Schism (song)

May 1, 2001

Schism [ skɪz ( ə ) m] ( German: fission, schism ) is a song while the first single released on 15 May 2001 album Lateralus the American progressive metal band Tool.

Single releases

Schism was released in the U.S. on May 1, 2001. Two days before the release of the single appeared on an MP3 on the Internet, which was probably copied from the promo CD. This promo CD was the announcement of the album and contained only the song Schism.

On 20 December 2005, the song was released with video and commentary by David Yow, frontman of The Jesus Lizard, as a DVD single. The DVD also includes a remix by Lustmord.

Construction

Structure

Schism differs in its sequence and structure very much on familiar structures. So there are four verses ( over a maximum and rarely to place three in an ordinary single ) which are separated by instrumental rather than vocal choruses. In addition, typical of tool in Schism almost entirely unusual or uneven signatures are used. In the 116 -measure song are in 51 clock Switch 5/8, 7/8, 9/ 8, 10 /8, 11/8, 12/ 8, 13 /8 and 15/8-Takte through. Each verse a verse is sung over a 12/8-Takt which is musically divided by the emphasis in a 5 /8 and a 7/8-Takt. The instrumental choruses in turn vary the theme verse in key and time signature ( 13/8 instead of 12 /8). Exactly from the middle of the song is omitted the verses and choruses, are run through instead of those various instrumental and vocal sections. The text and the melody of the vocal Maynard James Keenan are interpreting the music, which among other things is expressed that the emphasis of the syllables in the verses exactly follow the intonation of the instruments on the beats.

Length

Schism is 6:47 minutes, more than twice as long as many other singles. The video version additionally includes on the album one track at a previously placed piece mantra as an intro, what the song at 35 seconds extended to 7:22 minutes.

Video

The premiere of the video was on MTV on May 21, 2001-14 days later than originally announced. The director was, as in almost all tool - music videos, Tool guitarist Adam Jones. Following the tradition of the band, you can also see in this video, none of the band members.

Awards

• For this item Tool won the 2002 Grammy Award in the Best Metal Performance category.
• From the Australian radio station Triple J Schism was voted number 14 in the "Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2001 ".

Trivia

• Schism is part of the video game Guitar Hero World Tour.
• It was the first chart placement of a Tool song in the U.S. and until 2006 the only one.