So speaks the troll that posts pointless **** in this thread

I think he's probably referring to your attitude more than your opinion itself.

Why was the post deleted? He was just stating his opinion...

You obviously didn't read the part where he called someone an uptight fuck (could have been bitch, or cunt) and referred to his participation in this thread as a "fanboy wank party". Not to mention the previous deleted comment.

Yea, that was all part of his 'opinion'...

Ohhhhh nope, didn't read that bit before it was deleted. Gotcha :)

Tool lyrics: "Reflection".
 

I recently rediscovered a song by Tool called "Reflection". I didn't really get the lyric back when I first heard it about 4-5 months after Lateralus was released, but I find it very relatable now. Let me say before I paste it that i don't intend copyright infringement or anything, not that it should matter either way. Ok, Here goes:

I find that I have come curiously close to the end, now.
Beneath my self-indulgent pitiful hole.
Defeated I conceded; move closer.
I may find comfort here.
I may find peace within the emptiness - how pitiful.
It's calling me.
It's calling me.
It's calling me.
It's calling me.

And in my darkest moment, fetal and weeping,
the moon tells me a secret, a confidant.
"As full and bright as I am, this light is not my own.
A million light reflections pass over me."
The source is bright and endless, she
resuscitates the hopeless
Without her we are lifeless satellites drifting.

And as I pull my head out I am without one doubt
Don't want to peer down here, serving my narcissism,
I must crucify the ego before it's far too late.
I pray the light lifts me out before I hide away.
before I pine away.
before I pine away.
before I pine away.

So crucify the ego
before it's far too late
to leave behind this place so
negative and blind and cynical.

And you will come to find that we are all one mind
capable of all that's imagined, and all conceivable.

Just let the light touch you,
just let the words spill through,
just let them pass right through,
bringing out our hope and reason.

Before we pine away.
Before we pine away.
Before we pine away.
Before we pine away.
:clap:

You know, reading that just made me realize that in my 17 years of Tool fan-dom I don't think I've ever read any of their lyrics.

I don't believe I have before this one, though I could be wrong....

I dunno if you're being serious or not but that's Korn you're thinking of there...

Blasphemy!
I remember when I found out about lyrics websites, Tool was the first band I looked up the first time I visited one. Maynard's singing is hard to understand sometimes... a lot of the time... and after reading the lyrics I realized how badly I butchered them prior to that.

oooppsss
 

I found the correct thread & name of band and now I have to listen to some disturbed, first thing I could find on Korn in the forum search, then I will have to see if I have anything by Tool, I know they have a couple of songs I like so I guess I will kill three birds with one stone.
Or maybe I should quit while Im ahead! lol...I just cant seem to do anything right today, I think its a combination of being senile and burnt out at the same time.
signing off.....later....Thanks.

It's all good, Tool is a must if you like some well written intelligent songwriting.

I've been throwing them in the car player recently and they're just hitting the spot right now.

I think whats really appealing to me is that they don't play anything I'd ever play, and because of that, anything I could ever play.

Sometimes I listen and think of what it would take for me to ever write, "melody-wise" what they write. The vocal lines are so disjointed, for lack of a better term, and jagged that it consistently holds my interest.

Also, Maynard might not be the best singer ever, but he writes with his voice, and it makes for some interesting note choices.

Except Rosetta Stoned... That **** is all over the place. Love the chosen one verse.

I love that, it's disturbed and frenzied because you're stuck in the middle of this guys thought pattern. I don't think it's meant to make sense... :hphones:

"The Chosen one, They chose me..."
I love that line as well...

Rosetta Stoned is the best damn song on 10,000 Days.

Rosetta Stoned is epic. Can any other song contain as many different riffs?

It's up there definately, but the best song on 10000 has to go too Wings For Marie (pt2).

... You were my witness, my eyes, my evidence, Judith Marie, unconditional one.

:bowdown:
WIN

Yeah I'll agree with this one. That whole lead up is ****ing incredible. All the weird little vocal landings in there are so good

"...What they gunna do when the lights go down, without you to guide them all zion, what they gunna do when the rivers overrun other than tremble incessantly..."

that and

"Fetch me the spirit, the son, and the father, tell them there pillar of faith has ascended"

Wings For Marie (pt2) is definitely up there too, but falls second place for me.

I love those lyrics, Big3. Some of my favorite Tool lines, too, but my top album has got to be Lateralus. I perceive it as more of a transitional album for them and I can relate to it more. The lyrics and theme of the album always blows me away. What a great album for personal and spiritual growth.

"I embrace my desire to
feel the rhythm, to feel connected
enough to step aside and weep like a widow
to feel inspired, to fathom the power,
to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain,
to swing on the spiral
of our divinity and still be a human."

My favorite from that album is Parabol//Parabola

"this body, this body holding me, be my reminder here that I am not alone and this body, this body holding me, be my reminder here that all this pain is an illusion."

Lateralus though comes after many years (5?) of many different things happening. I have to give them credit - I don't know how many bands would have survived.

Edit: Hey, having said that I went back and listened to some Undertow. What do you think of his voice now? I sort of miss whats here on Undertow/Aenima.

Aenima will always be my favourite Tool album :D

Parabol/Parabola are my favourites off it, too. And one of my favourite lyrics ever is the line "we are eternal, all this pain is an illusion."

As for Undertow/Aenima and Maynard's voice, I don't have time to comment in depth right now but listen to the vocals in Pu**** at about 8.27-8.35 minutes. It gives me shivers every time.

When I first discovered Lateralus, the first song I would always skip to was "Parabol". I've survived a lot of **** because of "The Patient" and Danny Carey's performance in "Schism" always catches me off guard, but "Parabol" is a musical womb. Albeit the similarity in lyrics in "Parabol" and "Parabola", "Parabol" delivers a tone more definitive, more personal. Periodically, it feels like the chant-like tone of Maynard's voice and the echoing guitar is abruptly interrupted by "Parabola". Perhaps it symbolizes some sort of awakening, but to me, it's an abrasive mask over such moving lyrics.

I love Undertow and Aenima for the rawness and anger. The expressions and emotions are in-you-face. There are hints of that in later albums (Lateralus and 10,000 Days), but it's subtle. The vocals are a huge factor in this. I enjoy the different vocal ranges Maynard explores. He definitely has a distinct sound, but like someone said in an earlier post, he writes his lyrics based on vocals. The fact that most of their lyrics are ****ing brilliant is testament to how talented he is, but also how lyrically limiting this might have been. I enjoy his growth and range as a vocalist, but I do prefer the rougher side when it comes to sound.

EDIT: Lateralus, I know exactly what you're talking about in Pushit. I remember noticing it for the first time while I was running, and I just stopped moving for a bit. I can't tell you how many times I listened to the song that day.

I just LOVE how Parabol segues into Parabola! That solo is godly... in fact the whole thing is godly. It sort of has its own momentum if you know what I mean - it's as if you're riding on a wave while listening to it. P/P is the best thing Tool have ever done IMO and that's saying a lot... I guess I'm still a fanboy :D

Meanwhile, the prospect of this excites me. I feel that Adam Jones is one of the few modern guitarists who really *gets* the Frippian anti-solo concept so this could end up being quite interesting. In fact, I think it was MJK who said that King Crimson is pretty much the band they'd been ripping off over the years.

^

That sounds great...I really wonder what they could come up with. King Crimson was always better when they were exercising their heavier side, so throwing in Adam Jones in the mix sounds like it could lead to nothing but pure gold.

Nice! I love KC, and can't wait for this! Adam Jones has always been my favorite Tool member, and I'd love to see him work outside of the band.

Tool has, for me, always been something of an anomoly. Because while every other **** band out there was writing the same old things with the same distoredted power chords, TOOL was out on Mars.

The topics might have been bumper sticker politics, but the lyrics were such a massive diversion from the same stupid "i'm going to be politically active by yelling angrily as a name-less 'you'." lets take Stinkfist for example:

Every band was warning us about oversaturation, about letting the television tell us what to do, how we're all just becoming whatever, and then Tool, who takes that conceept and marries it with an even more meathead topic, anal sex, makes a masterpiece by never really mentioning either.

I'm not going to call MJK a poet because I don't think thats what he does on albums (he may be privately, who knows) but he's got a poets eye for the world. This device that he uses in Stinkfist, take a character doing activity X and basically talking about Y (and X i guess) at the same time is exactly what Adrienne Rich and Sylvia Plath were doing while writing poetry.

Beyond this, while other bands were out there following a formula well treaded by everyone else, TOOL was trailblazing through uncharted territory, making music that was more identifiable by its erractic "mistakes" than its solos or riffs. Who doesn't always remember Sober's feedback at the begining, or Eulogys highhat work around the end of the song (mintue 5 maybe?).

TOOL was strange as an entity back in 1996. The bridged the gap between Distrubed and Soundgarden, between Korn and Primus, Between Ozzfest and Lollapalooza and the art gallery opening down the street. TOOL's most major and underated accomplisment to me was that the showed everyone what was really possible if you just did what you loved. Loved enough to really learn it, and put effort into it.

They followed no trend, and while they weren't an end point (I wouldn't say TOOL is the final stop on anyones muscial progression) they certainly were a boarding pass to deswtinations previously seen as well beyond the reach of many young nu-metal heads. To leave them out of the best of the 90's is inexcusable and ignorant. its not a question of whether or not you like them, its a question of whether or not we need them, and if any act was the rope throw to a man drowning in a well of fecal matter, TOOL is that rope.

That was the most insightful and thoughtful post I've seen in an age. You really spoke the truth there. This thread now belongs to you... :bowdown:

I like how the reason most of us seem to like Tool is because of songs like "Rosetta Stoned" while at the same time that's why a lot of people don't like Tool.

What people hate Rosetta Stoned?

Rosetta Stoned is my favourite Tool song. *hides*

Is this a joke?

I don't know it's top 5 anyway.

A lot of people don't like Tool because of the things they do on songs like it.

Pus**t is such a TUNE! My favorite Tool song atm.

Check out the live version on salival.

"I want you to close your eyes and go to a place that's comfortable yet vunerable, close your eyes and go there. We'll see you on the other side"

Songs like rosetta stoned is definetly one of the reasons I love Tool. My favorite with them atm is Jambi. Another on the top five is Stinkfist.

As far as I gather Tool is one of those bands that you either like or don't like. Like either you get it or you don't.