re: beginning of lateralus, machine start-up sound

that, doesn't, really, correlate, with my theories, tho- sooo. i kid, of course. i like it. could be! but bc it's such a sterile, static, consistent hum, starting up, perhaps it's to indicate a "TOOL" turned on, but not fully (or at least severely under-)utilized? like a sawblade, just, turned on. "repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift and eye to heaven, conscious of HIS (ego/deceiver/hadalotofnothingtosay's) fleeting time here." i just think sawblades are rather violent with large cuts, not small precise ones... unless it were a table saw. which the sound to start lateralus could also represent, james bond, strapped to table, (chakra climbing) laser beam, style. [enjoying your way of seeing things, oculus!]

i definitely hear a sawblade within lateralus, and for the same sort of o'er the forehead cutting "dissectional" motif you mentioned (alluded to within videos for vicarious and parabola if not schism most literally, and by extension then "divorced" by melvins).

side note: coincidentally (confirmed), tool-family dark-artist chet zar had created a monster called "buzz" (painting>sculpture, left side) that i think resembles the lateralus disc's sawblade design, including third eye location of incision. chet also has another painting entitled "cut" that resembles what's going on during vicarious video - another coincidence, or "bout of synchronicty", but still cool! (it's no wonder (as w/ ag) tool works with cz, each creating their separate internal/external realms in vicarious music video)

still tho, i don't hear it during "the grudge", rather "triad"
i can't take credit for this (someone? here on toolnavy?)
but i come back to the idea a lot (and have built upon it)
very thankful find. too obvious. staring us all in the face.

triad, 12th track, crown chakra, before the (faaip de) godhead, 13th step

to me it feels like an alien autopsy, but, you know, done to the listener, by the aliens. it may not be aliens, but it becomes an other-worldly experience very quickly, things are gonna change after this, things gon' be different. so, autopsy (no i.d., ego dead), dissectional, an operation is taking place. or about to. we've heard and seen this idea, over and over again, staple of all things tool. but the way tool expresses it -this- time, sonically, even as they are one to do, is pretty badass. i love hearing it this way, whether or not intended. seems too perfect tho. i mean, i only ever thought triad was just a really cool track, you know, tool rocking out to close it, finale to the fireworks. but that solo absolutely aurally shrrreddds, pries that mother right open. "holy fuckin' shit!"

so! (if you'll further indulge me) the pulsating tones coming in (and held throughout) are indicators of the patient's heart beat? idk. but it's "you"(44&2/"are broken now"). and it's fading in, coming in to scene. at the very beginning, it sounds like somethings hanging, swaying, shimmering, like metal (i get strong nin "downward spiral" vibes), waiting to be used (we come back to the whole "knife" motif. like, "sry not sry, this is love, gotta do this" - kinda rapey! as mentioned in opiate, throughout entire undertow album, and ticks & leeches, and and and. but like, symbolically speaking, representative of "touch, w/o consent" - another tool motif, as opposed to "virgin(untouched) mary(mother)" (again, symbolically speaking) ...reminds me of the film "the fountain", the dagger at the end (piercing the tree of knowledge)... "this is what you're getting", "just, like, this!). so back on track (12). being led to the table (last supper), soon under the knife. can we hear these alien surgeons actually talking through this procedure?

you arrive at your final destination at 0:42, as signaled(!) by the doctor? i don't know what that horn-y sound is, but is that them talking? what does surgery typically sound like? fairly operational, right? step by step. incision by incision. usually announcing actions prior to taking them... so something is announced. then we hear a more middle-eastern/northen-african woodwind type sounding thing indicating, what? does the organology of what we then hear correlate with place of origin (invention) of the written word? so is that then the sound of a writing tool? a marker, indicating (upon the surface) place of incision? (you can almost hear its cap pop open at 0:54!)

at 1:11, doctor signals next step in the process, i'm summarizing of course but something akin to "i will now activate the dissecting TOOL! (sawblade)". at 1:20, we hear two consecutive pull attempts to start the chainsaw's engine, with a long/winding starter-cord retracting each time, finally turning over at 1:34. enter adam jones' guitar solo. "TOOL" activated. dissecting tool cuts through skin, then skull, then 2:54 "TOOL" util-eye-zed.

and i thought adrian belew was a master of recreating non-guitar sounds on a guitar...

...god damn, adam jones. "cosmic eye sawblade", fucking awesome.