10 Greatest Supergroups In Rock History
4. A Perfect Circle
When it comes to the warped mind of Maynard James Keenan, having one band is more than enough for most listeners. After all, with Tool's albums being some of the most cerebral heavy metal ever conceived, how weird can he get when left to his own devices? Well, when it comes to A Perfect Circle, the results are actually pretty damn gorgeous.
Formed with Tool guitar tech Billy Howerdel, this is a completely different animal than what you would get on most Tool outings, with tracks that are a lot darker than the prog metal giants. While you do get subtle inflections of proggier elements on here, tracks like Judith and 3 Libras are more concerned with setting up a scene in your mind much like a metallic version of a band like the Cure. Though Maynard still lets his scream out of the bag every once and a while, a lot of tracks on albums like Thirteenth Step show a different side of Maynard, as tracks plod along with some of his most beautiful clean singing.
It also doesn't hurt that we have Troy Van Leeuwen from Queens of the Stone Age and James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins on board at the best of times, who add their own trademark weirdness to what was already a beautiful sonic tapestry. Nothing in metal music can really be described as perfect at what it does, both a lot of these tracks do come dangerously close to that mark.