Mer de Noms [PA] (CD - 2000)

A Perfect Circle: Maynard James Keenan (vocals, gourd); Billy Howerdel (guitar, piano, bass, programming, background vocals); Troy Van Leeuwen (guitar); Paz Lanchantin (violin, bass, background vocals); Josh Freese (drums, percussion).

Additional personnel: Luciano Lenchantin (viola); Tim Alexander (drums); Draven Godwin (percussion); Keli Shafer (background vocals).

Engineers include: Billy Howerdel, Frank Grymer, Critter.

Recorded at Perfect Circle Studios, Exstacy and The Chop Shop, Hollywood, California; Sound City, Van Nuys, California.

A Perfect Circle: Maynard James Keenan (vocals, gourd); Billy Howerdel (guitar, piano, bass, programming, background vocals); Troy Van Leeuwen (guitar); Paz Lanchantin (violin, bass, background vocals); Josh Freese (drums, percussion).

Additional personnel: Luciano Lenchantin (viola); Tim Alexander (drums); Draven Godwin (percussion); Keli Shafer (background vocals).

Engineers include: Billy Howerdel, Frank Grymer, Critter.

Recorded at Perfect Circle Studios, Exstacy and The Chop Shop, Hollywood, California and Sound City, Van Nuys, California.

Personnel: Billy Howerdel (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards, programming); Maynard James Keenan (vocals); Josh Freese (drums, percussion); Tim "Herb" Alexander (drums).

Audio Mixers: Alan Moulder; Billy Howerdel.

Recording information: Extasy Studios, North Hollywood, CA; Perfect Circle Studios, North Hollywood, CA; Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, CA; The Chop Shop, Hollywood, CA.

Photographer: Dean Murphy.

Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan offers up something to fill the collective void of fans eagerly awaiting a follow up to AENIMA. Keenan teamed with Tool guitar tech and A Perfect Circle guitarist/composer Billy Howerdel for MER DE NOMS, which is both a band effort and an engaging hard rock album, recorded while Tool renegotiated with their label and other band members took a break. But don't be fooled; A Perfect Circle is more than a one-off side project.

The band isn't nearly as brutal as Tool; the musical textures are instead spacious and melodic. Keenan maintains his brooding, emotionally charged vocal style and his knack for conjuring bleak imagery. The track most comparable to Tool's music, "Rose," utilizes rise-and-fall dynamics and unpredictably breaks away to gentle strings, while "Judith" (the album's title is French for "sea of names," hence the song titles), explores free thought and warns against blind faith, and "Orestes" departs from the predominant guitar distortion with moody, powerful results. minimize