Tool: Building on ‘Undertow’ of Rage : Pop music: Though more dexterous than many other grungers, the L.A. band sings a lot about feeling down--but it’s ‘for our release.’

“I don’t want to be hostile. I don’t want to be dismal,” goes the opening line of Tool’s new album, “Undertow.”

Then the Los Angeles band spends virtually the entire album milking the most hostile, dismal feelings it can muster.

Singer and lyricist Maynard James Keenan, 29, says that Tool has therapeutic reasons for accentuating the negative.

“What we’ve decided to do for our release is play music, so all the ugly stuff is gonna come out there. It’s kind of like going to an AA meeting and hearing a guy give a speech about all the horrible things that happened to him when he was drunk. It’s not as if the rest of our life is that way.”

Unmodulated, unmitigated balefulness and rage are growing awfully familiar in the wake of Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and numerous others. What keeps Tool’s first full-length album interesting is its ability to mix things up, even if all the songs are about feeling down.

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Instead of a steady diet of dense noise, guitarist Adam Jones, bassist Paul D’Amour and drummer Danny Carey play with definition, discipline and a range of dynamics that gives Tool more dexterity than most straight grunge bands, without sacrificing impact. Keenan knows that if you want to go for dramatic effect, it helps to do some murmuring and whispering before you let go a scream.

And Keenan can even imagine writing a song based on more pleasant feelings. So far, Tool, which plays tonight and Saturday at the Scientology Garden Pavilion and Sunday at California Dreams in Anaheim, has permitted itself one track of novelty-song comic relief on each of its two releases (the band debuted last year with a seven-song EP, “Opiate”).

“If things turn into good experience, maybe our approach will change,” Keenan said, speaking over the phone this week before a concert in San Francisco. “Maybe songs will be more attentive to arrangements, ethereal stuff to take you into a dreamlike state. The same way we were trying to get out the bad seed (on the first two releases), there might be a seed we want to grow.”

Meanwhile, there is a career to grow. Tool’s slot on this summer’s “Lollapalooza ‘93” tour could be a chance at rapid advancement for a band that thus far hasn’t had an impact on the charts. Tool will start out as second-stage headliner, then switch to the main stage about halfway through the two-month itinerary.

According to Jones, who had a satisfying career doing special effects art work in the film industry, getting ahead wasn’t the point when Tool began in 1991. “I’ve always played in bands for fun, and I wanted to put a band together just for fun. It was never to the point where I wanted to be signed and do this for a living. I was successful with what I was doing. But the band took off.”

Keenan said he doesn’t mind if Tool, which sounds like a less-plodding version of Soundgarden, gets lumped in with the Seattle/grunge contingent--a scene he respects but feels will outlive its current trend-appeal.

“When the wind blows over and all is said and done, those albums will be able to stand on their own,” he said, citing releases by Soundgarden and Nirvana. “Angry or not, they’re good musicians, and they’re all (playing) heartfelt stuff. It’s all going to come down to writing good songs. I’m hoping we can maintain the focus on the music and have a career, whatever they want to call (our style).”