Theres plenty of good music nowadays being made but very few masterpieces. It’s refreshing to know there’s still bands capable of creating absolute masterpieces. Tool never disappoints
One of my favorites as well. Fun fact: The instrumentals are written in their entirety first. Then MJK comes in and adds the lyrics to the music. He said in an interview that he learned a long time ago not to get involved with the group while they were in the midst of the musical creation process. Great reactions, keep em coming!
I don’t believe the instrumentation follows the lyrics. As I understand their process, the three instrumentalists work on the song….sometimes for a VERY long time, until they have what they want. They then send it to Maynard so he can add the lyrics. So he makes his lyrics fit into all the different time signatures. Pretty incredible.
I came on to add this comment. As I also remember they will make adjustments for Maynard Also Maynard has said he will make suggestions for the arrangement of the music and they essentially politely tell him to stay in his lane.
This is one of my fave tool songs, Justin absolutely smashes this out the park IMO. I really think you should listen to this album in order, u can do front to back or back to front but its 100% themed and you miss that playing random songs of the album.
If you're interested in watching how the time signatures shift during this song, give my drum transcription of Descending a watch: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EhjmOoEHHcQ.html
Thank you. 😊 A top favourite TOOL tune for me. Not that it is as “wild” or unique as a lot of their others, but the message & overall vibe of this one give it a very special status. I watch a lot of reactions, and your style, analysis, and appreciation are by far the best. Thanks again.
Just an FYI, TOOL makes the music first, then sends it to Maynard, and then he writes the lyrics to the music. They're on a different level than your average musicians. Lol
@ around 8 min into the video, when you checked to see how long was left.. and it was only half way through... I've been there. And you think to yourself, "hell yes, this is only midway. Lets go!" Such a great song. I love that Tool throws out rules and just makes art. You're doing great with the reactions. Spiral out, my friend.
This song is all about our collective arrogance and apathy as humans. It’s chilling and so poignant. Another masterpiece of an album. The emotions Tool extricates from us is because as fans, we’re also cognizant humans. We see and feel the cataclysm of our existence. It’s all very real and relevant. No listen to Invincible!
First time hearing this song WOW WOW! LOVED Carey’s drums here. Damn he’s fast with those fills! Highlight for me was the guitar work: so many different sounds he got from his instrument! Parts of it took me back to late 60’s and $0’s actually, as it sounded like he was using a wah wah pedal. Or its modern equivalent, a sound I’ve always loved.
He really does play around with a range of sounds and oddly timed "solos". I lose myself in them and then snap back to Danny's drumming like "oh right he's just going crazy this whole time". 👍
I believe the writing process is that the music is all laid down first and then Maynard puts his vocals in. Which I think might be even harder to tailor the vocal melody to the beat. I love your analysis. Definitely more Tool. It sounds like you have a lot of recommendations. The Tool army will not steer you wrong.
Another band with a very talented drummer is Leprous. Baard Kolstad, the drummer, is also in the band Rendezvous Point. He has a bunch of drum play throughs on his YT channel if you’d like to check those out.
Danny: I'm playing this bit in 11 Adam: Well, if you do that I'm playing in fives Justin: I'm not being left out of the primes, so I'll just play threes By the time you can figure it out, the band moves on and plays something entirely different. It does start to have a very circular feel where the "ones" match up. What a band. Another thing to pay attention to is the evolution of the band. From their first to last album the songs have become more and more complex especially with regard to how they use time signatures. To me, they are so musical that the actual time signatures cease to matter, it's just Tool.
Any piece that bends time & space around it, is “just TooL”. Happens to be most of them over 5mins (which happens to be the majority of their pieces from Undertow to FI)
The 3 instrumentalists record all the music without Maynard, and then it's sent to him to hear and write. It's probably one of the reasons there're only 5 albums in 30 years, but dam good results.
Not that it matters all that much because it’s a just a good song …but just some more accurate time signatures. Most of the song is in 7/8 (believe this was Justin’s riff initially) but is typically resolved with a short 9/8 right around the chorus, if you wanna call it that (believe Adam decided to add that part). Then it is in 11/8 for a while… a lot of the guitar “solo” even though I don’t consider anything in Tool a solo , is back in 7/8. Just a really cool variation and strangely pleasing to the ear
Tool does not actually base their time signatures over the lyrics. It is the opposite, the band writes the music first, then Maynard will write his lyrics over the mostly finished or in some cases finished instrumental
afaik this is not always the case (re: lyrics). he is constantly writing, so he will also use lyrics (or poems) he has already written that seem to fit the music and creates melodies around them. none-the-less, totally agree on the overall creative process. Maynard won't start putting in the lyrics and melodies until they've got the music pretty much dialed in. at times in the past, he has "finished" lyrics and melodies only to have Justin, Adam and Danny then change the music - which left him having to "do it all over" again!
I’m not an expert on time signatures, but in interviews Danny Carey said that the theme of 7 was common in the album. The last song 7empest he mentioned 21.
Have you listened to Pushit? If not there's a good way to do it. Listen to the album version first. Then listen to the Salival live version. And you have to then watch the live version. Shows the range of the band and their absolute genius.
I've become a mega fan over the last 4 years. It took me 2 years of listening to them for it to seriously click. I have seen them 7 times and countin since 2020. You absolutely must see them live, it's immaculate.
The songs we suggest to be played in order are meant to be listened to that way. Not 1 at a time, but literally back to back to back. As if they were one song. Don't listen to them each solo. It absolutely ruins the affect the song is meant to have.
Not a criticism but try not to concentrate so much on the time signatures etc, just let the song take you places, the time signatures etc can be studied after. Ya only get to listen to it first once, I wish I could again.....sorry from a Tool nut!!! 😂😂😂. But great video anyway. Can't wait for more
i really like this song but man, they stretched the fuck out of it... i think it would be more potent absent such heavy repetition and undesirably resolved build ups... all the ingredients are there, but they fucked up in the structure
