Amanda Edwards/Getty ImagesSome Tool fans would argue that everything the band releases is groundbreaking in one way or another, but the band themselves were happy to win a Grammy Sunday night for one particular track they think really challenged them as musicians.
Tool won Best Metal Performance Grammy for “7empest,” a 15-minute-long track on their long-awaited latest album, Fear Inoculum. Backstage, bass player Justin Chancellor told reporters, “I think it’s a song that we’re really proud of on our new album, kinda of pushed the boundaries a bit.”
“From our point of view, we were still being very experimental when we did this particular track,” he noted. “So that’s pretty satisfying to be able to kind of still go out there and be included in this group of musicians.”
For the record, the acts Tool beat in that category were Killswitch Engage, Candlemass, I Prevail and Death Angel.
While Tool’s music is generally regarded as transcending genre, incorporating as it does aspects of alternative rock, progressive rock, post-metal and art rock, Chancellor says he’s happy to have the band recognized in the category of “heavy” music, a genre he feels is alive and well.
“I think if you get out and about, you know, especially traveling around the country as we’re doing at the moment, you’ve just got to get out and find it…there’s plenty of good music, plenty of good heavy bands,” he told reporters. “I’m glad that we won this so that maybe that’ll open it up a little bit to keep the genre still kind of accessible to more of the public, y’know?”
Tool is on the road in support of Fear Inoculum. They’ll wrap up their current batch of U.S. dates February 1 and then move on to Australia before returning to the U.S. in March.
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