10 Most Overrated Metal Albums Of The 90s

An album that kickstarted a generation of jaded music fans that relentlessly tried to coerce their friends, family, and any passer-by trying to enjoy their lives to listen to four absolutely bonkers lads from LA.

Tool are synonymous with creating art through music, elaborate, spatial worlds, and enough philosophical perspectives to flat-line a stoner. Their cult-like following often claim to "see" hidden messages in the songs (see Kerrang!'s breakdown of Tool's 2001 album 'Lateralus' actually being a front for math) in a way that makes Jim Jones look like a substitute RE teacher.

Tool's first step in being the Friends/Game of Thrones/Squid Game of the music world is the 1991 album 'Undertow', an hour-long ball of wackiness during a period of transition for the alternative scene, as glam and NWOBHM quickly turned to grunge and indie.

All of the ideas the band incorporates - from Maynard Keenan's explosive delivery to Danny Carey and Adam Jones' jazz-like technicalities - are all present, but not at the same level of quality or flow of latter-day output.

I'd love to be able to pinpoint specifics of why each song is tosh but every song follows the same structure of *Keenan sings really quietly before SHOUTING and now Jones is doing a riff that vaguely follows the vocals before SHOUTING*.