I wouldn't describe either as pretentious...far from it.
Musically they've always been honest about their influences.
If you mean their overall attitude, then your mistaking pretentiousness for over confidence, bordering on cockiness.
Both are typical Mancunians with more front than Blackpool.

Tool is pretentious fo' sho. I think its almost part of their charm.... for me anyway.

It goes beyond confidence and ****iness when you continuously state explicitly that you're the greatest rock band on earth and label the entire indie scene as worthless and unimportant simply for being indie and "small-time". That's getting into the realms of ideology.

Saying you're the best band in the world isn't pretention , it's confidence / arrogance.

Saying you're the best band in the world and you can do anything you want , so you're going to write a rock opera about the life of Kofi Annan on the xylophone , THATS pretention.

Actually, I tend to agree.

It reaches the level of pretentious if you start mentioning snooty reasons as to why you are the best band in the world. Merely stating that you are is not quite pretention. It's only delusion and idiocy.

Then we're agreed on Oasis then?
Apart from the delusion and idiocy bit.

We're agreed. But come on, brah. How can it be anything other than delusion when it's 2008, you're Oasis, and you think you have any justification in saying you're the best band on earth?

It's called unswerving self belief.
The very stuff that had them succeed in the first place.
It's certainly not delusion, although Liam is an idiot...I'll give you that. ;)

It's delusion, if it's far from being the truth. And it is!!!

I prefer to call it, inaccurate self belief. :bringit: