Nice, his hand cannot erase UK tour was great, caught him in London, absolutely great experience. Additional bonus that he included Lazarus and Sleep Together in the set.
I very much agree with you on FOTBP. Anesthetize and Way out of here are my favs from that as well. Deadwing is just great throughout, similarly In Absentia and Stupid Dream, In fact everything from that period, all the EPs as well. That was really his peak at PT in my opinion, far as his personal exploration was concerned, he got set on a style around Deadening as you said, I don't think he has ever revealed whether it was his decision though he usually dictated whatever PT did, but he mentioned that once he got labelled as a prog metal artist he couldn't take it and left. He hates getting labelled on anything.
His solo work is wonderful. I attended the Raven tour as well, what a record.
Definitely agree that the 5 or so years around the turn of the millennium was his peak, he just couldn't write a bad song. He does hate labels, every time you see an interviewer mention the phrase 'progressive rock' you can always see him frown a little. He is right though, why constrict your writing to one genre? His stuff over the past 25 years with all of his projects has been so diverse you really couldn't categorise it. It's the same with a lot of bands too, Motorhead, AC/DC, Sabbath all hate the term metal. Even though it was the latter that started it off. It's all rock 'n' roll to them.
Yeah i check his soundcloud every now and again for obscure stuff. He's a writing machine, i swear.
This!
Man, I haven't listened to Tool in a long time. You've just changed that for me. Thanks
No problem!