Love

[Andorion]

Sounds to me like the only word being said in this track is "Love", with some fuunky distortion and feedback effects going on.

Listen to it again with headphones on, not turned up too loud, in a quiet place.

There are two distinct tracks... the deep droning background and a seperate 'voice' over it, which occasionally peaks then eachoes away, repeatedly. (The droning background also gets louder and quieter, by the way.) Listen to the voice track, ignore the droning... the O in the word love is the peak (Loooove), and the word is repeatedly echoed until it fades away.

That's the way I hear it, at least, and it fits with the title of the track =)

-Berj

[plexus]

its a cat

[UniDeaL]

i'm a cat too...u make me laugh out loud...who said that it's a cat? maynard? and u believed him? oohhhhh see my reply in 'maynards cat' page 3....i can make that sound in my professional studio using my equipment...that's all

and the reason and meaning is really could be artificially-created word 'love' then...depends on what did they want to put in that meaning...really like Schism oreview, a song about broken communication and knowing that the pieces fit...
almost agree with andorion

[Andorion]

Even if the droning sound on Mantra is Maynard's cat, there are two overlaid tracks.... the droning is in the background, the word 'Love' is in the foreground, being echoed.

-Berj

[lastdaiz001]

mantra...prayer

[Schist_Head]

Now come on. If you understand Maynards sense of humor I can see him squeezing his cat and playing with the sounds it belches out. Besides, on the Toolband website and Toolarmy site there is a consensus that it is his cat. Pretty funny eh! I too initially thought that it was whales or perhaps noise from a wind cave. It is amazing what you can do with simple sounds just by mixing them.

[Phlame]

a kitty prayer ehh?

well y wud they title it mantra if it wer kitty squeez sounds?
usually the titles hav meenings to tool songs like
schizm is a split and it talks about it "i no the peices fit kuz i watched them fall away" and if u seeen the music ideo that is prevalent also when at the end the two pples form into 1