Editing Tool (band) (section)

===Musical style===
Tool's musical style has been described as [[alternative metal]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Alternative Metal |url=https://www.allmusic.com/style/alternative-metal-ma0000012328 |work=[[AllMusic]] |publisher=[[Rovi Corporation]] |access-date=March 3, 2021 |archive-date=June 12, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612183541/https://www.allmusic.com/style/alternative-metal-ma0000012328 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nme.com/news/tool/68444 |title=Tool forced to delay work on new album after freak scooter crashes &#124; News |publisher=Nme.Com |date=January 30, 2013 |access-date=March 3, 2021 |archive-date=March 5, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305004300/http://www.nme.com/news/tool/68444 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[art rock]],<ref name="e!onlinelateralus" /><ref name="kingcrimsonminitour" /><ref name="munge" /> [[post-metal]],<ref name="santiago" /><ref name="fenix" /><ref name="bairdcole" /> [[progressive rock]],<ref name="AMG Lateralus review" /><ref name="rollingstonelateralus" />{{sfn|DeRogatis|2003|p = 562}} [[progressive metal]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/sharpdarts/070810/ |title=Chicago Reader feature "Liquid Metal" |access-date=March 3, 2021 |archive-date=December 12, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071212191527/http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/sharpdarts/070810/ |url-status=dead }}The paper reports that the article's featured band "have admirers in world-class progressive-metal outfits like Isis, Mastodon, and Tool</ref> and [[Heavy metal music|heavy metal]].<ref name="AllMusic Biography" /> Tool was described by Patrick Donovan of ''[[The Age]]'' as "the thinking person's metal band. Cerebral and visceral, soft and heavy, melodic and abrasive, tender and brutal, familiar and strange, western and eastern, beautiful and ugly, taut yet sprawling and epic, they are a tangle of contradictions."<ref name="theage10kdays" /> Tool has gained critical praise from the ''[[International Herald Tribune]]''{{'}}s C.B. Liddell for their complex and ever-evolving sound.<ref name="Liddell 2007" /> Describing their general sound, [[AllMusic]] refers to them as "grinding, post-[[Jane's Addiction]] heavy metal",<ref name="AllMusic Biography" /> and ''[[The New York Times]]'' sees similarities to "Led Zeppelin's heaving, battering guitar riffs and Middle Eastern modes".<ref name="Pareles 1997" /> Their 2001 work ''Lateralus'' was compared by AllMusic to [[Pink Floyd]]'s ''[[Meddle]]'' (1971), but thirty years later and altered by "Tool's impulse to cram every inch of infinity with hard guitar meat and absolute dread".<ref name="AMG Lateralus review" /> Tool had been labelled as post-metal in 1993<ref name="santiago" /> and 1996,<ref name="fenix" /> as well as in 2006,<ref name="bairdcole" /> after the term came into popularity. A component of Tool's song repertoire relies on the use of unusual [[time signature]]s. For instance, Chancellor describes the time signature employed on the first single from ''Lateralus'', "[[Schism (song)|Schism]]", as "six" and "six-and-a-half" and that it later "goes into all kinds of other times".<ref name="bassplayer052001" /> Further examples include the album's title track, which also displays shifting rhythms,<ref name="bassplayer052001" /> as do ''10,000 Days'': "Wings for Marie (Pt 1)" and "10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)".<ref name="moderndrummer072006" />

Beyond this aspect of the band's sound, each band member experiments within his wide musical scope. [[Bass Player (magazine)|''Bass Player'' magazine]] described Chancellor's bass playing as having a "thick midrange tone, guitar-style techniques, and elastic versatility".<ref name="bassplayer052001" /> As an example of this, the magazine mentioned the use of a [[Wah-wah (music)|wah effect]] by [[Hammer-on|hammering]] "the notes with the left hand and using the bass's tone controls to get a tone sweep", such as on the song "The Patient", from ''Lateralus''.<ref name="bassplayer052001" />

Completing the band's [[rhythm section]], drummer Carey uses [[polyrhythm]]s, [[tabla]]-style techniques, and the incorporation of custom [[Electronic drum|electronic drum pads]] to trigger samples, such as prerecorded tabla and [[octoban]] sounds.<ref name="moderndrummer072006" />

Keenan's ability as a vocalist has been characterized more subjectively by the ''[[Seattle Post-Intelligencer]]'': After his performance during an [[Alice in Chains]] reunion concert in 2005, freelancer Travis Hay saw him as "a natural fit at replacing [[Layne Staley]]".<ref name="Hay 2005" /> Regarding his role in A Perfect Circle and Tool, ''The New York Times'' wrote that "both groups rely on Mr. Keenan's ability to dignify emotions like lust, anger and disgust, the honey in his voice adding a touch of profundity".<ref name="nytimeskeenan" />

{{listen|filename=Tool - Lateralus - 09 - Lateralus sample.ogg|title="Lateralus"|description=The number of syllables per line in the lyrics to "Lateralus" correspond to an arrangement of the [[Fibonacci number]]s.|format=[[Ogg]]}}

According to ''Guitar Player'' magazine, Jones does not rely on any one particular guitar-playing technique but rather combines many techniques.<ref name="guitarplayer2001" /> For example, AllMusic wrote that he "alternately utiliz[es] power chords, scratchy noise, chiming arpeggios, and a quiet minimalism" in "[[Sober (Tool song)|Sober]]".<ref name="soberamgreview" /> Additionally, the band uses forms of instrumental experimentation, like the use of a "pipe bomb microphone" (a [[Pick up (music technology)|guitar pickup]] mounted inside a brass cylinder) and a [[talk box]] guitar solo on "Jambi".<ref name="Forlenza 2006" />

The band puts an emphasis on the sound of their songs and attempts to reduce the effect lyrics can have on the perception of songs by not releasing song lyrics with their albums,<ref name="livewire" /> although they eventually released the lyrics for ''Fear Inoculum'' for that album's CD. Lyrical arrangements are often given special attention, such as in "Lateralus". The number of syllables per line in the lyrics to "Lateralus" correspond to an arrangement of the [[Fibonacci number]]s<ref name="diCarlointerview" /> and the song "Jambi" uses and makes a reference to the common metrical foot [[Iamb (foot)|iamb]].<ref name="julynewsletter" /> The lyrics on ''Ænima'' and ''Lateralus'' focus on philosophy and spirituality—specific subjects range from organized religion in "Opiate", to [[evolution]] and [[Jungian]] psychology in "[[Forty-Six & 2]]" and [[transcendence (philosophy)|transcendence]] in "Lateralus".<ref name="10kdayslyrics" /> On ''10,000 Days'', Keenan wanted to explore issues more personal to him:<ref name="10kdayslyrics" /> the album name and title track refer to the twenty-seven years during which his mother suffered from complications of a stroke until her death in 2003.<ref name="rs10kdaysreview" />