since there's really no thread to post about all of Tool's albums in general I figured this was a good place to post this

I've always felt that each Tool record (maybe not Opiate) has had a distinct "color theme"...not even just in the artwork but in the mood and sound of the music...Undertow was red, very angry, more simplistic...Aenima is blue, much deeper, darker and more complex and more melancholy...Lateralus is kinda purple, even darker than Aenima and much more sprawling and ambitious...i dunno about 10,000 Days, maybe a black/dark grey cuz it's probably the darkest and heaviest they've done

i can honestly see where the other ones would offer those exact tones but when i put my mind to it, i can't seem to find a specific unified scheme for 10,000 days. id say the song pairs have colors moreso than the whole album as a cohesive project.
like
Vic/Jam - one color
Wings/10KD - another
and so on
just my thoughts, good post though.

puce

kinda like the same as i see

opiate - don't know

undertow - red/orange

ænima - dark green

lateralus - black/dark purple

10k days - grayish

YEAH, Grey for Opiate...I totally agree with that, definitely!

Opiate - unmanifest - pure intention

Undertow - Black - like silt on a riverbed

Aenima - White - like the screaming, peircing pain of passing galstones

Salival - unmanifest - pure intension

Lateralus - Red and Yellow - reaching out to me (duh)

10,000 Days - Blue ...oh no, holy shit! The last primary color. Their "blues album" ?

...hopefully we'll have some more unmanifest, pure intension, but, that may be all. :(

Peace.

P.S. this thready/me likey

I always thought of Lateralus as being white. Aenema is Black/Blue, Undertow is Crimson.

10,000 Days is... I don't know.

Undertow = red
Aenema = blue
Lateralus = depends on the song (some grey, some gold, some black, some blue)
10k days = black/grey

Sounds like a pretty good reflection of their respective album covers/artwork. :D

Even in the music videos it comes through to a degree, I think.

Opiate = Grey

Undertow = Red

Aenima = Dark Blue/Black

Lateralus = Green (maybe a dark green)

10,000 Days = Black

I've always pictured the Lateralus album as a mysterious grey and 10k days as kind of a post apocalyptic black/brown.

What about Undertow is red!?

Other than the ribcage on the front. What about the music makes you feel the color red?

;|

I was just thinking about this the other day...

Opiate - Gray
Undertow - Red
Aenima - Light Blue
Lateralus - Red/Yellow/Purple
10,000 Days - Black/Blue

I can also see some of the songs in color too. A few for example...

Stinkfist - Blue
Forty-six & 2 - Teal
Lateralus - Yellow
No Quarter - Silver/Red
Crawl Away - Brown

*first of all, I don't mean to discard your (or anyones) opinion*

Maybe deep deep blood red. Aside from the anger though, I feel like listening to Undertow is like wading through the tar in my lungs. Or like, well, the cold still waters of a slow moving river at night ...the stank mud. This might be cause I've never been an angry person. Red makes me feel a "speed" or "intensiy" or like an energy... not like Undertow. I feel like Undertow is depicted well in its videos, lumbering and dark, but with deeper meaning than face value.

Black
White
Red Yellow
Blue.

Opiate - Grey
Undertow - Grey
Aenima - Florescent Green
Lateralus - Purple
10,000 Days - Blue

Opiate - Orange\Yellow

Undertow - Gray\Black

Ænima - Orange\Red\Blue

Lateralus - Dark Metallic Blue-like (I get nearly the same impression from Squarepusher's Ultravisitor)

10,000 Days - Hard to say... a kind of dark Cyan sometimes, Violet others.

Here's what i think:

Opiate: Black and Blue
Undertow: WetBlack
Aenima: Black
Lateralus: Glow in the Black
!0,000 Days: Fade To Black


i win

i won.

orange. i won.

mine was funnier.

I wouldn't be surprised if the albums somehow correlated to the colors of the Chakra:

1st chakra - The ROOT - Primary color is RED
other colors associated with the Root Chakra are black brown, and gray.
Gemstones like Red Garnet, Black Onyx, Red Jasper

2nd chakra - The Naval - Primary color is ORANGE
others are all various shades of orange.
Gemstones like Carnelian, Orange Zincite

3rd chakra - The Solar - Plexus Primary color is YELLOW
others are various shades of yellow.
Gemstones like Citrine, Yellow Sapphire, yellow topaz

4th chakra - The Heart - Primary color is GREEN
and shades of green, the secondary color is pink.
Gemstones like Rose Quartz or Green Tourmaline or aventurine

5th chakra - The Throat - Primary color is BLUE
like aqua or turquoise, secondary colors are various shades of lighter blues.
Gemstones like Turquoise or Blue Lace Agate

6th chakra - The Third eye ( or brow) - Primary color is INDIGO (between blue and purple) or various shades of dark blue.
Gemstones like Lapis Lazuli or Sodalite

7th chakra - The Crown - Primary color is PURPLE
shades of purple and colorless (clear) or white stones.
Gemstones like Amethyst or Clear Quart

mmm interesting...Pushit and Third Eye?

very cool information

What I see/feel...

Opiate - I feel connected with nature, clear blue sky

Undertow - I feel a bit angry, dark red/brown

Aenima - I feel like all is well for a moment, blue/purple

Lateralus - I feel like getting something accomplished, dark blue

10,000 Days - I don't really know what I feel on this one, and like someone else pointed out, each song / song set has its own colors: Vicarious is grey, Jambi is orange, Wings is purple, The Pot is white, Rosetta Stoned is neon green, Right in Two is yellow...

That's just what I experience.

I never really gave each album a cover, but more of a word or phrase like:

Opiate: Angry at hyprocrisy/toolshed

Undertow: Human stupidity/watery

Aenima: Mechanical/bad memories

Lateralus: Holy/spiral/ethereal

10,000 Days: Alien/epiphany/ascention

yeh... undertow is a real deep dark dirty blue for me. maybe a bit brown... but really, with all the water through that album, how you couldnt feel some blue i dont know. maybe its just me, but i love that album because it feels like being pumled with waves, or have little ripples smack you uncomfortably in the face, or the gental rocking of lying on your back... etc. etc. very water. dirty blue.

aenima for me is greys, star shaped and flashy ( i love that it coincides with the cover). lateralus black and startling gold (spiraly anyone?). opiate is kinda rainbowy, very confused and jumbly. salival is the deepest soothing green. 10k days i dont get much, black and a few puddles of grey, coincidingly my least favorite album (though im not bashing it, its good, i like it, dont anyone start that fucking debate)

Opiate: black
Undertow: brown
Aenima: green
Lateralus: Blue/Purple/Red
10,000 Days: grey

Undertow, for me, starts out a blood red- then with each passing song become murkier and murkier. By 4* and Flood, it's dark brown- but, then Digustipated comes on and I see nothing but black.

Ænema is still reminiscent of that anger from Undertow, but is a bit less Murky. I think of Eulogy, Forty-Six & 2, Pushit and Third eye, and I feel an Orange. and I guess other songs can come off as Orange, too... But none of the Colors in the Art or the videos are Orange shades, so- I don't know.

Lateralus is definitely Purple. Thinking of Schism, Parabola, Lateralus, Reflection, and even Eon Blue. This album feels the most articulate, to me- and that upright feeling I get, is back by Purple.

10,000 Days is a mess, when thinking along the lines of color schemes, probably because this album has the most dynamic list of emotions thus far... Vicarious sounds Orange or Red, then Jambi sounds Green. Not sure what Wings 1 & 2 sound like to me, maybe a Blue... The Pot sounds Green, and so does Rosetta Stoned and Right in Two... So I guess 10,000 days is Green, for me.

So...

Undertow - Blood Red

Ænema - Orange

Lateralus - Purple

10,000 Days - Green

Undertow- Grey

Aenima- Green

Lateralus- Purple

10,000 Days- Red/ or Orange

agree completely. i was about to post this, especially 10kd being white, before i saw your post.

What about songs? Specific color themes for each song?

I've never really gotten specific colors for songs, just overall color/mood themes for albums...it's a combination of the mood of the songs, the lyrics, the artwork, and even the videos a little bit.

Undertow- red/ dirty brown
AEnima- Blue/Dark Green/Grey
Lateralus- More Blue/Green & Black
10,000 Days- Black/Purple/Dark Blue.

You asked about songs.....ummm
Sober is where I pull the dirty brown color from, it makes me just see "mud"
Stinkfist is grey/blue to me.
Parabol/Parabola is dark green
Wings and 10,000 days are very purple to me, but the purple grows from black, as do alot of the colors of Tool's music.
So...there's my 2 cents

Opiate--Green (Can't really back this up, just what I see)
Undertow--Brown definately. Swamp Song, Sober, Crawl Away, 4 degrees, they are all def brown and murky.
Aenima--Some kind of blue, like a dark ocean blue
Lateralus--I think of Black/Purple when I think of Lateralus
10,000 Days--Definately white, Lipan Conjuring, Jambi, The Pot--all seem white to me


Good thread

i think the power of opiate can't be defined by a color, but if it were anything, i'd say it's chaos is only equal to that of black. As for undertow, i agree with most on the red, but i sometimes get subtle tones familiar to that of Ænima, throughout the second half of the album, (familiar opiate tones to, be it some of undertow was actually on the demo tape). Ænima is definitely blue, but i get a green feeling too. Lateralus reminds me of a spectrum more than anything else, touches base with a lot, making it equivalent to white (from an artistic perspective, at least.).

I actually feel like this album isn't as heavily coordinated with a specific spectrum of emotions/occurence's, making it difficult to identify with any one color (more so difficult that lateralus, in my opinion). It's more human than any of tool's previous releases though, there are familiar feelings from all of their previous workings all over this album. But this album deals a lot with the stage that lateralus left off with, after achieving something beyond man, reflection is the only thing left. I like to think of this album as a mirror, to some extent.

I know it's a strange explanation, but it was the best way I could verbalize it.

Opiate-Brown/Yellow
Sober-Black/Brown
Prison Sex-Dark Red/Black
Stinkfist-Green/Blue
Aenima-Blue/Grey
Third Eye-Green/Blue/Grey
Schism-Black/White
Parabol/Parabola-Green/Blue
Reflection-Blue/Grey
Vicarious-Black/Grey
Jambi-Red/Brown
10,000 Day's-Dark Blue/Black/
Rossetta Stoned-Red/Brown
Right In two-Red/Black

All the albums are the color of a mirror; your reflection. They help you discover yourself when listening to them.

yes very true. They are all reflective,

I dont see/feel one colour per album. Aenima, Lateralus, and 10000 days stick out the most.

I wont say all the songs. Opiate has a strong blue with others. undertow has blues, shaded oranges, shaded reds, shaded yellows.

Aenima-
eulogy- orange (shaded)
46 and 2- strong yellow
jimmy- strong yellow
pushit- yellow (shaded) << the live version isn't shaded
ænema- blue
third eye- indigo

Lateralus-
the grudge-red (shaded)
the patient- yellow
schism- strong green and blue
parabol/parabola- blue
t&l- blue with yellow(?)
lateralus- whitish indigo
disposition- ... its hard to tell. it seems like its hidden but it must be off silver.
reflection- silver to white EDIT: shaded yellow in the beginning
triad- crystal white with gold.

10000 Days-
jambi- yellowish green
wings and 10kdays- strong green
the pot- shaded indigo
rosetta stoned- shaded yellow, grey, black, etc.
intension-yellow (some shade)
right in two- shaded yellow

I got this from my knowledge of chakras/auras. I may be slightly off but thats what I see/feel.

edit-Forgot to add
merkaba- crystal lightening blue and multicoloured.