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View Full Version : Reflection is Life


Vile1011
03-24-2003, 09:08 AM
Somebody on an earlier thread made an observation that Reflection started off from a drum line Danny thought of that the others just built off of. Which got me thinking about something. I wouldn't bet against the idea that the beginning of Reflection sounds exactly like it did when Tool just started jamming. Usually they jam to find good sounds, then put them together to form a great song. The intro to Reflection, though, is raw Tool. It's Tool without the paint and polish.

It's almost like instead of forming the song behind the scenes and putting the finished product on the CD, they decided to build the song from infancy before our very eyes(or ears, or whatever). This really made me think of the song in a new way, giving it a stronger sense of growth and evolution. Reflection is the thought process and writing style of Tool all in one song. It's a glimpse of how a Tool song forms.

By the time the epic climax arrives, you're totally connected to the music, because you were there when it was born. You were there when it grew, when the pieces began to form and find their place. You watched it mature into a powerful song. And when it finally dies down, you know it's accomplished something. The song has had an actual life. It's not just a bunch of notes, it's almost like a living, breathing being.

Usually, 11 minute songs are just strings of melodies placed end on end with no sense of direction. Reflection though, starts out simple and develops gradually over time, until it finally reaches maturity. When Tool writes an 11 minute song, they write A song, not just a bunch of similar sounding parts thrown together.

One could think of Disposition as the primordial soup from which life grew, and Triad as the afterlife. Maybe the reason Triad is so different is because the end of Reflection signifies the end of a song's life, and Triad represents the eternity beyond.

I think the birth-life-death theme of Disposition/Reflection/Triad is something that definitely should be looked at further.

Vile1011
04-21-2003, 07:34 PM
(reading this again)

Wow, this IS really boring. No wonder nobody read it.

theologue
04-25-2003, 06:08 AM
I think that is a GREAT interpretation of that song. Its not the meaning that TooL though of when they made the songs, but it definately makes tons of sense. Instead of trying to put all of their ideas into a 3 minute song, they start out with one idea and let that one last for a while, then add something else, and then something else, and keep doing that until the song is over and ends up being 11 minutes long.
Excellent way of thinking of the song, i had not thought of it like that.
I think this can be applied to more than one song actually, like triad.

theologue
04-25-2003, 06:18 AM
I think that is a GREAT interpretation of that song. Its not the meaning that TooL though of when they made the songs, but it definately makes tons of sense. Instead of trying to put all of their ideas into a 3 minute song, they start out with one idea and let that one last for a while, then add something else, and then something else, and keep doing that until the song is over and ends up being 11 minutes long.
Excellent way of thinking of the song, i had not thought of it like that.
I think this can be applied to more than one song actually, like triad.

XiPHiaS
04-26-2003, 06:26 AM
Did anyone notice that when Disposition ends, the rhythm is a bit gone and than Reflections rhythm kicks in as if someone was lost and has found his way again....