| Disturbed – Criminal Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I'll choose interpretation, simply because this piece is about the guilt associated with desiring freedom from something that one feels or acknowledges a certain attachment to. The brilliance of the lyrics (and always the music) is that this song can dial in to personal relationships or even be applied to something broad like seceding the union (leading to civil war)... The composition of this song is so well rounded and open to unique interpretation while maintaining a committed message that will resonate despite the possible interpretations. Simply fantastic. To paraphrase and distill the message: "I don't want to separate from this, but you're leaving me at odds for any other possible decision. I don't want to deal with this, this isn't what I'm in it for, I require justification for my compulsion to leave, please, if we're united, I need your help. I don't have much faith in you, and if this is justified, provide the proof I require to move on and to sever myself from it all without a single lingering feeling that I made the wrong decision. I'll be even be badguy if necessary, but only because I care. If I didn't care, I'd need no conclusive evidence to leave for good. I'm a good person, and because you are not, you want to enslave me by my commitment, and you care not to aid in my healing. The decision has been made without my consent, I have been judged. The jury is my conscience and yours. I don't want to be the executioner, but I will." |
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| Tool – Lateralus Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I'll go with interpretation on this one, simply because art may have any one message or multitude of meanings. I'll only use the lyrics as a point of reference for anyone who reads this, but a truly LATERAL (side to side) interpretation must include the instrumental aspect. Lyrics are lyrics. Vocals are vocal, guitars are guitars, and the double-bass are drums. Synthesizers and voice filters are touches. All of it amalgamates to function as something that must be music, and to the end must yield a certain work of art. Let's see: Black then white are all I see in my infancy Red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me, let's me see Peaceful resonance... emerging from darkness into a light... (black and white) Strokes of the tendrils of a fire, burning, licking out and warming me... (red and yellow) I can now not only differentiate between light and dark, but I can also see the tones of something greater than the monotonous, I am no longer colorblind, I can witness the beauty of a burning fire... As below, so above and beyond, I imagine Drawn beyond the lines of reason Push the envelope, watch it bend With the vocal and instrumental sound, the lyrical noise is something imagined, guiding an interpretation; completing a circuit between what I hear and what I think... Step into the flame... push it (no pun), get closer to that something which shows you color. Flex your own perception of what that may be, your tolerance to what might burn could grow... I find this specific interpretation to be curious, dangerous, and vivifying. Could I be the fuel for the fire, the flame, and the smoky tendrils swirling out into the atmosphere all at once? Some sort of insane triad or holy trinity? The envelope itself (literally) is quite suggestive. Burn the sender, the recipient and the heart of it - the message. Thus we have: Over thinking, over analyzing, separate the body from the mind Withering my intuition, missing opportunities and I must Feed my will to feel my moment, drawing way outside the lines Dwelling on the light, the dark, the colorful flames, I might let what I interpret as something beatiful come to be that thing could destroy me. Ignore the pain of burning alive, I may destroy the vessel that takes my mind on this voyage - I cannot accept a singular sensory perception or deny what my senses derive... The mind could conclude one thing, while a single physical sense has known the answer all along... There is so much more and beckons me to look through to these infinite possibilities Listen, smell, taste, FEEL, and finally SEE. Observe the flame inside that drives and the flame outside that burns. Fuel the right one, from time to time - and burn - for better or worse... Feed my will to feel this moment Urging me to cross the line Reaching out to embrace the random Reaching out to embrace whatever may come I simply envision embers struggling to burn... I embrace my Desire to I embrace my Desire to Feel the rhythm, to Feel connected Enough to step aside and Weep like a widow, to Feel inspired, to Fathom the power, to Witness the beauty, to Bathe in the fountain, to Swing on the spiral, to Swing on the spiral, to Swing on the spiral of Our divinity and Still be a human I am the fuel, the spark, and the exhaust. Let the flame rise. I am immediately struck with a vision of a human figure burning alive, ascending from a lava flow. With my feet upon the ground I move myself between the sounds And open wide to suck it in, I feel it move across my skin I'm reachin' up and reachin' out, I'm reachin' for the random or Whatever will bewilder me, whatever will bewilder me And following our will and wind, we may just go where no one's been We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been What remains of what exists is what is, what was, and what will be. Smoky plumes swirl into the maw of atmosphere as this undying creature, baptised by fire, walks steadily out of the lava flow from which it was created, it has fueled, pumped through its veins and burned within. Red and yellow creep and cling along the contours of its body. It is the fuel, the flame, and the smoke that rises - swirling and spiraling into the great unknown: what we inhale, the breath of life. Merge with and recombine. Reflect and recollect. At once melt, burn, vaporize... Fossilize, and goodbye. |
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