Sad thing is I was probably listening to Tool when you still shit your pants so don't even go there. Some bands get better as time goes on, such as Nightwish. Tool is just not one of these bands IMO. I'm not one of those elitist freaks that can't see beyond full length debuts.
You want to discuss metal we'll discuss metal. You want to discuss rock we'll discuss Tool. To say they kick the ass out of any modern day metal band is just foolish IMO.