Although Maynard & co. came close to matching the standard set by Aenima with Lateralus, arguably Aenima still stands as Tool's finest moment. Amazing individual talent (Maynard is today's best frontman, and that's just the beginning) combined with incredible and complex songwriting and intelligence make Tool a band with few weaknesses. While this may be termed prog rock, with extended arrangements of their songs being the norm, this allows the mood of the songs to fully deveolop, and boy do they develop. Complex time signature and dynamics changes, unbeleivable instrumental chops, and soaring vocals are some descriptions that come to mind. Tool's sound makes me salivate - you just need to listen to appreciate it. Maynards lyrics match the musical content to a tee. In "Sinkfist", he uses a pretty dark metaphor to illustrate how desensitized we are today. "Eulogy" challenges the character of everyone who has a message to preach but are really just as weak and feeble as every one around them. I also find the story in "Hooker With a Penis" to be quite amusing. Even despite it's grandesque 13:00+ minutes, "Third Eye" never looses my interest - in fact, it's one of the best album closers I've ever heard. I really can't explain it, but Tool managed to hit everything right on this album, which is why it's one of the top 5 cd's I own.