NOTHING SEEMS TO SATISFY
I SAID I DON'T WANT IT
I JUST NEED IT
TO BREATHE
Ænima
(/ˈɑːnɪmə/ AH-ni-mə)
is the second
studio album
by the American
rock band
It was released on
vinyl
on
September 17, 1996,
and on
cassette
and
compact disc
on
October 1, 1996,
through Zoo
and
Volcano Entertainment.
by the band
and David Bottrill,
the album was recorded at
Ocean Way Recording
in Hollywood
and
The Hook
in North Hollywood.
It is the first album
by Tool
to feature bassist
Justin Chancellor,
who replaced
original bassist
Paul D'Amour
the year prior.
The album debuted at No. 2
on the Billboard
200 chart
upon its initial release,
selling 148,000 copies
in its first week.
It was certified
triple platinum by
the RIAA
on
March 4, 2003.
The album appeared on
lists of the best albums
of 1996
in Kerrang!
and
Terrorizer.
The track
"Ænema"
won the Grammy Award
for Best Metal Performance
in 1998.
In 2003,
Ænima
was ranked the sixth
most influential album
of all time by
Kerrang!
In 2017,
Rolling Stone
listed the album at No. 18
on its list of
"The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time".
Background
Ænima
is Tool's first studio album
with former Peach
bassist
Justin Chancellor.
The title
Ænima
is a combination
of the words
'anima'
Latin for 'soul' and associated
with the ideas of
"life force",
and a term often
used by
psychologist
Carl Jung
and
'enema',
the medical procedure
involving the injection
of fluids into the rectum.
"Stinkfist"
was the album's
only song
to be commercially released
as a single.
A music video
was released for it.
Promotional singles
were issued,
in order of release,
for
"http://H.",
"Ænema",
"Forty Six & 2"
and
"Eulogy",
with just the second
receiving a
music video.
Several of the songs
are short segues
or interludes
that connect to
longer songs,
pushing the total duration
of the CD
towards the maximum
of around 80 minutes.
These segues are
"Useful Idiot",
"Message to Harry Manback",
"Intermission",
"Die Eier von Satan",
"Cesaro Summability",
and "(-) Ions".
Lyrics and themes
The liner notes included
references to
dissociative anesthesia
through ketamine as well as
Timothy Leary,
"futants",
ritual magic,
and religious
fundamentalism.
The band dedicated the album
to comedian
Bill Hicks,
who they felt was going
in the same direction
as them,
and said this album
was partly inspired by him.
The inside cover
displays art featuring
a painting of a disabled patient
that shows a resemblance
to singer
Maynard James Keenan
and
Bill Hicks
depicted as a doctor or
"healer"
with the line,
"Another Dead Hero".
Bassist
Paul D'Amour
worked on
"H.",
as he is credited as
a co-songwriter on
ASCAP's website.
Speculation has surrounded the song
"H."
The "meaning"
of this song has
seldom been detailed
by the band,
as they do not regularly comment
on such matters.
However,
on several occasions,
specifically on
November 23, 1996,
during a show at
the Electric Factory
in Philadelphia,
Keenan did grant some
insight into the meaning of the song.
Speaking to the audience,
he said,
"Any of you ever seen those old
Warner Bros. cartoons?
Sometimes there's that one
where the guy is trying
to make a decision,
and he's got an angel
on one shoulder
and the devil on the other.
Seems pretty obvious, right?
The angel is trying
to give him good advice
while the devil is trying
to get him to do what's bad for him.
It's not always
that simple, though.
A lot of times they're
not really angels or devils,
but friends giving you advice,
looking out for your best interest
but not really understanding
what's going to be best for you.
So it kind of comes
down to you.
You have to make
the decision yourself.
This song is called 'H.'"
The song was discussed live
during a few other shows
around this time,
one example being on
February 23, 1997,
when Keenan introduced this song
by referring to the shoulder
angel and devil,
and also said it is about a
hurtful yet dependent relationship.
In an interview Keenan
gave in December 1996,
he commented,
"My son's name is Devo H.
That's all I'll say."
It is also of note
that the song's working title was
"Half Empty",
as it was introduced during
a mini-tour
of California
by the band in
December 1995.
The track
"Useful Idiot"
features the sound of
the needle skipping
at the end of a gramophone record
growing louder
as the track progresses.
The track was set at the end
of side 1
of the vinyl versions of
Ænima
as a joke to fool those
who owned the version.
The song (on vinyl)
not only ends in a locked groove,
which requires manual lifting
of the needle to end playback,
but also continues on
the run-in groove
of side 2.
"Message to Harry Manback"
features calming piano music
and the background
noises of seagulls
while a profanity-laden message
from an answering machine plays.
The message was left
by an uninvited Italian houseguest
of acquaintance
of a former
Keenan's housemate,
who was irritated at
being kicked out of the house.
The name
"Harry Manback"
is a reference to a
comedy routine by
Bill Hicks.
A follow-up message
from the same guest became
"Message to Harry Manback II",
found on
Salival,
which features strings
instead of piano.
"Hooker with a Penis"
refers to a fan
who accused the band
of selling out after their first EP.
"OGT"
is taken to stand for "
Original Gangster Tool".
Keenan whispers
in the left channel
throughout the song.
At 1:41,
"consume,
be fruitful, and multiply"
may be alluding to Genesis,
which contains the phrase
"be fruitful and multiply"
six times.
During Lollapalooza 1997,
a version of
"Hooker with a Penis"
remixed by
Billy Howerdel
in the form of
lounge music
played over the
public address system
between sets.
During 1996 concerts,
Keenan told audiences
that the song
"Jimmy"
is the sequel to
"Prison Sex",
and how it is about
getting through the abuse.
It is preceded by
"Intermission",
a short organ adaptation
of the opening riff of
"Jimmy".
The fourth segue is
"Die Eier von Satan".
It is introduced by a
distorted bassline
giving way to a heavy guitar,
starting at the :23 mark
and lasting only
ten seconds,
playing a single chord
in Drop C tuning
over a reversed drum beat .
The lyrics are performed in
German
by Marko Fox,
bass player for
ZAUM
and Sex Tapes.
He is backed by a
sound that resembles a
hydraulic press,
and crowd cheering
and applause
that increase in volume
as the lyrics are read
with increasing ferocity,
with the greatest emphasis
on the line
"Und Keine Eier"
("And no eggs")
which is repeated like a catchphrase.
These combined effects
make the song sound like a
militant German rant
or Nazi rally.
While the tone is aggressive,
the speaker is merely reciting
a recipe for a
Mexican wedding cookie.
The song was originally
translated by
Gudrun Fox.
According to
Blair McKenzie Blake,
the maintainer of
Tool's official website,
"Die Eier von Satan"
originally were cookies that
"Marko Fox's
grandmother used to bake
for him as a child,
without using eggs
as an ingredient.
The substitution for eggs
is a magical incantation
from the worm-eaten pages
of some moldering grimoire."
This magical incantation
("sim salabim bamba sala do saladim")
is taken from the German
children's song
"Auf einem Baum ein Kuckuck"
and popularized by
Harry August Jansen.
According to the lyrics,
the special ingredient
besides this
"incantation" is
"a knife-tip of Turkish hashish".
The title is a play on
deviled eggs,
translating to
"The eggs of Satan"
in English or
"The balls of Satan",
due to a German
double entendre of
"Eier".
So far the only time
it has been performed live
in its entirety was on
December 19, 1996,
at the Universal Amphitheatre
in Los Angeles.
The track has been compared
to the works of industrial
and experimental artists
such as
Einstürzende Neubauten
and
Tom Waits.
"Pushit"
was titled as a single word
to emphasize the ambiguity
of the pronunciation in
regard to the "s" word
(push it on me/push shit on me).
An alternate version of
"Pushit"
was performed live,
including an
Aloke Dutta tabla solo,
and appears on
Salival.
The song
"Third Eye"
contains samples of
comedian Bill Hicks.
The title may be a reference to
Hicks' assertions
that psilocybe mushrooms
could be used to
"squeegee [one's] third eye clean."
A goal of the album
as a whole was to
"open people up in some way
and help open their
third eye and
help them on a path."
"Ænema"
makes lyrical references to
Bill Hicks'
set Arizona Bay,
in which the San Andreas
Fault collapses,
purging the continent of
Southern California
and the Baja Peninsula
which would give Arizona
its own oceanfront.
This is further illustrated
in the lenticular map under
the CD tray.
The alternate spelling
for the song emphasizes the
"enema"
portion of the combined title
also used for the album;
in this way,
it differentiates the meaning
of the song
with California's collapse seen as a
'flushing out' for the country
from the meaning of the album
(the "anima" emphasis indicating a spiritual,
Jungian focus for the album
in its entirety)
while retaining the song's placement
as the title track,
though the differing spelling
and pronunciation marks a
different approach
from other Tool albums
that are named
directly after songs
(Opiate, Undertow, Lateralus and Fear Inoculum)
or sections of songs
(10,000 Days).
Artwork
The packaging for
Ænima
was nominated for
the Grammy Award
for Best Recording Package.
North American pressings
of the album were packaged
in a custom lenticular jewel case
(called a "Multi-Image CD case" in the liner notes)
for the cover and
interior disc tray.
The cover art
and other images
in the liner notes
can be set behind
the lenticular
"lens"
to create an effect of
sequential animation.
European pressings
of the CD
featured a
standard case,
and the
insert contained
a catalog of
sixteen fictional
and humorously titled
"other albums available by Tool".
The special images used
for the lenticular effect are:
- Cam de Leon's painting Smoke Box, with animated smoke and encompassing eyes.
- A touched-up version of Cam de Leon's painting Ocular Orifice, with the pupil of the eye animated to rotate completely around.
- A photo of contortionist Alana Cain with her legs wrapped behind her head appearing to be performing cunnilingus on herself. Shown sitting on a couch to the right are Danny Carey (nude) and Justin Chancellor. Adam Jones is squatting next to them while Maynard James Keenan, also nude, gets up to throw a single rose on the ground in front of Cain with his left hand covering his genitals. Another image of the contortionist can be seen on the disc itself.
- An image of California before and after a major earthquake is shown in the tray behind where the disc lies – a reference to the song "Ænema" and the Arizona Bay sketch by Bill Hicks. The inlay image of the US incorrectly depicts the Oklahoma Panhandle with Cimarron County being in the state of Texas. It is unknown whether or not this was intentional.
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