Hi. I'm Ethan. First of all, I'm in a similar vein as yourself; I discovered this band in middle school, and I am 20 now. This band has privately helped me develop identity, prepared me for some harrowing psychedelic events, and I'm happy that it's brought me some celebratory moments with some close friends as well. Before I delve into this shpeal here, I want to tell you that I love where you're coming from with all this, though I have a slightly different take to offer.
I've exhausted this band's work at this point. Like most of the tool freaks I've dissected each piece, and my ideas about them have gone through so many shifts relative to how much I've changed throughout the last few years.
(quick note, I just finished writing this, and its loooong. Bear with me! <3)
Firstly, I want to bring up their name. I read someplace that Maynard stated their name is a verb, not a noun. "To tool", or, to tool your way through a moral dilemma. Because this word represents a very large and abstract concept, it can make a wide range of impressions on a listener before they're even a listener. Any tool is significant, because it is how we gauge intelligence in the animal kingdom. It is used by something conscious to get a reaction somewhere else. It's a fundamental thing in art itself.
It's also a big dick joke. I think that's really key to the band as well- Soooo many fans take them so serious. And it's understandable, because they've brilliantly expressed some very inexpressible things within the musical arrangements along (lyrics aside). But a lot of what makes them THEM, is that in any given section of any given song in their catalog, they're expressing like three different perspectives on any given subject. Tool's music is constructed in a way that could be related by any human being in any time period. If you translated his words into Japanese and showed it to someone in Japan four hundred years ago, this music would be relevant. (You can't say that about their shitty contemporaries.) And because their name is taken as slang for dick, they're kind of getting to the solid root of what it is to be a human. That is not to exclude women; I simply mean that they took a human body part (natural and necessary to our survival, as a boy it is an intensely sensitive and inherently creative aspect of your human being) and they LEGITIMIZED it. They took what many would consider either a taboo or a juvenile subject, and said the obvious profound things to be found.
Opiate describes our relationships with stimulation in general, I think. Sweat starts their journey off in a vague but emotional place, describing what I feel to be a placement within great conflict. There is the subject, and the "other" which is whispering to him, dragging him. Interacting with him. Hush legitimizes a lot of what you find in punk ethos, without giving an intellectual much reason to just simply say, "oh, well, you know, punk rock is a bunch of angry losers". Part of Me, I think, represents their very name. Its his dick. But its also his voice, and his need to organize his voice in art. Cold and Ugly, to me, is just a super straightforward badass rock song. It is commentary on social insecurity, and how removed it is from real life. Jerk-Off is special, as it deals with our complacency to just let our governments and institutions tell us what is right and wrong when we need to learn that for ourselves. He doesnt REALLY want to kill someone. Hes not even playing a character here either. He's just saying, if this strikes you as negative and terrible, then you should consider what he's saying about criminality in the first place. Opiate is a caricature of religion- exposing the hell-state it creates and its ability to perpetually use you. TO make you ITS tool, whether it is a religious institution, a government, a ruler.
Undertow is the nasty inner void that this all creates. It is inspired by their very real experiences of course, but I think that in most of their music, Maynard isnt really himself. Hes not trying to be anything for you. It is music that can be related to by anyone, from any time. So I think many of these songs are stories, characters studies, of what happens to human beings. Though many of the songs are different subjects (I take Sober to be about alcoholism, while Crawl Away is the type of evil anger that comes from possesive love, etc.) they run in the same negative vein. The Undertow isn't one specific place. It is a state of mind. A state of the world, and its societies. 4 Degrees for instance, is about anal sex... but its more than that. in the book 1984, the two lovers are prohibited to love- though their humanness is too strong. They let it in, no matter how much it frightened them. I'm bisexual, this song really fucking touched me. Fear of self and sexuality is a very real and sad thing. Im not going into any more detail except to note that (note Flood) Tool uses water as a metaphor quite, quite often. Consciousness is like water. Addictions and habits, to any degree, substance based or otherwise... they are undertows.
That theme of water continues into AEnima. One obvious difference with this album and Undertow is that its funnier. Way funnier. So Im not going to talk about the interludes. It opens with the disturbing metaphor of fisting- which, like their name and with more detail, describes something that is very sensitive in a sardonic way, with an element of humor. Brilliant introduction. It sums up a lot of what came before it, addictions and whatnot. But it also discusses the human anus (taboo to discuss socially, generally) which is a very sensitive place, it's funny to talk about for the very reasons its taboo, an as a natural aspect of ourselves the song invokes a feeling of unnatural intrusion. Its really amost about heroin, or something of the like. It also says something about the state of our society- not just the aspects of constant stimulation and need and deterioration of soul, but that our society is so bereft of feeling that one would need to write this song in the first place just to reach you. Eulogy is also sardonic, deals with scapegoating and that aspect of ourselves which doesnt want to be held accountable. SOme say its about jesus, other say its hubbard, I think its yourself, and you directing that to yourself and not tolerating that type of shit. Empowering yourself. Aenema, to me, is on that same level of complexity. Its about mother nature. Its about recognizing that we inevitably are about to hit a new stage in the human story. We have to grow up, learn to swim in the water we were once drowning in. The water of our consciousness, as well as the world. The inner and the outer are no different. You have to learn to use yourself as a tool, if youre going to navigate this change. Materialism and consumerism, you cant take these things with you. Then theres Third Fucking Eye. D Motherfucking T. That's all I have to say about that.
So yeah. Tool, Aenima. A big dick joke and a big poop joke, but poignant and legitimized.
Lateralus. The name implies the reflective movement of an object in a domain of two dimensions. But to laterally think, you have to use your imagination as an extra dimensional springboard relative to the three spatical and single temporal one we got right now. The grudge is hell. It is pure resistance. Could be towards a partner, but I take it to mean much more broadly and deeper than that. also note, most of it is in some variation of 5 time- Five fingers. Let go. It also deals with alchemy- I strongly recommend you check out Terence McKenna's talk on hermetic gnosticism. SERIOUSLY. There are a lot of tool fans who talk about really obscure shit, and 90% of that is not even what the band is about. But... just trust me. He talks about alchemy, shamanism, and MUSHROOMS. It makes a lot of sense. The Patient. "Time heals all wounds". Also in 5 time, even rhythmically identical in few parts. It is the other side to the Grudge. The album itself is like metaphysical surgery. Schism, again, a part of that healing process of course. Lateralus, fibonacci, yeah. You read me. Note the name TRIAD. The last three songs, (known as a "tryptich" when in reference to a three-part painting series) only constitutes three members. Ultimate celebration of music, with a humble gesture by Maynard.
I love 10,000 Days in its own right, but it doesn't seem to follow a linear process. I think thats part of why some dont like it. It took the advice of its predecessor, Lateralus. I consider it a B-Sides record of material existent during both Ae and Lat perids, and is probably an album meant to be ordered in any way the listener would like. Never bought the wings/days sync. Sounds awful. Never bought Lateralus' spiral, either, tbh.
Holy shit. I hope that wasnt too much. Thanks for reading my take on some art already beloved and thoroughly interpreted. If you'd like, please tell me what you think. Smiles!