The secret to Tool's "Lateralus"

[Evan84]

Sounds like pretentious Tool fanboy fag shit to me!

 

[ggggggu]

lateralus is a good cd. everyone should go listen to king crimson right now. buy all of their albums.

isn't king crimson like the band that opened for tool few years ago? they were quite good. they were old tho! LOL

 

[benjikong]

I don't post often, but I felt like putting in my thoughts, regardless. I feel that people take the music they love very seriously, and that's OK. Granted, it can become obsessive, but that's the nature of an art as powerful as music. Tool may have done all or none of those things w/ Lateralus. I love the album regardless. I've created my own personal meaning for the album. I tend to think that most bands want people to find their own meanings for their music. If someone wants to think it's just a good rock album (or even bad) or something deeper, it's up to them. I wouldn't criticize either point of view. Incidently, I feel this way about Opeth and all of the bands I enjoy, as well.

 

[Abou]

isn't king crimson like the band that opened for tool few years ago? they were quite good. they were old tho! LOL

Yeah, and though Tool does kick massive amounts of ass, it should have been the other way around.

 

[the alumnus]

did you read my post? they wanted people like the one above in the first post to have to figure out on their own. of course very little are gonna bother trying to find something, but its for the few that try.

yes, but not everyone has the specialized equippment in order to rearrange the album as the original post described. so if this is true, then tool is the rich man's band; poor people need not purchase album. that i find disgusting.

 

[KielbasaSausage]

so if this is true, then tool is the rich man's band; poor people need not purchase album. that i find disgusting.

oh shut up.

finger out of your ass yet?

 

[Colonial Boy]

soooooo..whats the "correct" order of the tracks then? I'm too lazy to work it out myself.

 

[jinks]

my secret to tool lateralus:

Dont listen to it.. its shit.

you are now enlightend.

 

[wankerness]

Well, just because it's COMPLICATED AND FITS TOGETHER IN BIZARRE WAYS doesn't mean it's good. I personally think it's MODERATELY GOOD. It's certainly better than the pile of crap that Aenima was (although Forty Six & Two was kinda cool), but the whole fanboy thing seems to be revolving around the fact that THEY HAVE COMPLICATED LYRICS. Their music sure as hell isn't complex (well, at least not BEFORE LATERALUS), bleh. I really do agree with a lot of that somethingawful article, but I do enjoy some of lateralus.

Oh yeah, the guy who said that thing about Tool laughing their ass off at fans...it's quite possible. They really do seem to hate their fans. Just check out songs like TICKS AND LEECHES. I forget which other ones of their songs are about how awful their fans are, but I know there's at least one more.

 

[Toolmanjpc]

Just taking a look at this board, saw this message and felt i needed to post here..

I am a huge Tool fan, admittidly too much of a fan i think... but i wouldnt want it any other way. Because of Tool, I have read things i never would have read, draw things i never would have drawn, learn things i never would have learned, and found other great music i otherwise would not have found. (Like Opeth!)

Anyhow, one thing missing here about Lateralus, is not only are the DRUMS arranged according to the fib. sequence... Maynards lyrics are too (by syllabal. (coincidence? i think not)..... Think about it.

Black (1) Then (1) White are (2) All I see (3) in my infancy (5) Red and yellow then came to be (8) Reachin out to me (5) Lets me see (3)

This pattern repeats throughout the entire song... every single line breaks into a fibb number. Just a little more to add to the brilliance of this album.

I may add there is also a theroy on the name of the album, one that some here will surly look at as overanalyzed, but errily interesting to those with an open mind. Someone did some research into Lateralus... breaking the name down into elements (La Te Ra Lu S) and researching the latan meaning of the element roots. Turns out a rough translation comes out to mean "Underground in the light of Paris lies the door to Hellfire". Means nothing right? Well, turns out Tool wrote most of this album in a Paris studio near the Renns de la Cheateau.... A church with a very interesting, and dark story behind it that is frequently mentioned in the Tool newsletters and explained deeply on Danny Careys website.

Hope that enhances your listening pleasure.

 

[The Sound Gardener]

if tool did this intentionally, its pretty pathetic that they didn't simply release the album as intended in the correct track sequence.

You're missing the fucking point.

Anyway, I thought it was pretty amazing what they did. Personally I think it would be great if a band like Tool added some weird underlying meaning or puzzle in their album. I'm not saying it's mandatory for me, but it'd be a lot of fun trying to figure it out. Having a little extra like that only adds to the listening experience.

BTW, Tool rules.

 

[anonymousnick2001]

I'm surprised. I did not expect that level of originality and creativity from Tool.

Why? Their music is fucking BORING!!!

That is my opinion, but unfortunately many share my opinion. We've seen and heard better things from KC, Queensryche, DT, Opeth, Yes, Death, Rush, Genesis, ELP, Evergrey, Iron Maiden...and just about any progressive rock band.

The inclusion of Fibonacci numbers is intriguing, and the hidden spiral concept is as well. I just think only the hardcore Tool fans would even bother looking for it.

 

[LYKANTROPEN]

isn't king crimson like the band that opened for tool few years ago? they were quite good. they were old tho! LOL

You have a picture of robert fripp from king crimson at the far left of your signature. Just curious as to what that is all about. I'm not trying to be an ass, i just wondered if you knew that.

 

[Converted]

yes, but not everyone has the specialized equippment in order to rearrange the album as the original post described. so if this is true, then tool is the rich man's band; poor people need not purchase album. that i find disgusting.

The only "specialized equipment" you need to pull this off is a CD burner and the sound recorder that comes with Windows. I think it's safe to say that anyone with a computer (and therefore, anyone reading any of this) has both of these things.

The only other thing you need is software that can convert CD audio tracks to WAV files, and there are several regular CD burning programs that can do this. Once you have the WAV files, you open them in sound recorder where you can delete as much empty space as you want, and even overlap the end of one track and the start of another. It's all very simple -- it just takes some time and the desire to do it.

And even if you have nothing but a CD burner, just rearrange the tracks and burn them. Even though the transitions won't be as smooth, you can still get the point and see the intended order of things. Lyrically it works either way.

It really blows me away that people have such strong opinions about this. If you're interested in it, do it -- I guarantee it will be worth it. If you're not interested in it, then go away and leave the rest of us to our pointless obsessions.

 

[the alumnus]

The only "specialized equipment" you need to pull this off is a CD burner and the sound recorder that comes with Windows. I think it's safe to say that anyone with a computer (and therefore, anyone reading any of this) has both of these things.

The only other thing you need is software that can convert CD audio tracks to WAV files, and there are several regular CD burning programs that can do this. Once you have the WAV files, you open them in sound recorder where you can delete as much empty space as you want, and even overlap the end of one track and the start of another. It's all very simple -- it just takes some time and the desire to do it.

And even if you have nothing but a CD burner, just rearrange the tracks and burn them. Even though the transitions won't be as smooth, you can still get the point and see the intended order of things. Lyrically it works either way.

It really blows me away that people have such strong opinions about this. If you're interested in it, do it -- I guarantee it will be worth it. If you're not interested in it, then go away and leave the rest of us to our pointless obsessions.

i think you missed my point here. i can do it, i have cooledit pro (i don't have lateralus though). my point is that the average person cannot do this. the average person does not have a cd burner, or software to convert files to wavs and back. my point is that the average person who buys lateralus has no way to make this magic trick work. basically tool is saying "fuck our poor fans", and that pisses me off.

 

[Tool]

Tool are my 2nd favorite band (tied with Opeth and behind Maiden). Nad yeha, lateralus is an awesome album, one of my faves of the past few years, but still, I think those epople that work out huge forumals and waste hours upon hours figuring out "holy forumlas" and stuff are a tad obsessive. It's interesting, but, most of the time the thoeries these people come up with are just silly. This one's one of the better I've read. I'm actually listening to the CD in the order, just for kicks.

Edit: All you really need is just a computer. you just copy the tracks into the computer and rearrenge them. It's really not that hard. Besides, the albumk really works any way you listen to it. This is just a different order.

 

[Converted]

i think you missed my point here. i can do it, i have cooledit pro (i don't have lateralus though). my point is that the average person cannot do this. the average person does not have a cd burner, or software to convert files to wavs and back. my point is that the average person who buys lateralus has no way to make this magic trick work. basically tool is saying "fuck our poor fans", and that pisses me off.

I got your point, I just disagree with it. I think the "average person" these days does have access to a CD burner, whether it is their own or a freind's. And as I said, having the software to convert to wavs is recommended, but is not necessary to understand the point of the album.

Actually, you don't even need a CD burner or a computer at all. You can do it with a CD player that has a program feature. I think it's safe to say that 99% of the people that bought the CD have CD players, and most CD players can program tracks in whatever order you want. At any rate, I don't think Tool is quite as evil or inconsiderate as you're making them out to be.

 

[Jock La Crotch]

The person who sat down with graph paper and figured this out has WAY to much time on their hands and needs to get a job. I can use mathmatics to tell you the pattern in my pb&j sandwich proves that Tool is from a different realm, a diffferent time and are here to free our minds. Bah! B.S.! But you know, one time I listened to Tool while watching "Different Strokes".....and nothing happend. I know, I know...fuking freaky!! Certain track order will release a demon? C'mon...I got a bridge that's full of demons I'll sell you real cheap. I've got it posted on the internet so it's absolutly true. Yea, and Opeth plays in my basement every night. Wanna come over? :Spin:

 

[perfecterror]

-wow-

 

[SPLASTiK]

Where’s the appeal of being a Tool fan? Is it the scavenger hunt for all the Bill Hicks references? Is it the fact that Tool is almost prog-rock, but it’s about 3% less nerdy than liking Rush? Perhaps it’s the desire to be part of the most widely-hated club of music dorks this side of Insane Clown Posse fans (even Tool hates Tool fans: “Ticks and Leeches” and “Hooker with a Penis” come to mind). The amount of zealotry surrounding Tool is legendary. Many of the people who requested that I discuss Tool actually went so far as to imply that there was absolutely nothing bad to be said about Tool. Obviously, this could not be farther from the truth.

The vast majority of the e-mails about Tool had the same general gist. “I love Tool, but I hate Tool fans!” Apparently, not only are there hordes of self-righteous Tool fans who think that only people who understand Tool’s many facets are worthy of Tool fandom, but there are also a huge number of Tool fans who totally don’t get Tool and make all the other Tool fans look bad. Well, this is interesting, because I’ve only ever met the self-righteous kind. You’d think if there were ten times as many phony, retarded sheep-like Tool fans as real ones, I would have received quite a few e-mails saying “do tool their awesome cuz they got a video with a clay dude it was rad and Maynard is my god.”

No. There’s only one kind of Tool fan. The Tool fan who thinks that being a Tool fan lets them into some big secret that nobody else gets. They think that only a select few posses the secret Tool decoder ring. They’d love to believe that all the halfwits who listen to Tool actually don’t get it, but really they’re all listening to them for the same reason. The fact of the matter is, any moron can understand Tool, but the hidden appeal of Tool lies in the fact that they give the illusion of being a band for smart people. They do this, as any Tool fan knows, by throwing in jumbled references to high school psychology, obscure religious references, and miscellaneous meaningless nonsense. Bullshit or not, as long as there’s something there to figure out or interpret, it’s going to make some stoned dropout feel smart.

Certainly there’s more to like about Tool than just their connect-the-dots pseudo-intellectualism. For starters, there’s Maynard James Keenan’s (second stupidest name in pop music, next to Idlewild’s Roddy Woomble) halting, breathy, nauseatingly affected crooning. He’s like the Morrissey of hard rock. He’s also a deep, poetic lyricist, having made millions of snickering Beavis-clones feel like subversive badasses for playing songs about fisting in their mom’s minivans (to avoid a few angry e-mails, let me just humor you and say “the song isn’t really about fisting, there’s like… a whole other deeper level, man”). Honestly, it’s difficult to imagine how anyone could mistake his ham-fisted poetry for good. “My shadow / shedding skin / I’ve been picking / my scabs again.” It’s certainly a lot closer to Reznor than it is to Yeats. The man is just singing about angst and non-specific malaise, just like every other whiny hard-rock nerd. I’m sure Tool fans like to argue that he poignantly sings about his own traumatic history of abuse, but come on, it’s not like that’s a rare commodity these days; all it does it put him in the same lofty poetic stratosphere as the guy from Korn.

A lot of Tool fans also like to talk about what an amazing drummer Danny Carey is just because he can do weird time signatures and that really fast prog-rock thumpa thumpa thumpa thing. As for the others, from everything I’ve ever heard of them, their guitar player and bassist are little more than passable (in fact, having heard the song “Lateralus” on the radio, I distinctly recall conspicuously bad guitar work). Furthermore, their albums are about as consistent as Russian roulette; for every catchy pop single like 46 and 2, there’s twice the volume of unlistenable time-filling crap. I’m glad the band loves their fans enough to include a German cookie recipe and an angry answering machine message. Lord knows they didn’t buy the record expecting too many actual songs. Maybe their record label gives them some sort of bonus check if they make their CD exactly 79 minutes long.

They’re the ultimate hybrid of the two most nerdy and worthless styles of music: heavy metal and progressive rock. They barely manage to walk the fine line between complimenting the listener’s intelligence and insulting it. They’re responsible for introducing a level of hilarious faux-satanic mysticism to pop music that we haven’t heard since Hotel California by the Eagles. Their crimes against humanity have not gone unpunished, though; they’re forever cursed to have an unbearable fanbase, terrible haircuts, and videos so gloomy that they verge on hilarious. If you’re a Tool fan and disagree with my summary, feel free to keep your worthless trap shut for once in your whining, self-involved life.