Mer de noms

Musically, the sound of the album “returns listeners to a numbing prog rock ” ^[4] and “blurs the boundaries between alternative rock and hard rock , with many slower tunes exhibiting intense decay rather than flash” ^[2] . New Yorker magazine also notes that on the record the group is experimenting with “layers between heavy metal and alternative rock” ^[15] . Various musical instruments, such as violin , acoustic guitars and xylophone ^{[10] [11]} were involved in the recording of the album.

Billy Haurdel is the main driving force behind A Perfect Circle. In one interview, he named several albums that determined the sound of the group on this and on its subsequent releases: Kings of the Wild Frontier of Adam and the Ants , Tinderbox of Siouxsie & the Banshees , Diary of a Madman Ozzy Osbourne and Pornography of The Cure . Haurdel described some of the songs from these works as very dark and sinister, which in general can be felt in his own compositions ^[16] . But nevertheless, the music of Tinderbox ^[17] had a noticeable influence on Haurdel’s guitar style:

<...> is one of the scariest records I've ever heard. Some songs have such a dense atmosphere ^[16] .

The Mer de Noms promotion began shortly after recording the album ^[18] . A month before the release, A Perfect Circle, as a warming up group, went on tour with the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails as part of their Fragility v2.0 tour , which lasted from April to June ^{[19] [20]} . After the group has already single-handedly performed a number of concerts around the world ^[21] , performing as headliners for eight consecutive months ^[22] . After the release of Mer de Noms and a tour with Nine Inch Nails, in early August the group gave a concert in Canada as part of the Summersault Tour, performing on stage with bands such as Our Lady Peace , Deftones ^[23] , The Smashing Pumpkins and others ^{[20 ]} ; then the group’s North American tour took place during the rest of the month and September ^[24] . Since Keenan was well known for his other band , he often wore long wigs on his bald head during all A Perfect Circle performances in order to distance himself as a Tool frontman ^[25] .

The album was released on May 23, 2000 ^[26] , and debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200 US chart, thus taking the top spot as a debut rock record ^[27] . In the first week, over 188,000 copies of the album were sold, while remaining at its position on the charts for the next 51 weeks ^[28] . Soon, the number of copies sold was 1 million, and as a result, on October 31, 2000, the album was certified platinum by the American Association of Recording Companies ^[29] . In support of the album, three singles were released: “ Judith ”, “ 3 Libras ” and “ The Hollow ”, which became commercially successful. So, in the American chart Billboard Mainstream Rock, all three singles took 4, 12 and 14 positions, respectively ^[30] .

The album was met mostly positively. Reviewer of the AllMusic music site Ned Raggitt praised the musical component of the album, praising “Kinan’s breathtaking combination of aching vocals and Haurdell’s excellent songs, as well as his production skills, which made this album like a splash in 2000 - the best that was in modern rock” ^{[7 ]} . Melody Maker magazine commented on the release with the following words: “these are Killing Joke and Jane's Addiction ; these are Soundgarden and Alice In Chains ; Kinan's beautifully intimate voice is pushed forward along its entire length, and these are the absorbed folds of his throat, which pull you deeper ” ^[9] . The NME magazine wrote: “Studying their tainted visions, A Perfect Circle created a work of unhealthy beauty. From the point of view of gloom, he eclipses almost everything ” ^[10] . Rolling Stone's Pat Blashill, stating that “A Perfect Circle sounds like a desperate dream of a former rock image. Maybe it was thought so ” ^[4] . Stuart Green from Exclaim! described the album as “a fairly straightforward rock record, at least by the standards of the Tool ”, adding that “with the addition of the kind violinist of the bass player Paz Lanshantin , flute and other attributes of the prog-rock, the record takes on a much more dynamic character, while maintaining its severity ” ^[5] .

In 2005, in a book published by the German music site Rock Hard , where there is a top "500 of the best rock and metal albums of all time", Mer de Noms took 443rd place ^[31] . Also, the album took 15th place in the Loudwire top "Best Hard Rock Debut Albums" ^[32] . In 2016, the music publishing company Metal Hammer placed the album on its list of “10 Most Important Alt Metal Albums” ^[1] .

All texts are written by Maynard Jamos Keenan , all music is written by Maynard James Keenan and Billy Howard .

A perfect circle

• Maynard James Keenan - vocals , Kalimba (in composition 12);
• Billy Haurdel - back vocals (on tracks 1, 4, 5, and 9-11), guitar (on tracks 1-11), bass (on tracks 1-6, 8, 10, and 11), keyboards (on the track 5), the piano (in tracks 9 and 12);
• Troy Van Leven - solo guitar (in tracks 7 and 10);
• Paz Lanshantin - backing vocals (on tracks 4, 5 and 9), violin (on tracks 3, 6 and 9), bass guitar (on track 7);
• Josh Frieze - percussion (on track 9), drums (on tracks 2-11);

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