Tool's latest a step ahead of the `metal' mouths.

Byline: Jim Abbott

Hate to break it to you, kids, but the spectrum could be infinitely more creative than the rap-derivative monotony that now passes for metal music.

Fred Durst, Aaron Lewis and a dozen of their most devoted imitators together aren't worthy to hold the microphone stand for Robert Plant in his prime. Nor does the ever-fashionable trend toward venom and anti-establishment angst seem credible against an indistinguishable nuclear blast of guitars and drums.

If Led Zeppelin taught us anything (and it did), it's that texture and sonically adventurous arrangements are as integral to heavy metal as turning the amp to 11. It's that ambitious …