I’d recommend reading this along with listening to the album, following it song by song. Bear in mind this is simply my interpretation.
I’d recommend you read my TOOL write-ups in order, from Ænima onwards. This is because I explain concepts in those pieces that are pretty important to go over, and also link the albums in a way that only makes sense if you read them chronologically.
So here it is, the end of my TOOL write-ups. It’s been a journey, and one that I’ve enjoyed so much. Writing these things has truly opened my eyes to what the band has accomplished not only on each album individually, but with their discography as an entire piece of work. Let’s get stuck into their latest…
Fear Inoculum
There comes a time in life where it’s important to get rid of toxicity. When we’re young we open up to all sorts of destructive people and behaviours which shouldn’t be carried forward as we grow older. These things are venomous, and we can’t move on while they cling. We must exhale fear.
These things, which TOOL describes as “The Deceiver”, can be hard to remove from your life. They tempt you into staying, but when we mature enough we can see that it’s all lies. We feel relief by expelling The Deceiver. It’s as though we can start anew. Grow.
Once we let go of fear, we can move forward.
Pneuma
Through life we can get swept up in the moment, carrying out tasks day to day that feel normal. It’s important, however, to remember that this life that we know is only temporary. In TOOL’s eyes, we are souls bound to our bodies. No matter how much progress we think we make in our life, we’re really just running in circles. When our bodies die, we will become Pneuma. The title of the song is an ancient Greek word meaning breath, and is used in religious contexts to mean ‘spirit’ or ‘soul’.
What’s also necessary to understand is that we are all one. Our spirit came from the same place as everyone else’s, and is connected on a spiritual level. We must awaken to this.
Invincible
Growing older can be a challenging process. You can look back at your life and feel proud of the things you’ve accomplished, but it can be hard to remain relevant. Along with this we grow more tired, making us feel as though we’re fading away slowly. When we’re young we feel invincible, but the older and wiser we get the more we learn that this isn’t true. That can be a scary and upsetting realisation.
This, perhaps, is an allegory for TOOL themselves. They were once hugely relevant in the music industry, and were very successful, but at the point of this album being released they’ve taken thirteen years out of it all. It’s possible that the band was worried that they wouldn’t feel as relevant any more, and as they grow older they also feel as though they’re place in the world is fading. This album, then, would be a hopeful return to glory. The lyrics themselves, however, state that the band is worried this may be false hope. As they feel time bearing down, maybe they feel themselves slipping away.
Descending
This song is a final warning. Humanity has self-inflicted their own doom, and haven’t done anything to try and stop it. Of course this is speaking of the extent of which we’ve destroyed our planet and the environment, as well as meltdown of communication. We’ve been lazy in letting things get to this state, and now we need to sound the dread alarm and fight. It’s a matter of life or death. Humanity’s grand finale is upon us, and we must work in order to stay our swan song. It is, after all, instinct to stay alive.
Culling Voices
Through life we also seem to get into our own heads. We over-think situations let ourselves be guided by our negative emotions. This leads to us judging people without evidence. It’s important, then, to realise that letting this happen is foolish. Our own thoughts can easily mislead us into leading our lives in the wrong direction. Internal dialogue is natural, but we can’t let ourselves get to a point where we’re convinced of certain things that aren’t even true.
People are becoming more and more focused on themselves, and we need to turn this focus outwards to others. We need to re-establish communication in order to fix ourselves and society. We need to let go of our ego. We must see things without division and work as one.
7empest
The main problem with society, and the reason we’ve let things get to the stage it has, is because people in places of power use their position to influence people into thinking things are fine. They keep us calm and subdued so that we don’t act up. Now, though, we’re starting to realise that they’ve been misleading us. When these people are caught in their lie they seem to act surprised, even though it’s their nature to deceive. They instantly blame others instead of themselves, which is shameful behaviour. What these people don’t realise is that they will be victims of their own deceit – they’ll be affected by what’s coming too.
In reality there is a storm coming, and we must be prepared to fight for our lives. The tempest isn’t going to stop for us to debate how we should deal with it. The time to act is now.
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This album isn’t as deep as the previous three, and therefore it’s a much shorter write-up than the ones for Ænima, Lateralus and 10,000 Days. Sorry if it’s a disappointing conclusion to the series, but in terms of where it fits in with the overarching story of the TOOL discography, I think it’s pretty cool.
Ænima is the beginning of the journey of transmuting consciousness, Lateralus is going through that process, 10,000 Days is coming to the end of it and what needs to be overcome, and Fear Inoculum is what life is like after having gone through the experience. It’s about being more mature and what struggles this comes with, whether it be feeling less relevant in society, growing physically old or the progress that still needs to be made past the point discussed in the first three albums of this series. Although we may one day grow wiser, it doesn’t mean there aren’t problems we still must face. We may carry over baggage that still needs to be removed from our lives, and we may still at times be too self-focused as opposed to thinking about others. Humanity at this point in time is in more danger than ever, and we need to work together now to stop disaster. The concept of working as one has been stressed by TOOL over the past two decades worth of music, including this album, and it’s more relevant than ever.
To me, this album feels like a conclusion to the band’s message. Finally over four albums talking about our consciousnesses, souls and the meaning of life, they’ve communicated how we should live and what’s truly important – unity. It’s quite sad, really. It feels as though TOOL is saying goodbye.
– Kane
Prog Breakdown 