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Originally Posted by iAMtheMA!
awesome, yes, exactly. i've come to the point where i'm inclined to think that this is the "message of hope" (tree of life) vs "warning" (tree of doom) dichotomy elaborated in "rosetta stoned" (and parabola commentary by jello biafra). bc i also happen to believe that track (named after the rosetta stone) serves to show HOW it is TOOL writes, at least lyrics, how something singularly performed can be made to express (and subsequently externally interpreted) in (at least!) two distinct fashions, but also written with a sort of "broken down to its basic elements" etymological slant/bias (like, even using the history of how words evolve within language itself!) as a way to encourage listeners to "keep digging", to move from surface-level first-impression root-chakra type interpretations (e.g., "purple veined dick jokes", tool's got hours of 'em - bill hicks, too)... to the more (for lack of better word) "profound", internal, higher wavelengths/chakras, beyond any sense of self, or need to identify parts from wholes (hence: watch "things" die!). just feel we're being encouraged with everything tool/mjk does to "fall" (eeg brainwaves) towards "this". "you better listen".
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I like your take on that song. LK/RS is a conundrum and a set of keys all at the same time. Thinking of that song as the "tree of knowledge" (or "doom" as you put it) takes me back to my first experiences of Third Eye, and how euphoric I was listening to that track back in the late '90s. I can imagine that anyone who encountered the band in that state of admiration/worship would have just unloaded praise on them, and I think Rosetta is a bit of a backlash against that.
If Third Eye represents some sort of prophetic inner-awakening from being "dead inside" back on Bottom, then Rosetta Stoned comes off as the response/retaliation by the betrayer-self. Hence the "shit the bed again, typical" line (which now takes on a more sinister tone in light of the dark sexual undertones of the inner relationship present in the lyrics of other songs) is delivered with such pithy cynicism.
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all those posters of golden scissor cut (1.6180339...) bladder fishes ("vesica piscis") diving towards the heptagonal star?
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Can you post some links to examples of these? I'm not familiar with the scissor cut, but the vesica piscis is an overwhelmingly apt symbol for so many things going on with Tool.
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hence: lift/elevator sound at beginning of lateralus).
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This may be the only thing on which we disagree. To me it sounds like the turning on of a power saw (hence the saw blade CD) that is used, ostensibly, to begin the "dissection" of the record.
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[i know king buzzo has said as much, makes sense given some of melvins' lyrics... rather, how they're sung]
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Oh man. Melvins lyrics are as impenetrable as they are amazing. Very inspiring band. I think I had The Maggot on repeat there for about 8 years.
But the song that they did with Tool, Divorced, fits seamlessly in with this discussion. The drum duel contained in that track between Carrey and Dale Crover is emblematic of the sort of "retaliationship" that would result in the parting of ways we have going on in Fear Inoculum. It is the kind of disharmonic thing that would go on between the speaker of Third Eye and the speaker of Rosetta Stoned.
I hope that everyone here has heard Divorced:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCPPPTZgWsQ