It has been a whole five years since Lateralus and as Tool fans have undoubtedly heard, a new album (to be named 10,000 Days according to the band’s website) is due for release this year.
So, in the spirit of anticipation, Tool has released two DVD singles, Parabola and Schism. Sure, these are both songs off Lateralus, but if you want to keep your appetite whetted until the arrival of the new album you’ll do well to pick these up, because they both offer the same involved/impacting/symbol laden/sometimes-disturbing-and-often-confusing imagery that one comes to expect from Tool video clips. Let’s begin with what is available on each DVD – you get the options of video clip, dual commentary and remix in the menu selection and each DVD comes with a booklet featuring images of video clip stills and designs.
Directed by guitarist Adam Jones, Schism and Parabola are certainly not lacking in powerful visuals. Parabola begins in monochrome, all the more effective to display the hideous-looking man-things that vomit black liquid matter onto a stone table. This imagery coincides with the eerie, melodic sequence of the song, with Maynard James Keenan’s distinct vocals threading through the music. Then suddenly the mayhem kicks in and hey presto! We have colour. You would be mistaken that colour = cheer however, as images of a man with fleshy tubes protruding from his eyes share the screen with a much smaller figure with a pulsating face.
Schism remains on the verge of exploding into a massive wall of sound, but deliberately doesn’t get there for much of the song. As though to illustrate this, Maynard’s vocals belie an urgency that doesn’t let up from start to finish. The lyric “I know the pieces fit” hails the arrival of a new level of intensity to the song, with some stunning drumming by Danny Carey and great bass work by Justin Chancellor.
On screen we have one male and one female creature that enjoy moving eerily, and a bit later in the clip the male lets the female carefully pull out a large section of his head. Awwww. Towards the end of the clip another small being is created – this one has a penchant for traipsing through cells and membrane. Yes, this film clip is a little more squeamish than Parabola, but again, it is visually splendid and extremely well made.
The dual commentaries on the discs are provided by Jello Biafra (Parabola) and ex Jesus Lizard David Yow (Shism). As one would imagine, dual commentaries make it very hard to concentrate on what is being said. As soon as you follow one snippet of commentary, the other cuts across right on top of it. However, if you can stick it out to the end, there are some very funny observations made by David Yow towards the end of Schism.
All in all, if you are a Tool fan, both of these would be welcome additions to your collection.
rimb
said ages ago