A Perfect Circle: Thirteenth Step

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * *)

An indefinite article band in a world of "The" groups, A Perfect Circle - here on their second album - are the side- project of Tool man Maynard James Keenan with a group of musicians whose CVs suggest they formed in the lunch queue backstage at an alt-rock festival.

APC were down to play next year's Big Day Out, but reportedly having this album propelled to the top of the charts by avid local Tool-heads meant the group figured their own tour might be worthwhile, so they pulled out.

As that band name suggests, the geometry of the music isn't as harsh as Tools' abrupt angles and bludgeoning hydraulics. And compared to APC's debut Mers De Noms, it sounds a more thoughtful, cohesive and altogether friendlier affair.

Especially when it puts down the spidery drums of Josh Freese, ominous bass of Twiggy Ramirez and echoing guitars of Billy Howerdel to go all pop-baroque on The Nurse Who Loved Me towards the end.

Elsewhere though, it's an abundance of slow-fused, moderately dramatic art-metal and nouveau progressive rock epics over which Keenan's measured vocals - making him sound rather more human than the Amnesty International candidate he can be on Tool records - delivering lyrics offering an intriguing riff on therapyspeak.

The effect - especially on the early tracks such as the slow-fused opener Package and the string-laden Stranger - is strangely alluring. Though the metal quota eventually kicks in harder after halftime. But for much of this, the thought occurs that had they played the BDO, it would have caused outbreaks of slow, wavy hippy dancing down the front. There's something captivating about much of Thirteenth Step, making it an album by a guy from Tool that you don't have to like Tool to like.

Label: EMI