Tool: Schism Meaning
Song Released: 2001
Schism Lyrics
'Cause I watched them fall away
Mildewed and smouldering
Fundamental differing
Pure intention juxtaposed
Will set two lovers' souls in motion
Disintegrating as it goes
Testing our communication
The light that feuled...
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Do you ever consider that hes talking about the communication between him(MJK) and god himself? if you listen to every song on every album youll see that hes always had a struggle with choosing weather or not to believe and have faith in GOD. it appears he's severed communication with GOD over and over again. But as time goes on it appears he slowly reinstates his faith.
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I think that the whole separation of the catholic church was a good point but somehow I belive that there is a image of a relationship in this songs meaning. Between him and a lover or him and his Father. "I know the pieces fit cuz I watched them fall away" to me sounds like Maynard was in some sort of relationship which was ended due to a lack of comunication, thus emphasizing on the importance of communication to a solid relationship.
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idk if maynard beleives in god a all or has any religous stance.(prob not) but he leaves many meanings in each song for you to input the meaning you want and for me its about the tower of babel from the bible lke what regular guy said, cause it fits that meaning in very well.
the song can also be interpreted toward a realationship thats what my mom thinks. -
Never expect a song from Maynard to be so simple as in a relationship or break up. His songs are always very indepth with a much more deep intellectual meaning which not many can just figure correctly right off the bat. Hence his frustration on explaining what his songs are about.
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With that said, with the song being about war, he's seemed to also leave it open to those to interpret for themselves as well, as it's lyrical content can be easily relative to so many things and even letting the listener also interpret how they'd like, to fit it into their lives as well.
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Guys, read the lyrics carefully. The song is about war and needing to find some middle ground. Torn by our beliefs in battle and having it tear us apart. Against each other. To strengthen communication with those countries at war that we fight against and with our own country. Make peace. Make amends... or we all just fall apart as citizens, civilation, country and human beings. Being against each other in the world through wars... "point the finger, blame another." knowing we can make a right again as we know what made it fall apart and knowing with enough conviction, to put it back together as should.
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I think this song is about a relationship that is failing, you can interpret it from
I know the pieces fit- I knew it worked before
Cause I watched them fall away
Mildewed and smouldering
Fundamental differing - our relationship fell apart in front of my eyes
The light that feuled our fire then
Has a burned a hole between us so - our passion is gone
Cold silence has
A tendency to
Atrophy any
Sense of compassion
Basically what this song is stating is that a relationship will end without communication -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I think the song is about the fall of Babylon. The temple was built to reach god by the king of the day. The temple was struck down. All people was disoriented by the language being confused. If that temple were to be built again it would be catastrophic.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I think people are over complicating the interpretation. It just means that the society we live in, on a larger scale the globalization of societies is furthering severing our compassion for our fellow man. On a global scale, societies have been progressing toward narcissistic lifestyles. People are obsessed with themselves, people are too busy trying to acquire all the money and material possessions they can in their lives and in turn some will defend all their worthless worldly possessions to the death. How many of you have car alarms? Your defending your car because you place great value on it, even more so if you invested a lot of money and hard work into buying it. People generally don't trust each other anymore, and so we start distancing ourselves from people in general. It basically all the negative emotions of man working against ourselves, greed, fear and hatred. It's ruining man, and our worlds environment, look at all the crap people try to sell each other that we don't need, that in turn destroy our environment. Then people start judging people more on the appearances and their possessions. Some people feel that money, a nice car, a beautiful trophy wife, a 6,000 ft. Square house with a four car garage make a man. It really destroys a persons soul. It keeps people from trusting each other, from building new relationships, and religion is a part of this too. People are so swept up in, that their religion is the right one, people are divided even more because of religion. It's the narcissistic all about me attitude of our culture, Well when it's all about you, you slowly become the only person in your life, and communication breaks down between you and others in general. People start, and have been judging people at face value more so now, than in the past. This keeps people from growing spiritually, because the greatest teachings we can learn are from each other. You might pass somebody on the street some day that could one of the best friends you'll ever meet, but you guys will never talk to each other, because you overly judge each other to the extreme. People don't give each other a chance anymore. People are less confident with themselves, some place their confidence on how much money they make at work, what kind of car they drive, how many people they can fuck. Confidence is built from facing down your harmless fears, turning greed into compassion and turning your hatred into understanding.
This song is just about the need for people to re establish their communication with each other, and to break down all the barriers that we impose on ourselves. -
Well considering Tool write music and then lyrics, and if you listen to the song and consider not the lyrics, the instruments break off from each other (a schism if you will), including time signatures etc, and eventually rejoin... I assume this is what drove Maynard to right about a split, or schism.
when just considering lyrics I tend to think about religion, how we all came from one place, but have split off and created something completely different from each other. -
The thing that makes this song great, as with many other Tool songs, you can think about the meaning for yourself and how this song relates to your personal life.
In my opinion, like many posters above me, the song is about the separation between two people who have been very close together:
"I know the pieces fit because I watched them fall away"
Most of the time the separation is not anyone's fault, but is rather the product of the path that given people decide to take:
"Mildewed and smoldering. Fundamental differing.
Pure intention juxtaposed will set two lovers souls in motion
Disintegrating as it goes testing our communication"
The situation worsens when the two people are trying to find a reason for the split and end up blaming each other:
"I know the pieces fit because I watched them tumble down
No fault, none to blame it doesn't mean I don't desire to
Point the finger, blame the other, watch the temple topple over."
At this point it is still time to save the relationship through the efforts of two individuals to start communicating with each other:
"To bring the pieces back together, rediscover communication"
But since we are human, this does not always happen, our pride takes over us and destroys what is left of the relationship, so the only thing left to do is to learn the lesson from our mistakes:
"The poetry that comes from the squaring off between,
And the circling is worth it.
Finding beauty in the dissonance."
And:
"I've done the math enough to know the dangers of our second guessing
Doomed to crumble unless we grow, and strengthen our communication."
At the end of the song the lesson is learned:
"Cold silence has a tendency to atrophy any
Sense of compassion
Between supposed lovers/brothers." -
I think it is a relationship song. Not just a "lovers" relationship, any kind of relationship, whether it be between lover, brothers, families, or some other community of people. The words do have a religious feel to them, as if it is a comparison of a relationship to the schism of the church or maybe even the tower of babel what with all the lines about communication.
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