Lateralus (song)

February 2002

Lateralus is a song by American progressive metal band Tool and the third single from the eponymous album Lateralus.

Background

Lateralus is known for its unusual time signatures. The chorus is changed from a 9/ 8 to an 8/8 to a 7 /8 time. The working title was therefore also 9-8-7. Later, the band found that 987 is the 16th number of the Fibonacci sequence. That's why the song is partly based on Fibonacci numbers.

Text

The text occurring in the colors white, black, red and yellow chose singer Maynard James Keenan, as these colors occurred in the creation stories of indigenous people across generations and over again in different creation stories. The song, however, can be seen as a description of an LSD trips. Alex Grey, who designed the artwork for Lateralus, said that he was only black and white spirals and red and yellow would look under LSD influence later.

The line " As below so above and beyond, I imagine" is a quote from one of the seven principles of Summums and also a direct reference to the Emerald Tablet of Hermetics.

Mathematical structure

The syllables of the verses in some parts of Lateralus have the length of Fibonacci numbers, where the number increases and then decreases.

The subsequent mention of a spiral in the lyrics can be seen as an allusion to the Golden Spiral, which is closely related to the Fibonacci sequence.

Reception

Loudwire Lateralus listed No. 1 on the 50 best metal songs of the 21st century.