![]() ![]() References to the Great Dismal Swamp - and the escaped slaves who settled there - started appearing in newspapers and other sources in the 1700s. ![]() This “dismal” landscape was the site of one of the most remarkable and least told stories of resistance to slavery in American history. William Byrd II, a Virginia planter, called it “a miserable morass where nothing can inhabit.” But people did inhabit the swamp, including thousands of enslaved Africans and African Americans who escaped their captors and formed communities in the swamp. The land was so untamed that horses and boats couldn’t enter, and the colonists who were filing into the region detested it. The panthers that used to live there are now gone, but even today there are black bears, poisonous snakes, and swarms of yellow flies and mosquitoes.īut hundreds of years ago, before the Civil War, the dangers of the swamp and its seeming impenetrability actually attracted people to it. It’s humid and soggy, filled with thorns and thickets, teeming with all sorts of dangerous and unpleasant wildlife. Lake Drummond at Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia, image by Rebecca Wynn for USFWS (CC BY 2.0)Īnd it’s understandable why people called the swamp “dismal.” Temperatures can reach over 100 degrees. The swamp covers about 190 square miles today, but at its peak, before parts of it were drained and developed, it was around ten times bigger, spanning roughly 2,000 square miles of Virginia and North Carolina. Th e Great Dismal Swamp, actually - that’s the name British colonists gave it centuries ago. On August 2, 2019, after being held for many years, all of Tool’s music was released for digital streaming and purchase.On the border of Virginia and North Carolina stretches a great, dismal swamp. The relationship between the band and the music industry is ambivalent, marked by censorship and their continued insistence on privacy. Ron Hubbard and the system of beliefs he created.ĭue to Tool’s incorporation of these thematic structures, visual arts ( music videos made entirely from claymation), vivid and Grammy-winning album art (contributions from Adam Jones and artist Alex Grey), and very long, complex releases, the band’s sound has been described as style-transcending-a mix of progressive metal, psychedelic rock, and art rock. Some say Tool’s approach parodies that of their long-time object of ridicule, L. Messages or news the band has given, whether directly from the mouth of a band member or indirectly through the media, is meant to be taken with a grain of salt and questioned throughout, which is another ideology the band has preached for many years. However, for over a decade and until it was updated prior to the 2017 tour, Tool’s website offered artsy word-salad band member biographies, creating an indoctrinating, calculated mystique, and has delivered bogus news aimed at cult-like followers who are willing to believe almost anything. The band diligently utilizes multiple time signatures in all of the more recent releases, arranges their instruments into complex formations, and even incorporates the infamous Fibonacci Sequence in the song “Lateralus.” While the band incorporates mathematical and ritualistic themes in their music, they have done so at such a level that their paradoxical belief system has hoodwinked a major part of their fan base. ![]() Tool’s approach has been part conviction, part sarcasm. After much anticipation for a fifth studio album for over 13 years, Fear Inoculum was released on August 30, 2019. After the alternative rock scene receded from the mainstream American ear, Tool continued into art rock and progressive rock, and have since released Ænima (1996), Lateralus (2001) and 10,000 Days (2006), which have gained worldwide critical and commercial success. The band emerged with its first (and only) EP, Opiate (1992), and followed that up with their debut studio album, Undertow (1993), during the age of early 1990s grunge, and made their success by headlining Lollapalooza festivals aimed at that genre. Chancellor replaced Paul D'Amour in 1995. ![]() Members include vocalist Maynard James Keenan, guitarist Adam Jones, drummer Danny Carey, and bassist Justin Chancellor. Tool is an enigmatic progressive metal band from Los Angeles, California. ![]()
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