Under most circumstances, I wouldn't like Tool.  If their songs were condensed into about 4 minutes each instead of 5-8, I wouldn't like them.  But, they add a lot of weight to a lot of their songs.  Maynard James Keesan is a great vocalist, but he often is drowned out, either by his own choice with a low volume or just by the sheer noise of the other 3 guys, who are great in their own right.  While I can't say that his writing is meaningful to me, it shines on Eulogy and Hooker With a Penis.  "Songs" like Message to Harry Manback and Die Eier Von Satan are just filler, really, the former sounding like a answering machine message at VERY low volume, the other totally in German so it doesn't make any sense at all-a little too over the top if you ask me.  Useful Idiot is 40 seconds of a guitar getting louder before going into bass on the next song.  If they just got rid of that [stuff], they'd have a great album (and lo and behold, you get Lateralus).  When Tool rock (Stinkfist, Forty-Six and Two), they rock, and that's why this is worth listening to.