Blu-Ray Review: Tool ‘Opiate2’: band celebrate 30th anniversary of debut EP ‘Opiate’ with deluxe Blu-ray featuring re-imagining of title track.
30 years ago Tool released their debut EP Opiate, which featured the labyrinthine title track that would become a fan favorite.
In honor of the anniversary of both song and EP, Tool released Opiate2, a new version of the track, almost double the length, accompanied by a music video, recently released on BluRay with deluxe packaging.
The video is as intense, disturbing, and visually engaging as the classic Tool videos directed by band guitarist Adam Jones, but this time the group handed off directorial duties to Dominic Hailstone, an experimental filmmaker perhaps best known for his VFX on Ridley Scott’s Alien Covenant.
And that film franchise’s influence looms large in the video, featuring a deformed torso sprouting disjointed limbs under an unforgiving landscape and skyline not unlike the gray planetoid featured in the original 1979 Alien.
The visuals expertly twists and turn to the undulations of the music, which sees the creature evolve torturously, a gruesome and disquieting metamorphosis that is alluring despite its ugliness.
In the end it becomes a long-legged beast that appears to be absorbed and electrocuted by an otherworldly force, before the visuals evoke the inside of an eyeball.
It’s a perfect visual accompaniment to the song, which is less brutal and stark than its predecessor, allowing for more dynamics and psychedelic atmospherics. Which makes the retitling of the song apt, as this is in many ways a very different beast than its source material.
The only special features of the disc are video commentary, but anyone hoping from insight from either the band or the director will be shocked to find that its actually an MST3K style riff from Rupaul’s Drag Race personalities Jinx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme.
While they get in a few good zingers (describing the video as a “gritty Wallace and Gromit” was gold) it would have been nice to have heard the band reminiscing about the song and why they chose to revisit it, along with the director explaining his vision.
But this is Tool after all, so pulling the rug out from under fan’s expectations is part and parcel of the band’s dynamic.
The deluxe booklet is also devoid of any descriptive text, instead it’s a host of images from the video curated by Jones, featuring the grisly and haunting images in all their distillate glory.
Opiate2 is an interesting reinterpretation of the band’s nascent work, accompanied by equally uncompromising visuals. Which makes it a must have for both casual and obsessive fans alike.
