This song absolutely kicks the shit out of fuck. It rips. Adam is a whole new beast. Every riff is gold. Rhythm section is something to behold as well. Talk about how good this song is.
__________________ I think this song is about old people and growing older. In the beginning of the song I believe I heard mention of watching re-runs of X-files, and old people really love that show.No one ever listens to old people. I can't remember one time when they weren't harping on about the good ol' days and talking about nonsensical things that never happened, while watching X-files, in their small and cluttered room in Happy Acres Retirement Homes, all the while they were pleading with me to listen.
This song absolutely kicks the shit out of fuck. It rips. Adam is a whole new beast. Every riff is gold. Rhythm section is something to behold as well. Talk about how good this song is.
The entire album is like a damn masterpiece! Dark Side of the Moon and Led Zepplin like status!
__________________ "WITHOUT A LITTLE EVIL, GOOD WOULD NEVER EXIST"
I've always discovered my favorite Tool songs while listening continuously and casually while working or driving. Once a song hits me I dive in for months or even years and the song becomes part of me (no pun intended). 7empest is exactly that song. It's the first one of the album, but I'm patiently listening since I understand that this is an adventure and not an entree severed up for one-time-consumption. 7empest fucking crushed me and 50 continuous plays in and I can't get enough of it!
To my classically-trained composer ears, it sounds like 7empest exists purely as an exploration of rhythmic structures. We have the 21/16 time signature (or 21/8, it doesn't really matter), which has beat groupings such that it can be thought of as 4/4 with pentuplet subdivisions (yes, oversimplification...). The band is exploring all the possibilities of this time signature, and in rondo form, to boot.
...and with great success. That riff five minutes out from the end? Fuck yes.
To my classically-trained composer ears, it sounds like 7empest exists purely as an exploration of rhythmic structures. We have the 21/16 time signature (or 21/8, it doesn't really matter), which has beat groupings such that it can be thought of as 4/4 with pentuplet subdivisions (yes, oversimplification...). The band is exploring all the possibilities of this time signature, and in rondo form, to boot.
...and with great success. That riff five minutes out from the end? Fuck yes.
It's always cool to get a perspective from a trained musician's ears. Very cool.
__________________ "WITHOUT A LITTLE EVIL, GOOD WOULD NEVER EXIST"
I honestly don't think I'd appreciate them (or many of my favourite bands) as much if I weren't a trained musician. I mean, they'd still be amazing, but holy fuck I nerd out over the musical theory behind it. The beat groupings, the metre and polymetre. Then there's the actual performance of it all... it all just sounds so natural to me!
Took long enough just to wrap my head around the bass line. I say that knowing there's a very good chance Adam came up with it...like 20 years ago. It's not complex at all, or else the guitar work would be have been impossible to write and perform. It's exceptionally simple but clever AF.
I'm not trained in musical composition, but I do see the 21/X signature. Having seen it on paper and given it some thought, I want to say the signature is almost just 21/3. It's all triplets, except for one missing note and an extra one inserted at the end.
DDD ddd DD ddd DDD ddd BBCC
A 7empest Will Be Just That
A 7empest Will Be Just That
A 7empest Will Be Just That
"Yeah Tool is fucking amazing. But there’s a big chunk of their fan base that think they’ve become thought provoking geniuses just from listening to them."