Alex in Chains
10-02-2006, 04:30 PM
Sorry if this has been mentioned before, though I've never read it here. It's a bitch to search the "Viginti Tres" threads since nearly every one of them is titled "The Song's Real Meaning" or "The Real Meaning" or "Why This Exists" or some other such bullshit . . . as opposed to what the thread is about. Anyway . . .
Listening to this about a month back, I had an idea about this track. I think we're hearing the alien(s) from "Rosetta Stoned." Tool ended their last album with a non-song about aliens, so while that doesn't mean they did it again, you can't exactly count it out. The sounds in the beginning strike me as some kind of otherworldly breathing, getting closer and eventually surrounding the listener (it sounds like two of them breathing slightly out of sync with one another). If anyone ever did that Alien Encounter thing at Disney World, listen to this track again -- preferably in the dark -- and tell me you don't get a similar feeling.
The more machine-like sounds . . . I don't know. Maybe the aliens' equipment. At this point, it sounds to me like we're perhaps in a sort of operating room, strapped down to a cold metal table, as the aliens prepare to give us The Message.
As for the words, I'm not going to pretend I know what the voice is saying, but I do lean toward the "ascisco" interpretation. Since "asisco" is Latin for "to receive, and it's spoken by some otherwordly voice, it got me thinking -- please stay with me here -- that perhaps rather than simply telling him the message, they somehow implanted it directly in his brain via some cool alien technology. But it seems something went wrong. The way the last syllable of the word becomes distorted, it's almost like this is the point where the guy's brain goes to mush for one of any number of reasons: the drugs in his body, the horrible reality of the end of the world (too soon? too bloody? too real?), an equipment malfunction, the possibility that the aliens have never actually done this before on a live subject, whatever. The softer closing sounds could be the wind as he wakes up in the desert (hospital?).
I don't think there's any deeper meaning here other to let us know that the guy really was abducted. There are discrepancies such as the line "Can't remember what they said," but the man could have been abducted and remember it a lot differently then it happened, especially if the experience (or drugs) fried his brain. I'm aware that he could be "receiving" an anal probe, and I know some people are going to think that the explanation couldn't possibly be so simple. But that's my interpretation. I'm sure it probably helps if you get real high and listen to the whole album, and I can't see why anyone wouldn't use any excuse available to do exactly that, but that's up to you. Flame On, You Crazy Diamonds.
Listening to this about a month back, I had an idea about this track. I think we're hearing the alien(s) from "Rosetta Stoned." Tool ended their last album with a non-song about aliens, so while that doesn't mean they did it again, you can't exactly count it out. The sounds in the beginning strike me as some kind of otherworldly breathing, getting closer and eventually surrounding the listener (it sounds like two of them breathing slightly out of sync with one another). If anyone ever did that Alien Encounter thing at Disney World, listen to this track again -- preferably in the dark -- and tell me you don't get a similar feeling.
The more machine-like sounds . . . I don't know. Maybe the aliens' equipment. At this point, it sounds to me like we're perhaps in a sort of operating room, strapped down to a cold metal table, as the aliens prepare to give us The Message.
As for the words, I'm not going to pretend I know what the voice is saying, but I do lean toward the "ascisco" interpretation. Since "asisco" is Latin for "to receive, and it's spoken by some otherwordly voice, it got me thinking -- please stay with me here -- that perhaps rather than simply telling him the message, they somehow implanted it directly in his brain via some cool alien technology. But it seems something went wrong. The way the last syllable of the word becomes distorted, it's almost like this is the point where the guy's brain goes to mush for one of any number of reasons: the drugs in his body, the horrible reality of the end of the world (too soon? too bloody? too real?), an equipment malfunction, the possibility that the aliens have never actually done this before on a live subject, whatever. The softer closing sounds could be the wind as he wakes up in the desert (hospital?).
I don't think there's any deeper meaning here other to let us know that the guy really was abducted. There are discrepancies such as the line "Can't remember what they said," but the man could have been abducted and remember it a lot differently then it happened, especially if the experience (or drugs) fried his brain. I'm aware that he could be "receiving" an anal probe, and I know some people are going to think that the explanation couldn't possibly be so simple. But that's my interpretation. I'm sure it probably helps if you get real high and listen to the whole album, and I can't see why anyone wouldn't use any excuse available to do exactly that, but that's up to you. Flame On, You Crazy Diamonds.