Opiate is an EP by the rock band Tool. It was released in March 10, 1992, produced and engineered by Sylvia Massy and Steve Hansgen. The album was the result of two years of the band playing together after their formation in 1990. Opiate preceded Tool’s first full-length release, Undertow, by a year.
It is named after a quote by Karl Marx: “religion … is the opiate of the masses”.
Opiate was certified platinum by the RIAA. The EP charted on several international charts when Tool released their catalog to online streaming in August 2019. Opiate features seven songs spanning six tracks, two of which are live recordings. Most versions of the EP (all except the cassette) feature the hidden seventh song titled The Gaping Lotus Experience. On CD versions, the song is hidden at the end of the last track of the album, Opiate, and begins approximately 6 minutes and 10 seconds into the track after Opiate has concluded. Vinyl copies of the EP featured a double groove on the second side; one which contained Cold and Ugly, with the second containing The Gaping Lotus Experience and a small period of silence. Both grooves led into Jerk-Off. The song Sweat was featured on the Escape from L.A. soundtrack.
Cold and Ugly and Jerk-Off were recorded specially for the album at the Jellö Loft on New Year’s Eve 1991 with a live audience. As a result, these two songs have never been available as true “studio” recordings except for the band’s 1991 demo tape 72826. This demo tape also featured early versions of Hush and Part of Me (as well as Crawl Away and Sober, which would eventually make it on Undertow), and was used to get the band signed. All four songs were re-recorded for this album.
In the original CD inserts for the album there is a collage of photos of the band members as children, among various items and trinkets, and also includes a picture of someone engaging in necrophilia with a well-decomposed cadaver. In reality, it is a friend of the band joking around in prop maker Stan Winston‘s studio. A black and white music video was made for the track Hush, the band’s first. The Canadian music channel MuchMusic played it regularly.
Tracklist:
- Sweat
- Hush
- Part of Me
- Cold and Ugly (live)
- Jerk-Off (live)
- Opiate
- The Gaping Lotus Experience (hidden track)
Tool
Maynard James Keenan: vocals
Adam Jones: guitar
Paul D’Amour: bass
Danny Carey: drums
