hahah. True on G n' R. If you took away odd meters from Tool and their tone, they'd be a rambling metal band. Danny Carey is a solid drummer though. I do like a few of their tracks, but don't confuse odd time with something amazing.
that's not really fair because that's like saying "if you take away slash's riffs, g'n'r is a boring 80s band". you can't start taking away pieces of the music and then judging it like that. i have all of tool's albums, and musically g'n'r just can't hold a candle to them.
maybe you like more standard rock, in which case tool sounds like some sort of pompous art project, but lateralus is one of my favorite CDs, and the fact that three tracks on 10,000 days combine into one giant track is simply amazing. g'n'r is a rock band, tool is a musical experience. it's completely retarded to compare the two.
appetite for destruction is one of the greatest rock CDs ever made. tool isn't a metal band, they're spaced-out prog rock. you might as well compare aerosmith with radiohead.
physically? i believe maynard has a couple of black belts in something or other, and there's a video of him choking out some guy that runs up on stage.