Recommend me music similar to that of Tool?
G'day,
Like most people I suspect, when I'm working I love having music on in the background.
One of my go-tos is Tool (and A Perfect Circle) because it offers the perfect mix of "wall of sound", great clear vocals, sharp interesting drumming, and guitar work that slaps and moves around instead of playing the same sound over and over again (also I am not a musician so I have no idea what the proper technical terms are for these things).
I stick YouTube Music on a Tool Mix and it's a pretty bad selection with a heap of stuff I really don't enjoy (I dislike growly or screamy voices, sad muddy instruments, or where the "wall of sound" is basically just feedback that drones on and on, etc).
I've tried going with "prog metal" and "prog rock" and "alt metal" as genres but that seems to cover a LOT of variation. No matter how many thumbs down I give there's always the screamy dudes and high pitched guitar whining popping back up.
Are there any bands that are Tool-like I can seed my selection with? The big focus being if there's vocals you can actually hear and understand them, distinct instruments that are actually playing a tune, and drumming that does something more than just maintain a beat in the background.
Some other bands I enjoy that I feel are similar enough are My Sleeping Karma, Kadavar, Witchcraft, Smote, and Riverside.
Perhaps go back to the fundamentals:
Rush
Yes
Hocus Pocus, by Focus (lol ok not really but get yer yodel on)
don’t forget king crimson!
While I enjoy Tool/APC (especially APC) they're a slight divergence from my usual likes and our tastes definitely diverge a lot, but given your description and other bands enjoyed, maybe you'd like Devin Townsend Project, Soen and/or Porcupine Tree? These I find interesting, have a nice full sound, lots of interesting parts, and mostly keep away from the things you dislike (at least, in my perception)
I think plenty of Tool fans crossover with a lot of the things you don't like which is why that happens. The sphere of bands Tool often is found in contains a lot of those. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I get that it makes it more difficult when everything "similar" recommended just falls outside the bounds of what you're into
Also +1 to Rush
It’s more A Perfect Circle-y, but I really like Soen. The vocalist especially sounds a ton like Maynard, to me anyway, and they overall have a similar sort of feel to them.
I think you'd really like Incubus. They share deep roots with Tool and APC.
These are my three specific track recommendations:
Apologies in advance, they're from three different albums. But they're all on YT nowadays, so they should be easy to find. Give them a listen and seed them if you think it fits your vibe.
(I think they'll fit your vibe)
Enjoyed Incubus when I was younger, and then when I got older and learned more about music I was surprised at their implementation of time signature changes. Like obviously this isn't Tool level, but caught me off guard when nice to Know You came on the radio with the alternate 3/4-4/4 bars and I was like wait what?
I've seen Incubus in concert 7 times now. Guitarist Mike Einziger may not play the fastest or have super technical solos or whatever but the guy is an absolute musical genius. Also, listening to their albums, you might think there are a lot of electronic sounds that they can't reproduce live. I was one of those people, and I was wrong. Mike operates a massive pedal board to give us many of these sounds and they have a DJ to fill in the gaps. And then there's Brandon Boyd who may start out a little shaky on vocals as he's getting older but after he warms up (and takes his shirt off) will hit every note and sound amazing.
Certainly not what this thread is about but - watching the music video to Drive as a kid and seeing him shirtless was the first time in my life I ever thought about the same sex in a...uh...different way.
I'm a straight man, but I like to cheer and scream along with everyone else when he does it. And he always does.
What about The Contortionist? Tesseract? Sleep Token? Are these the bands you are looking for?
Given the parameters of no harsh vocals, I’m going to narrow this down to a couple specific albums from these groups:
TesseracT’s album “Altered State” (100% clean vocals, really proggy vibes)
and
The Contortionist’s album “Clairvoyant” (not quite 100% clean vocals but much less prevalent harsh vocals than the rest of their discography)
and
Sleep Token’s most recent album “Even in Arcadia” is probably the safest bet from their discography, but probably the weakest of these three choices overall. IMO the later you get in their discography, the less heavy they get, but also the less proggy they get, so it’s kind of a double edged sword. The other two albums here would probably suit OP’s interests better, I think?
Ha! Those are the only albums of those bands that I listen to. Actually, I also listen to Sleep Token's Take me Back to Eden as well, but I generally avoid the most scream-y tracks (except for the title track, of course), but yes, you read me from a mile away.
Edit: I'll throw one more in - Embryo by Altesia. Clean, proggy, hard, mathy.
if you haven’t listened to King Crimson yet their catalog goes from “traditional” prog right up into “modern” prog with a few lineup changes. Danny played with the reformed KC years ago and recently did another themed tour celebrating their “beat” album era.
otherwise i’d actually suggest some of the post rock/jazz of the early aughts like Tortoise, The From Carnation, early Mogwai (they got a little too pop for me), Slint, June of 44, Shellac & maybe even Battles
there’s also tons of kraut rock which influenced Danny and the rest of tool such as CAN, Faust, Neu!, Amon Duul & Gong
i’ve always suggested SWANS as another beat of a band to get into for anyone into Tool
I was about to recommend King Crimson too. Well worth checking out, especially because of the influence of KC on Danny.
I was a big Chevelle fan but fell off after the Vena Sera album, but thanks to this comment I'm gonna have to go check em out again. Thanks!
YUUGE s a newer band that sounds very similar, I also found Kingdom of Giants to have a very similar song architecture, but they scream, a lot.
TOOL has very strong grunge roots, and I have had the best experience finding TOOL-likes by expanding the criteria and listening to grunge. Baardvader and Robot God, both of their first albums are great, but they tend to be more psychedelic grunge. Baardvader sounds a lot like Alice in Chains.
I used to think that Chevelle had Tool-esque vibes, due to this. Haven't listened to them in a couple decades though. Looks like they're still around, but I lost track of them after the Wonder What's Next album.
Give Haken a try. I listen to them at work for more or less the same criteria you have. Fauna is proably their most Tool-like album.
Riverside
Thrice
Psychostick
King Gizzard - Polygondwanaland (conceptual, polyrhythmic)
Henge - DNA (polyrhythmic, colorful)
The Dear Hunter - Antimai (conceptual, upbeat)
Danny Carey had a jazz side project called Volto that I thought sounded a lot like Tool, only without vocals.
Om - Advaitic Songs
Black Pyramid
I'm going to add another "band that doesn't really sound like Tool" because it reminded me of Tool in some ways. However depending on what things you like about Tool, you may not enjoy this at all.
Wolf People were an English psychedelic progrock-folkrock band, and although I generally really dislike folk and folk rock, their album Fain sounded to me a bit like some English folk version of Tool. Your mileage may vary, but I think it's a great album, if you don't insist on the raw metal drive that is present on earlier Tool albums.
Does there have to be singing? The music I most associate with Tool is actually Post-Rock. The genre can definitely be a bit too drone-y in the wall of sounds, but there's also a lot of bands that do more melodic tunes.
Explosions in the Sky - Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean is what I'd particularly suggestion trying out because of the drumming - not Danny Carey technical level, but great song-writing of the drums rather than just keeping a beat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIATvAcEoEU
Also like Tool, top-3 concert I've ever been to (La Dipuste being the other)
And if we are going to talk post rock the generally assumed rulers of that genre, rightfully to my mind, are Godspeed You Black Emperor. Perhaps start with Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada or F#A#infinity. Absolutely incredible music.
I could certainly see being into Tool and GYBE.
...
godspeedare stunning but i can't associate the impressionistic smear of their analog soundscapes with the likes of tool's technical virtuosity, not even anthem for no state part III which is about as rock asgodspeed you! black emperorgets...(contender for the best concert i've ever witnessed, though)
Yea they were one of the bands I was thinking about in terms of being too drone-y to suggest with what OP wanted from Tool. Definitely love them and agree on being an awesome concert though.
...at the risk of stating the obvious, have you listened to puscifer?..
...they're not quite as squalid as tool, but you may enjoy the likes of OSI or dream theatre; someone mentioned porcupine tree upthread but be sure to check out steven wilson's solo oeuvre as well...
...for that matter, if you have access to siriusXM, steven wilson hosts a great progressive music program each month which really surveys the breadth of the genre and offers a fantasic mechansim for discovering new music...
While I wouldn't say any of these bands really sound like Tool, I think they fit the requirements you gave. Polyphia and Scale The Summit are both instrumental metal, so no harsh vocals (no vocals at all except when Polyphia has a guest artist). They also are both pretty technical, so lots of non-repetitive elements in songs. And Caligula's Horse also has clean vocals and at least for me meets the "distinct instruments that are actually playing a tune" requirement.
Lucid Planet : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfvxX9u04so
Karnivool : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q0hQaoHStE
Voivod might be worth checking out
Update:
According to YouTube Music likes and last.fm scrobbles, these are the bands that I have found which I really enjoy. A combination of those mentioned in this thread, and algo recommendations that appeared along the way.
Hopefully it gives someone else a few ideas if they ever find this thread in the future!
I would call this list of bands "Tool-esque". Some (like Lucid Planet and Kolm) are exactly what I was looking for initially. Some (like Ghost Brigade) can get a bit screamy and that sort of muddy background noise, but there's so much good content they make a fantastic seed for the algo.
And just for fun, here's some other bands I found along the way that I really enjoyed. Definitely not Tool-like in any way, but just great bands I really enjoyed. Witchtower's track "Voyeur" (from album of the same name) is an absolute banger and if I ever go back to the US I'm hiring a T top Firebird and driving around with it on full volume. It just feels like it needs to done.