10 Best Hard Rock Bands Of The 90s
5. Tool
Every so often, a band comes along that etches themselves in the mainstream consciousness while not sounding like anything else. In the 90's, people tried to define Tool, but the band's mix of different styles did not seem to have a set limit.
Though the band would see future success in the 2000's, the 90's showed Tool as an all-out metallic hard rock act with a pummeling aggression on the album Undertow. Though the band had taken strides in terms of musical complexity, it wasn't until Aenima that they started to come into their own as one of the most cerebral bands in hard rock history. The riffs that the band would hammer out seemed to combine elements of psychedelia, metal, and prog-like complexity that made for one of the most mentally-engaging records of the 90's.
Even if you weren't a musical aficionado when it came to time signatures and key changes, Tool's music was still more than worth diving into. From the pummeling assault of Danny Carey's drum fills to the spectral menace of Maynard James Keenan's vocals, Tool seemed to take every complicated facet of hard rock music at the time and concentrate it into a neat package that was easily digestible for any hard rock fan.