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Old 12-05-2003, 05:44 PM   #1
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i'm in the undertow

in my years of listening to tool, i have found that undertow has been played least of all. recently it has become the only tool for me. i believe it is the darkest of the band's works, the most raw both in sound and content, and maybe even the most underrated. certainly i've read more praise for lateralus and ænima than i have for undertow, but i never noticed before because i used to agree that those were much better albums. now that i am caught up in the tide, i don't even feel like listening to the others anymore.

i'm not quite sure what's hooked me. perhaps it's simple--i've listened to the others so much that they have grown old. i think there's more to it than that, though. i think for one reason or other that i can relate better to undertow now. i find that a little disturbing.

anyone else favor undertow? if so, why?
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Old 12-06-2003, 11:13 AM   #2
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Re: i'm in the undertow

Quoting DisgracedEffigy
------------------------------
Flood

In this song, he is released from rehab - "Here comes the water." tells us that. I am guessing that water is a metaphor for freedom here. "All I knew and all I believed, are crumbling images, that no longer comfort me." is basically saying that rehab wasn't completely honest. The world isn't so easy and fun now that he left a utopia, like rehab. When he says "I scramble to reach higher ground, some order and sanity, or something to comfort me." he basically is in disbelief. The world seems to be overbearing and difficult. He isn't used to having obligations. "So I take what is mine, and hold what is mine, suffocate what is mine, and bury what's mine." is basically him saving what he is. Preserving what rehab has taught him. He is trying to make himself invulnerable. "Soon the water will come, and claim what is mine." is him saying that it is of no use. It doesn't work in the real world. "I must leave it behind, and climb to a new place now." is him disregarding the knowledge he departed from rehab with. He realizes that he'll have to do this on his own. "This ground is not the rock I thought it to be." refers to the same thing. The knowledge that he thought would help doesn't. "Thought I was high, and free, I thought I was there, divine destiny" is another phase of disbelief. He thought he was over addiction. But, as he puts it "I was wrong, this changes everything." Its not over. Its still there, all rehab did was delay it. He is about to fold under the pressure - "The water is rising up on me." He thought that he would be immune to the temptations but then realizes his strength is no match: "thought the sun would come deliver me, but the truth has come to punish me instead." He knows he wasted his time and that his addiction is too extreme. It is innevitable. "The ground is breaking down right under me." - rehab failed and he knows it. The truth he believed was a lie. The final line in the story "Cleanse and purge me in the water.", he succumbs once again and is pulled down into the undertow.
------------------------------

What made Undertow the most meaningful album to me are the interperetations made by DisgracedEffigy. In ways, I am an opiate to his preachings of opinions, but in ways it feels so damned good. I was just released from 2 years of rehab, and the same occurance of events are coming to me in waves; in the light of DisgracedEffigy's opinion of Flood. I'm relapsing so hard. The song has helped me understand, although also has helped me slip back into the gap again in a light of justification.

"thought the sun would come deliver me, but the truth has come to punish me instead."

As far as song description, and recapping DisgracedEffigy (you're the man, bro) and ultimately, the exact same recapping of my experiences. I wonder how Maynard was able to relate so heavily to realistic experiences if he had not been an addict himself. Life is full of addictions to me. My meaning in life has all spawned from addictions, sexual, drug, and others.
I entered rehab, because I was caught beneath the undertow. I survived too, .. euphoria. Then in rehab I let myself open up completely and fully to the extention of all of my problems, in hopes of finding a cure or something to fight for in life, instead of settling to find something to fight against, as explained in four degrees.
If you're not looking to be depressed about how most addicts who try to help themselves turn out, it's best you don't listen to Flood with interperative means. It truly has been the best Tool song to me so far, and that says a lot.

again quoting Flood
"thought the sun would come deliver me, but the truth has come to punish me instead."

Those words mean too much to me.

Follow up on "undertow as a whole," because DisgracedEffigy did a hell of a job on opening me up to this album. I never respected the album as much as I do now.

Going to go lay down a bit, too hung over.

Thanks for your reading time.
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Old 06-19-2004, 02:32 PM   #3
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Re: i'm in the undertow

Undertow has always been my favorite album.

The songs have so much more meaning than say....Aenima, when they started leaning towards completely random sh*t.....like Stinkfist, Hooker with a Penis, The Eggs of Satan....ect. I just find Aenima and Lateralus a little idiotic. However, Undertow deals with serious problems and pretty much sticks to a common theme.

The lyrics are so much deeper and you can feel a lot more thought and pain in the lyrics here. Which I like.

Oh, that, and Sober is my favorite Tool song of all time.
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Old 07-22-2004, 07:24 PM   #4
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Re: i'm in the undertow

That is pretty rough... Undertow is dealing with, in my opinion problems we all face and all aware of with other people surface problems I suppose. Ænima is dealing with psychology of our own minds through the ideas of mainly Carl Jung,Sigmund Frued, and Tool, though there may be more I think these are the three most obvious influences. Lateralus is dealing with self, though it is based on communication I think it is the communication between a person to themselves. These are all just my thoughts though, and I am most likely only right in my own mind.
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Old 08-11-2004, 07:50 PM   #5
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Re: i'm in the undertow

Quote:
Originally Posted by seeker
in my years of listening to tool, i have found that undertow has been played least of all. recently it has become the only tool for me. i believe it is the darkest of the band's works, the most raw both in sound and content, and maybe even the most underrated. certainly i've read more praise for lateralus and ænima than i have for undertow, but i never noticed before because i used to agree that those were much better albums. now that i am caught up in the tide, i don't even feel like listening to the others anymore.

i'm not quite sure what's hooked me. perhaps it's simple--i've listened to the others so much that they have grown old. i think there's more to it than that, though. i think for one reason or other that i can relate better to undertow now. i find that a little disturbing.

anyone else favor undertow? if so, why?

I favor aenima more but I do believe undertow is a great album. Lately I have been listening to it... ALOT. I favor it just due to the raw emotion that POURS through the speakers. I do the most amazing things when I listen to tool. I have written poems and drawn amazing pieces of art. Just by the emotions the band brings out of me. ESPECIALY this cd. I will give you a little background to my last few months... My girlfriend left me. I was in love... head over heals. I cried for 2 weeks straight.... anyway I listen to this album and I feel better. Not because suddenly my heart is mended... but for the time that this album plays I can feel my emotions come out... I can manifest them onto the paper. wow. I love this cd....
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Old 04-24-2011, 01:32 AM   #6
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Re: i'm in the undertow

seeker I'm right there with you man, can't listen to anything else by Tool but Undertow (and Opiate on occasion).

I'm caught in the Undertow.... I scramble to reach higher ground... cleanse and purge me in the water
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Old 04-24-2011, 01:33 AM   #7
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Re: i'm in the undertow

you realize you're replying to a 7 year old thread, right?
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Old 04-24-2011, 09:38 AM   #8
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Re: i'm in the undertow

haha yeah, but I can't find any more legit site to talk about Tool (thats free). It's a shame no ones really talking about this album too seeing as its one of my favorites by Tool :/
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Old 02-22-2015, 12:04 AM   #9
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Re: i'm in the undertow

It's one of mine too, she says, replying to a 4-year-old post. I haven't found anywhere else to talk about it either.
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