10 Bands Who Released Genre Defining Second Albums

When Tool burst onto the LA scene at the beginning of the nineties, they instantly offered something new in the alternative music world, with a diversely individual sound of their own. Led by their enigmatic vocalist Maynard James Keenan, Tool’s debut album Undertow (1993) delivered some sublimely unique songs such as Sober and Prison Sex, which were also some of the most leftfield and bizarre MTV hits of the time - due in part to the quirky stop motion animated videos created by guitarist Adam Jones, who also worked in Hollywood as an FX technician.

Tool's second album Aenema arrived in 1995 and completely took what they had started on Undertow, and raised the bar ten-fold. Adam Jones’ videos for the song Stinkfist and the title track received heavy air play on MTV, and their profile was significantly boosted in the US, while also launching them onto the worldwide stage. But it was the development of their style on Aenema that really stood out, as Tool explored a traditionally ‘un-cool’ progressive sound, blended with alternative rock that was executed with a complex virtuosity and considered truly ground-breaking at the time.

The direction taken on Aenema pushed the band well onto the way of their own musical path, which was explored further on their subsequent records - while Aenema also inspired a whole host of bands that would arrive in the following years, and who were clearly influenced by the innovative Tool style.