InsolentBystander
07-18-2006, 10:34 AM
This is my first post. Hello everybody. I'm Brent.
Many people have mentioned the "recycled riffs from 'Schism'" (i.e. the triplets and the drone riff). I personally feel that it's over the top to say that if two riffs are played in a similar style or with the same technique (palm-muting or whatever) that the one that came second is recycled. I also think that it's giving a band too much credit to justify your belief of this unoriginality by saying this was done for a purpose - to connect two songs.
However, the more I listen to 10,000 Days (which now may have overtaken Lateralus as my fav album) the more I think this may be exactly what Tool have done. I.e. "We've already given our message. Here's a different angle. Refer back to 'Schism' then come back." Some may feel this to be a copout but I think it's pretty clever.
"Vicarious", to me, is about the cause and effect of a schism. It's about relationships breaking down because people don't pay enough attention to "supposed lovers/brothers", living vicariously through their TV families instead and never nurturing their own. The opening lines refer not only to what the protagonist of "Vicarious" watches on TV for cheap thrills, but also to the extreme result of the breaking down of relationships in the first place. It's cyclic. Tragedy thrills us which results in tragedy. All the lines refer to people, who should be close, killing one another. Except "drowned by the ocean", which may be suicide Virginia Wolff style, or perhaps it's a metaphor for tears of sadness (lol. Longshot).
"I need to watch things die... from a distance." We are willing to watch the lives of others, but we put very little effort into our own. We are cowardly and afraid. We watch our own relationships die and do nothing because we are all too willing to consume and not willing to produce, to create, to nurture.
It's almost as if human nature is to want to see things fall apart because happiness can never be as exciting as turmoil. Plus it takes more work than unhappiness. We sabotage our own lives. We want war, we want to fight. We watch things happen even though we have the power to stop them. We want to see how far things will go. If we see something bad is about to happen we let it happen because we want to watch the aftermath. This is how relationships fall apart. This of course spirals out on a grand scale. Let's not forget that the actual meaning of the word "schism" is for a group to split into two factions. This brings us neatly to "Right in Two."
Instead of consuming so many of other people's lives and ideas perhaps we should communicate properly with our loved ones and build our relationships. You know, "Think globally, act locally" as they say. Put off the TV, talk to your wife.
And "Apathy breeds ignorance".
"The universe is hostile, so impersonal. So it is, so it's always been." I'm glad Maynard said this. People are always telling me that the world is getting worse, and I reply by saying: "No, it's the same world it's always been, you're just more exposed to the negatives because of the sensationalist mass media." It's funny that the people who complain are the one's who never stop watching. Negativity breeds negativity.
Many people have mentioned the "recycled riffs from 'Schism'" (i.e. the triplets and the drone riff). I personally feel that it's over the top to say that if two riffs are played in a similar style or with the same technique (palm-muting or whatever) that the one that came second is recycled. I also think that it's giving a band too much credit to justify your belief of this unoriginality by saying this was done for a purpose - to connect two songs.
However, the more I listen to 10,000 Days (which now may have overtaken Lateralus as my fav album) the more I think this may be exactly what Tool have done. I.e. "We've already given our message. Here's a different angle. Refer back to 'Schism' then come back." Some may feel this to be a copout but I think it's pretty clever.
"Vicarious", to me, is about the cause and effect of a schism. It's about relationships breaking down because people don't pay enough attention to "supposed lovers/brothers", living vicariously through their TV families instead and never nurturing their own. The opening lines refer not only to what the protagonist of "Vicarious" watches on TV for cheap thrills, but also to the extreme result of the breaking down of relationships in the first place. It's cyclic. Tragedy thrills us which results in tragedy. All the lines refer to people, who should be close, killing one another. Except "drowned by the ocean", which may be suicide Virginia Wolff style, or perhaps it's a metaphor for tears of sadness (lol. Longshot).
"I need to watch things die... from a distance." We are willing to watch the lives of others, but we put very little effort into our own. We are cowardly and afraid. We watch our own relationships die and do nothing because we are all too willing to consume and not willing to produce, to create, to nurture.
It's almost as if human nature is to want to see things fall apart because happiness can never be as exciting as turmoil. Plus it takes more work than unhappiness. We sabotage our own lives. We want war, we want to fight. We watch things happen even though we have the power to stop them. We want to see how far things will go. If we see something bad is about to happen we let it happen because we want to watch the aftermath. This is how relationships fall apart. This of course spirals out on a grand scale. Let's not forget that the actual meaning of the word "schism" is for a group to split into two factions. This brings us neatly to "Right in Two."
Instead of consuming so many of other people's lives and ideas perhaps we should communicate properly with our loved ones and build our relationships. You know, "Think globally, act locally" as they say. Put off the TV, talk to your wife.
And "Apathy breeds ignorance".
"The universe is hostile, so impersonal. So it is, so it's always been." I'm glad Maynard said this. People are always telling me that the world is getting worse, and I reply by saying: "No, it's the same world it's always been, you're just more exposed to the negatives because of the sensationalist mass media." It's funny that the people who complain are the one's who never stop watching. Negativity breeds negativity.