r/ToolBand • u/Opposite-Question-32 We are eternal, all this pain is an illusion. • Sep 16 '26
Ænima Happy 30th birthday, Ænima
Tomorrow being the 30th anniversary of the release on vinyl, closely followed by the CD. What's your favorite song from the album, or a special memory you have?
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u/neonmoth Sep 16 '26
Ah awesome, I have coincidentally been listening it today and didn't realize it was it's birthday ! Perhaps Bill was speaking to me from beyond. Gone but not forgotten..
Rrrrrrrreal fuckin high on drugs.
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u/After-Incident9955 Stupid Belligerent Fucker Sep 16 '26
I just had the same coincidence. I was listening to David Bowie before, and I was like "Hm, I really wanna listen to Ænima right now for some reason". And so I did, completely unaware that it's the 30th anniversary.
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u/Exyodeff Sep 17 '26
I was listening to the new Chat Pile and I went “this kinda reminds me of Ænima” on the spoken sections and I queued Third Eye right after
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u/pen9uinparty Sep 16 '26
One day freshman year, my dad picked me up for the weekend and in the car kept singing "learn to swim" and we were on this adventure to buy this new album and we sat and listened to it all day that shit changed our lives forever
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u/Delicious_East3696 Sep 16 '26
Ænima sends shivers down my spine, gonna take a look at the art and appreciate this masterpiece of a album. Thanks for telling the people the great news. Happy birthday Ænima.
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u/BillyGnosisWontDie He had a lot of nothing to say Sep 16 '26
I love Jimmy so much because that opening riff is so chilling
-Billy Gnosis
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u/vexerplusone Sep 17 '26
What was it like to see
The face of your own stability
Suddenly look away
Leaving you with the dead and hopelessGenius and none of at the time had any idea what the heck he was talking about.
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u/Forward-Coat-7733 Sep 16 '26
Damn, this was one of my 5 CDs for a penny if I bought 1 at full price from BMG. I was in high school and now feel extra old. Thanks
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u/Dew-fan-forever- 10,000 days Sep 16 '26
Learn to swim 🏊♂️🏊♀️🏊🩲👙
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u/Opposite-Question-32 We are eternal, all this pain is an illusion. Sep 16 '26
See you down in Arizona Bay!
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u/Fulcrum_Jambi Sep 16 '26
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u/Opposite-Question-32 We are eternal, all this pain is an illusion. Sep 16 '26
Undertow, 33 years old (1993)
Ænima, 30 years old (1996)
Lateralus, 25 years old (2001)
10,000 Days, 20 years old (2006)
Fear Inoculum, 7 years old (2019)
Oldies, but goldies!
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u/Fulcrum_Jambi Sep 17 '26
When I got married in 2021, my best man started his speech by saying “I’ve been friends with Daniel since 2005 - or in Tool terms, two album releases”
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u/Exyodeff Sep 16 '26
Ænema and Stinkfist have both consumed my days thinking about the next free time I would be able listen to them again
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u/aVicariousTool Sep 16 '26
Whelp, looks like a good day as any to take some shrooms and listen to it from start to finish.
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u/Necx999 Sep 16 '26
Still my favorite album. I'll give it a whirl tomorrow on the ole record player..
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u/Amazing_Body_7393 Sep 17 '26
If it’s a boot I recommend the og needle drop from pbthal instead, it sounds sooo good
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u/Rance_Q_Spartley Sep 17 '26
Been looking but apparently in all the wrong places. Any chance you've got a link to it 😁 ??
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u/cornedbeefonrye Sep 16 '26
My favorite song is Stinkfist and Eulogy and Forty Six & 2 and Hooker with a Penis and Ænema and Third Eye.
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u/acoker78 Sep 16 '26
I may be remembering it but I feel like I got the vinyl a couple weeks before the actual CD was released
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Sep 16 '26
[deleted]
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u/JasonDomber Lachrymologist Sep 16 '26
Incorrect.
Vinyl was September 17th, 1996
CD was October 1st, 1996
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u/Opposite-Question-32 We are eternal, all this pain is an illusion. Sep 16 '26
I stand corrected, thank you.
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u/han-so-low Sep 17 '26
Pushit is their best song ever recorded. Both the album version and Salival.
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u/JasonDomber Lachrymologist Sep 16 '26
Other way around. Vinyl was first, CD was second.
Now where’s that fucking vinyl reissue? 😅
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u/Anagrama00 Sep 17 '26
Fall 1996, I'm 13. My older brother calls, he lives across the country from me, he asks if I've heard the new Tool album. I just knew "sober" and sort of liked it but in that time I was on a healthy diet of Nirvana, Beck, Stone Temple Pilots, Jane's Addiction. Tool wasn't super on my radar. He said he had heard their new album and I had to get the CD, every single song was amazing. He said I should save my allowance and get the CD and to trust him basically that I would love it. I got the CD probably a few months after it was released and was immediately blown away by the entire thing. Getting that CD kicked off an immense lifelong love of this band and their music.
By the time I got it, Stinkfist was pretty popular and I think Aenima was starting to get some radio play but man it was not those songs that really got me so deep into it. I remember being obsessed with H and Pushit. Then a few momths later Third Eye was my jam. Then Jimmy. Then Hooker. Then 46 & 2. Like it just blew me away there wasn't a remotely weak part on any of the non-segue tracks. Every song was just fucking a beast. Every track sounded so different but so similar also. It bent my little 13 year old mind wondering how on Earth they came up with these sounds and melodies and riffs and patterns and vibes. With all respect to Stone Temple Pilots but this shit was on another level of "rock". It also to me at that age just annihilated everything I had heard on Undertow.
For so so much of the past 30 years anytime a "what's your favorite album of all time?" question popped up I always just generally say Aenima because nothing else has brought me so much pure joy. I've probably listened to "Nevermind" or "Siamese Dream" more but nothing blew me away like this album did in that time in fall 1996. And I thought I'd never hear a band push boundaries so far in terms of rock in my mind at that time. Until less than half a year later when OK Computer came out and I lost my absolute shit to that one too.
Growing up with albums like this coming out as a teenager was such a fucking joy. I feel so bad for kids nowadays not having NEW shit coming out remotely on the same level as things like Aenima arriving as a teenager. .
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u/Pr0phet Sep 17 '26
Holy shit that means that literally this time 30 years ago, my buddies and I were driving back to the dorm from the local record store having just bought this album and listening to it in the car.
I'm old af guys.
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u/weirdmountain 29d ago
I haven’t scrolled the whole thread to check, but has there been any talk of an official vinyl reissue?
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u/eas442 Sep 17 '26
This album is what turned the corner from rabid fan base to cult status. It’s my favorite Tool album and it’s done so much to influence how I see the world now.
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u/bringthesalsa Mobilize. Stay alive! Sep 17 '26
Not my favourite but still good. Best parts are the first third and Third Eye
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u/After-Incident9955 Stupid Belligerent Fucker Sep 16 '26
What the fuck. I didn't even know the 30th anniversary was tomorrow, yet for some reason I had the urge to listen to the album today in the middle of my journey through David Bowie's discography.
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u/Hairy_Confidence9323 Sep 16 '26
Third Eye. Special memory-enjoying this album recently under the influence of 🍄and discovering some parts of songs that I hadn’t heard before…..quality headphones are a game changer!!
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u/Vallina_Milkshake Sep 17 '26
This album helped inspire me to major in psychology back in college. Great memories listening to it and seeing them perform it's songs over the years. 🙌🎶
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u/roshinaya Sep 17 '26
So will Adam allow a re-issue of this album on vinyl to be released? We know there are at least test pressings of a new print as per Danny Carey. We all know it's Adam that keeps re-issues, live recordings and videos from release.
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u/nealien79 Sep 17 '26
I remember buying the album when I was 17 and sitting in the cafeteria at high school listening to the CD on my discman and was just blown away. I remember trying to figure out the lyrics to understand what the songs were about and discovered toolshed.down.net and started spending hours each day reading everyone’s takes on the lyrics and what they meant. I was hooked.
I had heard Undertow before when I was younger but I thought it was dark and it didn’t really connect with me (later it did and now I think into a masterpiece). Aenima was psychedelic, heavy, dark, funny, intense, beautiful. The release of the album happened just as I was smoking pot and taking lsd for the first time and I was taking art classes trying to figure out what to do with my life. One summer my friends and I went to OzzFest and saw Tool live for the first time during the Aenima tour and it was the best show I’ve even seen even though I was as far away from stage as you could be.
Going to go listen to the album. Love all these memories. 🤘
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u/ash2n4u2c 29d ago
Bought the OG vinyl and still have ot, along with CD and caught the tour (no longer have the tee 😢) Would love to purchase the remastered vinyl and CD, even SACD would be awesome. The lads have been teasing it for so long. Perhaps it will get a release or not 🤔🙃
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u/4_Degrees_Undertow 29d ago
This album changed my teen years. I came home from school and listened to this album from the time I got home until I fell asleep with it on repeat. Gotta love those little cheap radios from the 90's with CD players on the top. 😁 I loved they had a repeat button. I treated my CDs like gold back then. Held them carefully and tried not to scratch em. They got beat to hell somehow anyways though. 😆 Kids today don't know how personal a CD album was to us. We got that inner booklet with all the band art and lyrics that we'd read for hours. It was like getting an extra piece of the band with your purchase. They don't know about that stuff today with digital purchases buying one song at a time. I can still listen to a CD and know in my head what song is coming next because we played the whole album over and over. They just pick the songs they like today and buy the singles. Psh... 🤦🏻♂️
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u/nateingraham 29d ago
A top ten album in my life, possibly top five depending on the day. Their finest work, with no disrespect intended to other albums. It just came out at the perfect time for me and I rode that wave for about a decade.
I had heard Sober and a little bit of Undertow prior to its release, but I remember catching the Stinkfist video on MTV and being completely sold. The video is incredible, but the song also felt like a major level up over what I had heard before.
Was lucky to see them in 1997 on Lollapalooza and catch Third Eye at that show, though I really wish I could have seen a proper headlining show in that era. Made up for it when Lateralus came out, but still... Oh well. Can't do everything.
Would love a proper vinyl repressing, but I think it's never going to happen purely out of spite. The only band I can think of that has such an antagonistic relationship with its fans 😂
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u/YourInnerAtheist 29d ago
I remember buying this on accident when it came out! Best mistake ever! I was trying to find a copy of Undertow, but didnt know what it looked like. Oh, the 90s.
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u/UnknownError3 5d ago edited 5d ago
My dad was handed their demo cassette "72826" in 1991 (I was 8) and we both fell in love with TOOL.... bought every album since and will buy more if they make more. If you interested in hearing it i believe you can find it on youtube. Alot from Opiate plus a early "Sober" + others...
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u/sigma__cheddar Sep 16 '26
Their best album. I was in line at best buy 30 years ago today, about to experience a life-changing album.