so I'm new to the forums, but i have been a big Tool fan since I was about fourteen. anyways...

I've been reading through this thread( haven't gotten all the way through yet) and one of the trends I've tended to notice is that everyone seems to be trying to analyze the lyrics from the perspective of maynard. Personally I feel that this task is about as futile as trying to analyze the a painting by Dali from his perspective. Instead I've taken a much more personal approach to looking at the songs.

Lateralus- This song to me represents the seperation of emotions and the intellect. We become so obssessed with looking at issues with an anylitical approach that we abandon are emotions and intuitions. The song is almost a ballad of sorts. If we take on the perspective of the character we see his birth and growing and expiriencing the world, allowing him to truly appreciated everything around him. Then we see how he starts to analyze everything and and lose the initial expierience. He becomes to enamored with the inner workings with everything that he loses sight of the actual meanings. Then we see where he regains this connections, where he lets it all go and regains what it means to be human. at this point he once agian begins to feel human and is then able to grow, to ecome more. Once he allows himself to simply be lost in it all he then starts out on the path to enlightenment.

The whole idea sort of fits with the rythm of the idea of so called christ conciousness that maynard seems to deal with. THe song fits very well with the story of THe Buddha, born into a high caste family of Brahmans, then leaves searching for something more to life and is sucked into a very material life and then abandons that and lets himself become completely engulfed with his emotionsand then reaches enlightenment. WE can also look to christ for another example of this, growws up religious, we are then not given the complete story of what happens next in his life and we come back in on when he is reaching enlightenment.

THe whole underlying message is linked closely with the idea of christ conciousness in the gnostic caballa sense, which is the act of enlightenment in which one becomes fully human and fully divine, and also coincides with the ideas put forth in 46&2 which is linked to the ideas of embracing the darker sides of ourselves and then being able to progress on to Melchizadek's concept of enlightenment. ANd like always there is some eveidence of this hidden in the song, mainly the line "as above, so below" which is an esoteric mantra almost closely linked to western esoteric qabalism(note on the different spellings of kaballah: the different spellings are intentional as they relate to the group they are part of. this arises due to the many possible spellings when one converts the hebrew into english. the spelling cabala tends to be a more modern one, qabala tends to be linked to more esoteric groups such as golden dawn or thelema, and kaballah tends to reference more towards the more pure jewish practice of it.) Looking at the evidence and the flow of the songs we can easily see where the ideas of spiritual ascension come into play.

Like I said this is what the song personally represented to me and what I found for myself in it. Any comments are greatly welcomed.

I'm listening to Lateralus right now. Probably one of my favorite cds, very progressive too.

/doesn't have much to say :upset:

excellent post thesefailuresmakeushuman. but, you still only looked at it from a lyrical point of view. Have you tried learning the instruments to lateralus yet? I can do some bass, and all guitar, and I feel that to really understand a song you need to feel it. I feel it by listening to every note, how it coincides with justins riff, and how danny is setting a main rythem flow. Only after you can do all four (lyrically,guitar,bass, and drum) can fully feel and comprehend the song. In my opionion anyway.

[QUOTE=jamesclelland]excellent post thesefailuresmakeushuman. but, you still only looked at it from a lyrical point of view. Have you tried learning the instruments to lateralus yet? I can do some bass, and all guitar, and I feel that to really understand a song you need to feel it. I feel it by listening to every note, how it coincides with justins riff, and how danny is setting a main rythem flow. Only after you can do all four (lyrically,guitar,bass, and drum) can fully feel and comprehend the song. In my opionion anyway.[/QUOTE]

I doubt there's anyone on the planet that do *all* of the parts to more than a couple of Tool songs perfectly. Mostly just because I doubt hardly anyone anyone knows how to play the drums perfectly (for a lot of Tool songs), or have the right effects on the guitar, or has Maynards range and quality, for that matter. That'd be an exceptionally lucky person to be able to do all of that (not at the same time, obviously)

Anyway, yeah, learning how to play a song gives you more feel for it, but it's not essential to be able to feel what a song is, especially learning all of the parts. None of the members of the band can play all the parts and they obviously feel the songs.

When I first heard Tool, I had zero musical knowledge. I found it was just something so epic sounding and complex, that I had to be invovled with the world of music.
So I got a guitar, and began learning all I could. I still have the same appreciation to this day, even though I now know how most of it is performed.

So its not necessary to have any music knowledge to fully appreciate it. There are different ways to appreciate their music, and different people will find it appeallng to them for many reasons.

[QUOTE=Shadius]I doubt there's anyone on the planet that do *all* of the parts to more than a couple of Tool songs perfectly. Mostly just because I doubt hardly anyone anyone knows how to play the drums perfectly (for a lot of Tool songs), or have the right effects on the guitar, or has Maynards range and quality, for that matter. That'd be an exceptionally lucky person to be able to do all of that (not at the same time, obviously)

Anyway, yeah, learning how to play a song gives you more feel for it, but it's not essential to be able to feel what a song is, especially learning all of the parts. None of the members of the band can play all the parts and they obviously feel the songs.[/QUOTE]


yea i agree. I think he meant that you appreciate their abilities more

[QUOTE=Adam Jones is GOD]When I first heard Tool, I had zero musical knowledge. I found it was just something so epic sounding and complex, that I had to be invovled with the world of music.
So I got a guitar, and began learning all I could. I still have the same appreciation to this day, even though I now know how most of it is performed.

So its not necessary to have any music knowledge to fully appreciate it. There are different ways to appreciate their music, and different people will find it appeallng to them for many reasons.[/QUOTE]

dude thats the EXACT same reason i picked up a guitar

rep++

btw, what you think of the avatar
<--------

Had to check twice before I could figure what video it was

/goes to watch Salival just to make sure it is Prison Sex

[QUOTE=Adam Jones is GOD]Had to check twice before I could figure what video it was

/goes to watch Salival just to make sure it is Prison Sex[/QUOTE]


yea, i missed my chance to get that on DVD :upset:

i dont wanna spend 90 on ebay either

Tskk not all of us have salival :upset:

[QUOTE=Adam Jones is GOD]Had to check twice before I could figure what video it was

/goes to watch Salival just to make sure it is Prison Sex[/QUOTE]

by the by, you're right

that used to be my favorite song on the album
im in love with undertow straight into 4 degrees

[QUOTE=clearvision]Tskk not all of us have salival :upset:[/QUOTE]

Thank god for that fantastic record store in Nottingham. Some believe the original copy of the bible is hidden there somewhere :eek:

:lol: I'll get a copy someday, when im as famous as tool...I'll hint i want a copy every interview i get, some fan is bound to donate me a copy...

/...keeps dreaming

/bought Salival (non DVD version) for only 23 bucks.

What?

Mine was £20, so (crappy currency conversion) im guessing thats about the same as what you paid.

I also got the String tribute album from there, and there are a few tribute albums done by various never-heard-of bands there.

You probably paid almost twice what he did. Dosn't matter tho, i'm sure it was worth it. I have Salival, i'd have paid that much for it.

its 90 american on ebay, and that would be like 50 british pound. I was looking for like a month. I dont need the videos THAT much. I got the cd itself burned, and have all the other albums. If i wanna see it, ill just watch it on the computer

Going back to the discussion on Schism; in a Guitar World interview in 2001, I remember the interviewer giving his interpretation of the song. It was along the lines of a relationship experiencing conflict/argument etc. Adam responded that that was a valid interpretation because many positons were valid. That doesn't necessarily mean that Maynard wrote the lyrics about something as simple, but that, like most musicians, the guys in Tool believe one can find their meaning for a song. If you interested in the subjects/ideas Maynard was drawing upon, you must consider the split between the Christian Churches as an important piece.

but then again I don't think tool want you to know what the song means to them, I believe tool wants you to discover something in it for yourself, to use the music to inspire you and grow as a person. schism could be about slicing tomatoes to someone but as long as the get something personal from it the true meaning doesn't matter

Has any new Tool songs leaked or eve been released? I've been a little absent from the land of Tool for awhile and didn't know. My friend said he heard a new song, so Iw as wondering.

[QUOTE=Sliptallica]Has any new Tool songs leaked or eve been released? I've been a little absent from the land of Tool for awhile and didn't know. My friend said he heard a new song, so Iw as wondering.[/QUOTE]

Nope, and honestly if one was leaked now, I wouldnt go snooping around the net looking for it. Im going to wait till im listening to them from the released CD.

Im sure im probably the only person that patient, but thats how I feel about this downloading buisness now

Just registered here.

I just got the Lateralus CD, and I'm wondering if the last 2 minutes about 6:35 on Triad are supposed to be blank? Also, is Faaip de Oaid supposed to have so much static? I'm guessing they both are suppoed to be there but I'm just checking.

Yes on both accounts.

Speaking of Faaip de Oaid, I have the un-altered actual radio recording of it. Anyone care to hear it?

when is the new cd coming out, and how is it gonna call anyways?
:thumb:

I have no clue when the new one is coming out. The band is being very hush hush about it.

Also ive heard the rumor that its going to be a double disk cd.

On the topic of APC who thinks the 'Counting Bodies Like Sheep To The Rhythm Of The War Drums' has a good video? Personally I think it's pretty funny with Bush and stuff yet, It is so true. Bush is taking over peoples mind and turning them into sheep, burning all that is good like books and ruling them with Television. If someone doesn't like his ideals they are labeled a 'traitor' which puts out a message of what he is really like. That's just an opinion though.

You Lied rules. It such a sick guitar riff, it sounds like Black Sabbath or something.

[QUOTE=Remedy]Also ive heard the rumor that its going to be a double disk cd.[/QUOTE]

HOLY ****, if that's true I'm going to cream my pants TWICE.

[QUOTE=Adam Jones is GOD]Nope, and honestly if one was leaked now, I wouldnt go snooping around the net looking for it. Im going to wait till im listening to them from the released CD.

Im sure im probably the only person that patient, but thats how I feel about this downloading buisness now[/QUOTE]

Same here but for me it's about the new The Mars Volta album. I refuse to listen to the leak. I have it on my computer, waiting to listen to when the album comes out in case there are any differences, but I haven't listened yet.