasted money and time and it has just drained our creative energy. We bought an insurance policy for peace of mind, but instead we would have been better off if we never had it and just dealt with the original lawsuit.""

"Tool is a fascinating anomaly."

"The video presentation…offered a stunning visual complement to the band's furious sonic assault."

"Wrath and pain, desire and self-loathing, ferocity and meditation all find a complicated balance in Tool."

"And we thought if we could get this to work with our budget, you know, and put this out, it'd be really unique and reflecting, you know, a lot of the artwork that I appreciate from the '70s."

"In the popular musical climate of today, which seems to favor the blandness of processed rap metal or the redundancy of uninspired readymade pop outfits, it is refreshing that a band such as Tool exists to add some much-needed freshness to the contemporary musical landscape."

"Control, your delusion. Insane and striking at random. Victim of your certainty, and therefore your doubt's not an option. Blameless, The 7empest will be just that. So try as you may, feeble, your attempt to atone. Your words to erase all the damage cannot."

"A 7empest must be just that."

"And your death will profit off me"

"[Keepin it calm. Keep calm. Keepin it calm. Keep calm. Keep calm. FUCK. Here we go again]"

"Free fall through our midnight, this epilogue of our own fable. Heedless in our slumber. Floating nescient we free fall through this boundlessness, this madness of our own making. Falling isn't flying. Floating isn't infinite..."

"Judge, Condemn, and banish any and everyone. Without evidence. Only the whispers from within."

"Give him your love, give him your love to save him"

"Psychopathy. Misleading me over and over and over."

"Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here"

"The Deceiver says, he says: "You belong to me. You don't wanna breathe the light of the others. Fear the light. Fear the breath. Fear the others for eternity." But I hear them now. Inhale the clarity. I hear the venom, the venom in what you say. Inoculated. Bless this immunity."

"Father blessed them all with reason And this is what they choose"

"Monkey killing monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground Silly monkeys, give them thumbs, they make a club and beat their brother down How they survive so misguided is a mystery"

"Pneuma. Reach out and beyond. Wake up, remember. We are born of One Breath, One Word. We are all One Spark, eyes full of wonder."

"Angels on the sideline Puzzled and amused Why did Father give these humans free will? Now they're all confused"

"Tears in my eyes chasing Ponce de León's phantoms. So filled with hope I can taste mythical fountains. False hope, perhaps, but the truth never got in my way before now. Feel the sting. Feeling time bearing down."

"You can kill the revolutionary But you can't kill the revolution"

"It was so real Like I woke up in Wonderland All sort of terrifying"

"You believe me, don't you? Please believe what I just said See the Dead ain't touring And this wasn't all in my head"

"I can't remember what they said to me"

"This is so real"

"Liar, lawyer, mirror; for you, what's the difference? Kangaroo be stoned; he's guilty as the government"

"Ten to two a.m., X, Yogi DMT, and a box of Krispy Kremes"

"Work hard Stay in school Listen to your mother Your father is right, son Jesus loves you"

"E.T. revealed to me his singular purpose. He said, "You are the Chosen One, the One who will deliver the message. A message of hope for those who choose to hear it and a warning for those who do not.""

"Set as I am in my ways and my arrogance Burden of proof tossed upon the believers You were my witness, my eyes, my evidence Judith Marie, unconditional one"

"You're the only one who could hold your head up high shake your fist at the gate saying, "I have come home now" Fetch me the Spirit, the Son and Father Tell them their pillar of faith has ascended It's time now My time now Give me my Give me my wings"

"You must have been high"

"You must have been so high"

"Ten thousand days in the fire is long enough you're going home"

"Opening strong with their first hit, 1993's "Sober," the crowd - predominantly made up of younger fans, rabid with anticipation - was rushed into a hot frenzy. Lead singer Maynard James Keenan, as is customary for the enigmatic frontman, loomed in the background with his back facing the audience for most of the show. And as the first few songs let their last few notes fade away, Keenan disrobed, removing various parts of his ensemble, leaving him with nothing more then black underwear and a stripe of black paint on his face."

"Weeping shades of indigo"

"Pure as we begin"

"Here from a wild dream come true"

"But I, I would wish it all away If I thought I'd lose you just one day"

"The devil and his had me down In love with the dark side I'd found"

"The universe is hostile So impersonal Devour to survive, so it is So it's always beenWe all feed On tragedy It's like blood to a vampireVicariously, I Live while the whole world dies Much better you than I"

"Prayed like a martyr dusk to dawn Begged like a hooker all night long Tempted the devil with my song And got what I wanted all along"