I dont think this song compliments the d/r combination at all and personally i like l/d/r alot better than d/r/t. I guess my reason for this is that whenever I listen to triad i think it just sounds angry. When i hear the music and that wailing sound in the background i close my eyes and all i see is a barren wasteland, some post apocalyptic nuclear disaster. From the song dispostion i think of a him wanting to change, in reflection he changes and reflects... then triad, it just sounds so angry and unfulfilled, and im wondering if anyone else sees this song as being angry or agressive, i admit a few parts in the song do sound a bit upbeat, but the majority of the song just sounds like an angry scream that all that thought and meditation didnt take him to the next level but infact put him even lower than he started. the song just makes me think of failure, im not sure if anyone else feels this way but its just the feeling i get when i listen to it.
I see it as recombining the pure result of the previous songs into a new and unknown future, like when in the Parabol video the hands pull the circle into a seven-pointed star. Like 3rd eye, to me Triad represents the entire album (triad - two things and a relationship through which all manifestation becomes possible).
Smirk!
That aside, good friend blue apocalypse, though as far as the l/d/r/t combo concerned, i'm sure i'll be fine with that and just about all the other stuff on lateralus, one way or the other, i do confess i feel a certain anger in Triad.
It might be that, for all the expectations, the 'next level' is a failure - a barren post nuke wasteland. The image you presented sure appeals to me.
However, i do not feel any 'powerlessness'. Like Matter Specter might've indicated, this song sure feels powerful. I don't think the protagonist (or whomever) is as helpless as the failure might suggest.
I'd say myself that the anger is already there in reflection, but to a lesser degree. Maybe it's impatience and hurriedness: "before i pine away / before it's far too late". If in Reflection he realizes what he must do, in Triad he does it (see paraflux's post in the "it's not interesting" thread in the Triad forum).
Maybe he is angry, with the fact that he hadn't crucified his ego up until Triad, and is eager to get it on in egoless-land, where everything is flattened and 'equalized' by tremendous energies? In this sense, the anger might be a result of the 'groan' of tedium in The Patient.
