Maynard James Keenan sat down with YouTube personality Rick Beato for a new interview, and was asked by the host to name the “best-sounding” album from each of his three bands: Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer.
The question came toward the latter part of Beato’s one-hour-plus conversation with Keenan, in which he also discussed his 2025 plans (revealing a new Puscifer album is coming), his thoughts on pop stars like Billie Eilish, and a Mars Volta album that he feels fell short sonically, among other topics.
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In asking about the best-sounding albums from each of Keenan’s bands, Beato clarified that he was referring to both the songwriting and the overall recording quality.
“With Tool, I think it would be, I think Lateralus,” responded Keenan (as transcribed by ThePRP). There’s just a balance to it. There’s some sonics attached to Ænima — that’s a very popular one of our albums. But I feel like Lateralus, there were some things happening with that that were unexpected.”
He continued, “A Perfect Circle, I think part of the new album, the first half of the new album [Eat the Elephant], I feel like was there. But overall, I would think that Thirteenth Step is probably the one.”
And finally, Keenan noted, “Puscifer, I feel like Existential Reckoning is the one, because we kind of had found our way to this. It’s an eccentric album. It’s definitely a sonic landscape. It’s a soundtrack more than it is an album. And I feel like, for what Puscifer is, that kind of is a good intro into the eccentric nature of Puscifer. I think a lot of people respond to Conditions of My Parole because it has more song-songs on it. But I think Existential Reckoning has like the more landscape, cinematic approach that I think is more the core of what Puscifer is.”
In the same conversation about sound quality, Keenan lamented the mix on The Mars Volta’s debut, De-loused in the Comatorium, which was co-produced by Rick Rubin.
‘Sonically, it’s just horrendous,” Keenan said of the 2003 Mars Volta LP. “It like it hurts your ears. It’s compressed to shit. The energy on the album, and the way that they’re all playing together, his voice is just so incredible, and the playing, of course. But it’s because they’re so punk rock, and they wanted to record it all together in one fucking room. It just hurts your brain, ’cause it’s just it’s so compressed, so you can’t listen to more than one and a half songs. It starts to really wear on you.”
He added, “That bums me out, because I know that what’s happening in that room when they were doing it was transcendent. And for Rick, pulling his hair out, probably trying to get them to separate and make it work sonically. I’m sure he had a way bigger puzzle than he could ever solve on that.”
In addition to putting the finishing touches on a new Puscifer album, Keenan will embark on a new run of the “Sessanta” tour, which features A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, and Primus. The outing kicks off April 24th in Palm Springs, California, with tickets available here.
Watch Maynard James Keenan’s full conversation with Rick Beato below.