Forty-Six & 2
TOOL
About This Project
Mix together parts Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Metallica, and Rush together and you might have the formula for Tool’s lineage. They are hands down one of the best live bands out there (and personally, one of my favorites), Tool engages their fans with audio and visual prowless. It’s progressive heavy metal, but it’s the intellectual depth of song writing — a lot about personal evolution — and visual psychedelics that sets this band apart from others. This band is unusual, unpredictable and incredibly captivating. I remember seeing the claymation video for “Sober” and “Prison Sex” on MTV in the early 1990’s and it blew my mind because nothing else was like it at the time. These were from their first major album Undertow, which was a great album, but but when Ænima came out in 1996 it elevated the band to new heights.
The track that gets repeated for me most is “Forty-Six & 2”, a deep song with complex psychology behind it. Via a great and much simpler YouTube explanation:
This song is about growing, changing, and moving towards the next level of human evolution and consciousness. It’s deeply rooted in Jungian theory (Carl Jung) and the teachings of Drunvalo Melchizedek. Basically, it’s believed that there are three levels of human evolution and each has its own form of consciousness. There’s the 1st level with 44 chromosomes. These are primitive people’s like the aborigines in Australia, then there’s the second level with 46 chromosomes. That is us. We are a chaotic disharmonious consciousness that is basically used as a stepping stone between the first and third levels. The third level is 48 chromosomes. (Or 46 & 2, with 2 being the sex chromosomes x & y). This is the higher level of consciousness. Our destination! …But this is where the Jungian theory comes in. It’s believed that you cannot reach this third level of evolution without first delving into yourself and basically cleansing your consciousness for the next jump. That’s where the Shadow comes in. The shadow is basically everything about that is unseen that you are uncomfortable with or hate. This is also known as “The Anima” (hence the name of the album.)
I’m not saying I subscribe or necessarily believe this, but as food for thought, it’s quite interesting and it makes you think. Listen below, especially the 4 minute mark where the song really spikes. Note at the end of the song when the riff actually spells out “Forty-Six-&-2”.
YOUTUBE SONG/
LIVE VIDEO /
LYRICS /
join in my.. join in my child
and listen.. digging through my old numb shadow
My shadow’s shedding skin, i’ve been picking scabs again
i’m down digging through my old muscles looking for a clue
i’ve been crawling on my belly clearing out what could’ve been
i’ve been wallowing in my own confused and insecure delusions
for a piece to cross me over or a word to guide me in
i wanna feel the changes coming down
i wanna know what i’ve been hiding in
my shadow
my shadow
change is coming through my shadow
my shadow shedding skin
i’ve been picking my scabs again
join in my.. join in my child
my old shadow moves, closer to here…
i’ve been crawling on my belly clearing out what could’ve been
i’ve been wallowing in my own chaotic insecure delusions
i wanna feel the change consume me, feel the outside turning in
i wanna feel the metamorphosis and cleansing i’ve endured within
in my shadow
my shadow
change is coming
now is my time
listen to my muscle memory
contemplate what i’ve been clinging to
forty six and two ahead of me
i choose to live and to grow
take and give and to move
learn and love and to cry
kill and die and to be
paranoid and to lie
hate and fear and to do
what it takes to move through
i choose to live and to lie
kill and give and to die
learn and love and to do
what it takes to step through
see my shadow changing
stretching up and over me
soften this old armor
hoping i can clear the way by
stepping through my shadow
coming out the other side
step into the shadow
forty six and two just ahead of me