| | A Perfect Circle Mer De Noms CD A Perfect Circle Discography of CDs
 (45 Customer Reviews)
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 ... Full Descriptionis 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.
Recorded at Perfect Circle Studios, Exstacy and The Chop Shop, Hollywood, California; Sound City, Van Nuys, California.
Recorded at Perfect Circle Studios, Exstacy and The Chop Shop, Hollywood, California and Sound City, Van Nuys, California.
Engineers include: Billy Howerdel, Frank Grymer, Critter.
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).
Rolling Stone (1/4/01, p.114) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Top 50 Albums of 2000" - "...A positively ancient metal, a gothic throb that leapfrogs over rap metal back to the sleek PORNOGRAPHY-era dolor of the Cure and psychedlic-Valhalla songs of Led Zep....refreshing darkness."
Spin (10/03, p.107) - "...On the ballad '3 Libras', Keenan sings with an elegance few could have imagined..."
Entertainment Weekly (6/2/00, p.78) - "...Less ominous [than Maynard's former band Tool], leavening guitar shrapnel with genuinely pretty melodies and frilly production flourishes - kinda like neo-Metallica, but with 'cojones'." - Rating: A-
Q (7/00, p.122) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Echoes Tool's dark alt.rock dynamics in the stealthy riffing of 'Magdalena' and 'Judith', but it is with gentler songs such as '3 Libras' or the Led Zeppelin-influenced 'Renholder' that [they] truly shine."
CMJ (5/22/00, p.26) - "...Offers songs [which] are carefully arranged, less aggressive and almost symphonic in scope, letting [James] Keenan reference religion and sex while biting with ruthless verbal bitch slaps....Merciless."
Melody Maker (6/20/00, p.60) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...This is Killing Joke and Jane's Addiction; this is Soundgarden and Alice In Chains; Keenan's gorgeously intimate voice is shoved up front throughout and it's his throat's suckable folds that draw you deeper in..."
NME (Magazine) (7/1/00, p.45) - 7 out of 10 - "...Mystic atmospherics and haunting, uplifting vocals....[They] have created a work of morbid beauty. In terms of darkness, it eclipses nearly everything else." Hide Description Mer De Noms Music | List Price | $17.98 (You save $4.29) | | Category | Rock Albums, Pop CDs, Heavy Metal, Alternative, Rock/Pop | | Label | Virgin | | Orig Year | 2000 | | All Time Sales Rank |  1081  | | CD Universe Part number | 1033447 | | Catalog number | 49253 | | Discs | 1 | | Release Date | May 23, 2000 | | Studio/Live | Studio | | Mono/Stereo | Stereo | | Producer | Billy Howerdel | | Personnel | Josh Freese - drums, percussion
Maynard James Keenan - vocals, gourd
Troy Van Leeuwen - guitar
Billy Howerdel - guitar, piano, bass, programming, background vocals
Paz Lanchantin - violin, bass, background vocals
Also: Tim Alexander, Draven Godwin, Keli Shafer, Luciano Lenchantin |
A Perfect Circle Mer De Noms Songs Purchase Mer De Noms CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Tool Opiate CD (1992) Extended Play
Mer De Noms album
 $10.15   
Back in the early months of 1992, alternative rock was exploding. Radio and MTV had finally fully embraced the oft-dismissed genre, but the bands that were receiving most of the airplay were writing straightforward, raw punk-pop songs. After the breakup of Jane's Addiction, another Los Angeles band, Tool, satisfied fans looking for progressive art-rock with an alternative edge. Issued in March of 1992, Tool's debut six-track OPIATE EP showed that the new band was creating its own highly original sound.
Half of the songs stretched over the four-minute mark, which signaled the epic-songwriting direction the band would explore further on such future releases as 1993's ...
| | Tool Undertow CD (1993)
Mer De Noms CD music
$15.39 
| | Tool Aenima CD (1996)
Mer De Noms music CDs
$15.65 
AENIMA was nominated for a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Recording Package. "Aenima" won the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.
On its second full-length album, this hard-rocking quartet delivers 15 tracks of unrelenting aggression and focused intensity. Rather than overwhelm with huge sonic washes of guitar and booming drums, Tool employs a propulsive, snaky approach that makes use of undulating rhythms and clipped, percussive guitar riffs. Maynard James Keenan's vocals follow suit, opting for a heavily processed slow burn instead of the post-grunge bellow favored by so many hard-rock bands. Instead of flailing uncontrollably in all directions, ...
| | Tool Lateralus CD (2000)
Mer De Noms songs
$15.45
"Schism" won the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.
Approaching Tool's LATERALUS with a casual ear would be a careless endeavor, to say the least. The sheer magnitude of the musical and emotional textures is as heady as it is primal. Standing out as one of the defining traits of the Tool sound is Justin Chancellor's hauntingly melodic bass playing, which often launches into a role reversal with the mountainous guitar work of Adam Jones. The best examples of ...
| | A Perfect Circle Thirteenth Step CD (2003)
Mer De Noms album
$14.39
Though many of the album's tracks surge with APC's powerful metal riffs, the folky "A Stranger" and the lush "The Nurse Who Loved Me" both feature Keenan's voice supported by a gorgeous bed of strings and little else. A cycle that touches on themes of corruption, despair, and redemption, THIRTEENTH STEP is brought to a fitting conclusion by "Gravity," a powerful song that captures both the dark and light aspects of this fascinating band.
With its sophomore effort, THIRTEENTH STEP, A Perfect Circle permanently sheds any clinging notions of being a Tool side-project. Although ...
| | A Perfect Circle Emotive CD (2004)
Mer De Noms CD music
$14.49 
| | JR Best Of Junior CD (1995)
Mer De Noms music CDs
$12.89 
| | 10cc Live CD (2002)
Mer De Noms songs
$5.79
| | Leaves' Eyes Vinland Saga CD (2005)
Mer De Noms album
$14.15
| | Stuck Mojo Snappin' Necks CD (1995) Bonus Tracks; Remastered
Mer De Noms CD music
$9.05
| | Hopesfall Magnetic North CD (2007)
Mer De Noms music CDs
$11.49
| | Doze Lendas Brasileiras CD (2007) (Import)
$23.65 | | Metalscent CD (2008) (Import) Import
Mer De Noms songs
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| | Prayer Cycle CD (2008) (Import) Import
Mer De Noms album
$20.99
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