The Mind Blown Realm
by @RockSoulLife
Do you like to think ?
It might seem like a stupid question, but the reality is that many people go through life with the principle of thinking strictly when no other alternative presents itself. Because of this, people tend to be reactionary instead of proactive. When faced with life’s many challenges, decisions are further complicated by one’s inability to understand yourself. The process of exploring who you are and discovering your purest identity should be a journey that excites, not burden you.
Exercising your body is not only an essential component to sustain your capacity to experience life, but an investment in energy storage for the unknowns that will present themselves and demand a physical expenditure.
The soul is no different. A soul forsaken yields instability, confusion, anxiety and ultimately despair. It becomes in essence, an insurmountable debt. So how does one exercise the soul ? The soul as en energy medium, is intrinsically linked to the mind. It is the mind that interprets what the soul projects and in turn, feedbacks the reaction experienced by our physical self. Challenge your mind, force it to flex it’s muscles beyond their comfort zone and your soul will respond with the elements that will allow you to identify, conquer and transcend who you are.
How does rock n’ roll come into this equation ? Well, how about through the music of the greatest rock band of the past 25 years: The almighty TOOL…
To say that the music of Tool is complex would be an understatement, but it would also be overly simplistic. Tool is a thinking man’s music, and if you happen to have your soul’s sensitivities tuned to the heavily distorted and polyrhythmic, then you have reached elysium. If you embrace the challenge of finding your own personal meaning to the world that is presented to you not only in it’s rich lyrical content but in the layer upon layer of sonic bliss, your soul will respond in ways no other stimuli can recreate.
Tool is best approached the same way you would approach fine art. Open your mind, admire, process and search for meaning. Now, meaning is a dangerous & controversial concept in the art world. It has the capacity to elevate your interaction, while also holding the power to utterly corrupt your experience. We often make the mistake of looking for meaning within the art or music itself, as if this were a hidden Waldo that you can discover if only you stare hard and long enough. Searching for meaning is an introspective and personal process that relates to your own experience of mindfully allowing art to connect with your soul. Whatever intention or significance the artist experienced while producing his art, is his own meaning and connected to the process of creation. Seeking validation in identifying this element is an intellectual exercise that distracts from the truly rewarding journey of allowing art to plant it’s seed within your soul and flourish for the rest of time.
In order to connect with the music of these remarkable artists, resist the urge to over-analyze the individual elements within their songs and let your mind & soul process this as a single homogenous entity. Any single component that makes up their music (guitar, drums, vocals, bass, lyrics) is awe inspiring in it’s own right, but collectively it is life altering.
Most popular music revolves around vocal melody and a straightforward lyrical message. The reason for this is that it is the simplest way to connect with a vast audience. We all have a voice and we can all relate to words. The musical component tends to become but a background element on to which a product is placed. The best example of this phenomenon is that most of us hardly (if at all) consume music that is presented in a language we don’t speak. We are put off by not being able to “get” the lyrical message in the moment and forego the entirely universal musical element that might have been extraordinary otherwise. This is precisely where Tool excels.
I lose myself between the sounds
And open wide to suck it in
I feel it move across my skin
I’m reaching up and reaching out
I’m reaching for the random, for
Whatever will bewilder me
Whatever will be willed on me
And following our will and wind
We may just go where no one’s been
We’ll ride the spiral to the end
We may just go where no one’s been
The lyrical content within most of their songs is incredibly profound, thought provoking and emotional. At the same time, it is not easy to digest. It is constructed within a deep metaphorical mesh and frequently contains a philosophical, spiritual and/or scientific foundation. As such, it requires many listening iterations to fully absorb the content. So how come so many people are willing to buy into this elaborate concept ? Simply put, the music is out of this world.
The musical tapestry Tool manages to conjure is unlike anything else you can encounter within the rock world or any other genre for that matter. Every instrument, every note, every transition, every time change tells a story in itself. It is impossible to faithfully describe, it must be experienced. The people who don’t like their music tend to say they “don’t understand it”, while their legions of fans universally claim “there is nothing like them”.
Lateralus the title track from the album that bears the same name, is a masterpiece that urges the listener to awaken his soul to the moment, embrace the future, connect with the beauty of transformation and keep moving in the journey of self discovery and transcendence. The musical foundation for this magnum-opus is rooted in the Fibonacci sequence, an infinite sequence of numbers where every number is the sum of the previous two numbers (1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21…). This is the foundation of The Golden Spiral and Divine Proportion which is considered by many to be the mathematical representation of beauty & perfection in the universe. In the song, the incredibly challenging and complex time changes are based on the fibonacci sequence, so the rhythm of the song follows this progression. The initial verses are sung with a lyrical cadence where syllables are broken into this same sequence. The magnificence of the song is not in that the members of Tool are accomplished mathematicians, but rather that they are able to create music which conveys this message without the listener requiring an understanding of where it comes from. As complex as the execution is, you can just feel it. The sliding bass line in the last section of the song is a mind-boggling musical representation of re-awakening and re-birth, a truly new state of consciousness. You can quite literally feel the sound “move across your skin”.
Rock Soul Therapy exists to experience the transformational power of rock music within the deepest confines of our being. Tool is not for everybody (it pushes quite hard), I fully appreciate and respect this fact. For the rest, prepare to have your mind completely blown. Your soul will never be the same, and that’s a beautiful thing…
Rock and Roll Will Save Your Soul.
@RockSoulLife
If you enjoyed this story, please share, follow and/or recommend so others can accompany us in this journey I call Rock Soul Therapy. Thanks for reading…
