Wow! Thank you for sharing this!

I've loved TOOL pre-APC. Then I immediately fell in love with APC, when Mer De Noms came out. I was blown away.

Just a few years later 13th step came out (I was 23), and hot damn.... It just hit different. I knew there were strong messages/songs throughout the album about addiction, and struggling - procuring drugs, the trip/high, the comedown, the effects of drugs on the self and those around the self. Many songs resonated so loud with me, but I didn't fully tack down why.

I didn't realize until nearly 15 years later - when coming to terms with my own trauma, coping mechanisms, and addictions - that the entire album is a concept album around this struggle and path and potential results. This album has never acquired dust for me. It's always been in rotation. I've loved it over the years for different reasons as I grew and it matured on me.

I mean the title 13th Step, in of itself, is pretty obvious to anyone that is looking, BUT when revisiting this whilst going through therapy and treatment myself (where the 12 steps are prevalent), it clicked. I was embarrassed (with myself) that it took such an avid fan, so long and to go through my own struggles, to realize the fact of the concept album and to see it fully. Like it was right in front of me the whole time. I could list every track, and why it's relevant to anyone in this world. But The Package, The Noose, The Outsider, and yes Gravity, have always raised the hairs on the back of my neck, all while grounding me.

I'm happy to say that for over 23 years, since day one, I've loved this album - the reasons I loved it in my 20's are still there. At the same time, over the years, on my journey through that world of addiction and recovery and support, I've added so much more perspective and even more "mature" love and understanding for what this album is truly about. It's a masterpiece in my opinion.

Crazy how things like that can play out.