It Holds Up: A Perfect Circle – ‘Mer de Noms’
Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
Twenty-five years ago, Los Angeles alternative metal band A Perfect Circle introduced themselves to audiences with the scathing lead single “Judith” off their debut album Mer de Noms. In and out of context, the opening line “You’re such an inspiration for the ways that I will never ever choose to be” was a cutting remark that lyrically resembled vocalist Maynard James Keenan’s confrontational approach through earlier songs in his career with his initial band Tool. While radio rock was riddled with casual worship, “Judith” subsequently stuck out as it unveiled Keenan’s cynicism towards his mother’s lifelong devotion to her faith despite the debilitated state she existed in after suffering an aneurysm when he was a child. For me, it served as one of my earliest encounters with art that made me aware of the validity in wanting to question what you’re told and that something like anger could be articulated in such a way that was moving and controlled. This song would ultimately make A Perfect Circle the gateway band that led me to seek out heavy yet melodic music for the rest of my life.
With an accompanying video directed by David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club), the band had this unflinching allure to them as they performed in a rundown warehouse and made minimal motions throughout the video. Washed in muted colors and grainy film editing, the shots focused on the band as a whole and each role the members played with a lineup that consisted of Keenan (Tool), guitarist Billy Howerdel (Ashes Divide), guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen (Failure), bassist Paz Lenchantin (Zwan / Pixies), and Josh Freese (The Vandals) on drums. Listening to it now, it sounds just as powerful as it did back then. Made timeless in its self assuredness and pointed honesty.
A Perfect Circle’s emotionally intuitive sound was mostly guided and crafted by Howerdel’s production and songwriting which allowed for some of Keenan’s most lyrically personal songs yet. The music was melodious, but tinged with an amalgamation of hard rock, industrial metal, and psychedelic rock that distinguished them from brawny rock bands at the time and carried subtle indicators of defining bands like Nine Inch Nails, Tool, and Smashing Pumpkins, who Howerdel had also worked for as a guitar technician. Coupled with Keenan’s efforts to write some of his most accessible songs yet, it was a reflective album that wove in and out of stages of forgiveness and healing while it simultaneously explored what it meant to be conscious in all of the raging, desirous, despairing ways of being.
When the album first came out in 2000, it was met with some criticism from underwhelmed Tool fanboys looking for the esoteric, analytical stylings of Keenan’s more cerebral band. However, in retrospect A Perfect Circle sounded like a different side of the same coin and much of the subject matter surrounding Keenan’s mother on Mer de Noms would eventually perhaps unwittingly give way to 10,000 Days six years later.
From the album title’s translation to Sea of Names, to the track list that seemingly referred to the names of both real and mythological figures, and the lyrical content of the songs, Mer de Noms remains an immersive listen that is not particularly well suited for passive listening. There aren’t many grandiose moments on the album – instead its appeal is found in trailing the sustained pursuit of transcendental landscapes it beckons listeners to explore.
The album starts off with warbling metallic riffs in “The Hollow” and is the only song on the album that features Primus’ drummer Tim Alexander before he was replaced with Freese for the remainder of the album. It’s a slow ascension that spills over into the following track “Magdalena” that builds up into a fervent cacophony of screeching guitars and drawn out hypnotic vocals that reach a point of desperation. Shockingly, this song was not one of their singles for this album cycle. Throughout the album there’s a pattern of exploratory peaks and valleys, with each song building up to a climactic point in various ways.
In songs like “Rose” there’s a tumultuous undercurrent juxtaposed with distorted industrial noise and acoustic guitar before it gradually pans out into a mournful violin and lyrically examines the will to rise above a previously disempowering situation. Other songs like “Orestes,” and “Sleeping Beauty,” are measured meditations that are perhaps more compelling in their subject matter surrounding Keenan’s familial relationships, while “Thomas” is a mesmerizing track that almost seems to mimic otherworldly interjections as if symbolically reaching through the ether.
The second single “3 Libras” incorporates violin (performed by Lenchantin) and acoustic guitar for a more tender song that has the subject longing to be seen by someone they’re desirous of. Like many of the songs on the album, it’s a steady introduction that grows into a momentous declaration as Keenan repeats the wounded refrain “you don’t see me at all.” The album closes out with “Brena” expressing a desire for healing before ending with “Over,” the most minimal track on the album.
For a self produced debut album, Mer de Noms stands as a true progressive metal album with some of the most idiosyncratic melodies and song structures that bridged the gap between sprawling ‘70s prog rock with the uncompromising experimental inclinations of the late 90’s and early ‘00s. It begins and ends slowly, but is embedded with rich layers of sound within each song that still has me exploring its depths 25 years later, knowing that A Perfect Circle should be a band that people mine for inspiration more often.
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Loan Pham | @x_loanp
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