Tool: Lateralus Meaning

Song Released: 2002

Lateralus Lyrics

Black then white are all I see in my infancy.
red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me.
lets me see.
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine
drawn beyond the lines of reason.
Push the envelope. Watch it bend.

Over thinking,...

1. Zaq

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   Feb 17th 2006 !⃝

   I completely agree with ya' Timmy. I thought the same thing when I was listening to the song, and I thought "I can't wait to post this!" Come to find out that more than one person has beaten me to the punch...
   This describes exactly what I feel when I listen to a Tool song for the first time in a long time, or when I'm screaming the lyrics and writhing around pretending that I'm Maynard on stage. I may look like a fool doing it, but when I get into the song... It's hard to stay still. And I don't care what I look like, because I feel great. With great bands like Tool, or any amazing band that you "get," or understand, or love, you can literally feel the music in your heart, in your soul, crawling beneath your skin.
   Tool's music makes me more aware of the spiritual side of my self, the side that is usually hidden away. It gives me hope, it shows that if you make it through all the shit, you become a better person. Look at the progression that is shown in the timeline that is Tool. "Opiate" is very literal and angry."Undertow" is just as angry, but it shows a deeper side of the anger. "AEnima" is an exploration of the narrator's inner self, why he feels angry, along with other feelings. At the end there is a very spiritual song, "Third Eye." This leads directly into "Lateralus," their deepest and most spiritual album to date.
   "Spiritual" isn't the word I want, but "Deep" isn't deep enough, and I don't think a word exists to express how this album makes me feel...
   WOW, that was long, even for me... gotta go.
   Truly Yours,
   Zaq
2. Timmy

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   Feb 7th 2006 !⃝

   My favourite song Lateralus is in my opinion about music,
   "Black then white are all I see in my infancy.
   red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me."
   i beleive that may have to with the lyrics on paper being 2d (cardinal directions).
   "feel the rhythm"
   "fathom the power"
   "I lose myself
   between the sounds and open wide to suck it in,
   I feel it move across my skin."
   all in my opinion have to do with music.
   I'm probably wrong but I get the feeling this song is about the enjoyment and awesome feeling we get from listening to music.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
3. Lateralus

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   Feb 7th 2006 !⃝

   I think this song is about recognizing beauty, it also seems to be recognizing disorder and the way the human mind operates the line "over thinking, over analyzing seperates the body from the mind". To me that relates to a disorder called Derealization, where you body and your mind are completly seperated from eachother and your life feels like a dream. I think it's also about embracing everything you encounter if it's good or bad, just embracing your reality
4. Zaq

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   Jan 29th 2006 !⃝

   In relation to the previous post, maybe Maynard means that in his spiritual infancy he could only see things one way, but now he can see things as they truly are (in more dimensions, perhaps...).
5. anonymous

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   Jan 13th 2006 !⃝

   Just to add on to the discussion. It should be noted that the colors Maynard mentions (black,white,red,yellow) are the colors used by Native Americans as representations of the four cardinal directions.
   North=White
   South=Black
   East=Yellow
   West=Red
6. The_Interpreter

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   Jan 3rd 2006 !⃝

   This song and the most of this album is based in the Fibonacci series (1 1 2 3 5 8...).
   For example:
   "Black (1)
   and (1)
   white are (2)
   all I see (3)
   in my infancy..." (5), etc.
   Even the drums follows this sequence. In the process of songwriting Tool uses a black board that look like some kind of calculus class, this was said by Chino Moreno from Deftones...
7. cloudcity

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   Dec 1st 2005 !⃝

   Wow, I'm really surprised about the tiny number of people who have submitted an interpretion of Lateralus. This is a song I don't think anyone can interpret to its full extent. I do agree, however, that it is about feeling and exploring the supernatures of life. It is easily one of Tool's best musical experiences (who can really go ahead and call it a song?). It has so many layers, through its musical complexity and concepts.
   
   The drummer and Maynard use fibonacci number sequences within their playing/singing throughout Lateralus. My own interpretation of Lateralus, is about searching for the next level of living and consciousness, through spirituality and other planes (ie the ASTRAL plane, which I strongly believe is a theme within songs such as parabol/parabola).
   
   Many lines within the song are quite obvious as to what they are about once you have an understanding of what [I think] the great Maynard James Keenan is expressing. For example, "...to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human" is about the number phi appearing throughout life and throughout the Universe, which is also known as the golden ratio, and is believed by some (obviously Maynard) that it has spiritual and eternal meaning, and the aforementioned line is talking about entering a new plane or becoming one with the inter-connection of all Universes, while still walking the Earth as a human. In general, this song is about searching for a gateway to this divine place within our life and the evolution of humanity.
   
   Everything is explained and backed up in the music as well, which is a reason Tool are so amazing. For example when Maynard's voice disolves into the guitar solo/EXTENTION OF THE SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE in the line, "..to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human", and the lines that lead up to "we'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been", when the bass is sliding up, as if animating the rest of the piece, provoking thoughts of reaching a new level of being.
   
   Anyway, I could continue this ramble about Lateralus for days, and I'm not going to bother spell-checking this beast of a submission, as I'm pretty tired from all the typing involved.
8. tonx

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   Nov 28th 2005 !⃝

   I'm sure everyone could try DMT before they die.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
9. merel

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   Nov 23rd 2005 !⃝

   Personally, I think this is the best song Tool has written. It moves me deeply. I think it is about the spiritual drive that we all have, our desire to experience our total existence in harmony, to synchronize with the forces that shape the universe, whatever they may be, and to understand them, to know what is the reason of it all. It's about knowing where we're going I think it's about the desire, maybe our destination to live completely in the present ( feed my will to feel this moment). It's also an angry song (which Tool song isn't?). Maybe the writer's frustrated with the fact that he can't experience what he wants to experience? Well, that's how I feel about it

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