Editorials
5 Creepy Lyrics from Tool
Next year will mark 10 years since the release of progressive meal band Tool‘s last album 10,000 Days and they are sorely missed, as evidenced by the number of people who are still desperately awaiting new material. I count myself among those people even though I wasn’t the biggest fan of their latest album. As I wait, sometimes patiently, sometimes full of frustration and excitability, I find myself coming back to their discography and relishing the music that we have been gifted over the years.
Now, as almost anyone who has any knowledge of the band knows, Tool is known for their incredibly inventive and, quite often, terrifying imagery. But another aspect that they have earned much respect for is their use of incredibly intelligent and thought-provoking lyrics. However, just because their lyrics are smart doesn’t mean they aren’t sometimes downright unsettling.
So let’s take a look at five tracks from Tool and some of the lyrics that have managed to send shivers up and down my spine. When you’re done reading what I’ve got, make sure to leave a comment with your favorites!
Prison Sex
“Thought I could make it end
Thought I could wash the stains away
Thought I could break the circle if I
Slipped right into your skin
So sweet was your surrender
We have become one
I have become my terror
And you my precious lamb and martyr.”
This song is about molestation and rape, two horrible things that I would not wish upon anyone, even my worst enemies. That subject matter alone makes this a difficult track to listen to. However, when you look at these lines, which suggest that the raped has become a raper, his becomes far more sinister. The cycle of abuse continues, only to be stopped when we listen to the sister companion track “Jimmy”.
46 & 2
My shadow’s
Shedding skin and
I’ve been picking
Scabs again.
I’m down
Digging through
My old muscles
Looking for a clue.
This song is considered by many to be about growth and moving beyond ourselves into a higher plane of consciousness and evolution. However, that doesn’t change the fact that the idea of a shadow shedding its skin is goddamn creepy as shit! Picking through the scabs and digging into the muscle of a shadow simply makes my skin crawl. I don’t want to think of my shadow as something corporeal, something that I can physically manipulate.
H.
Venomous voice, tempts me,
Drains me, bleeds me,
Leaves me cracked and empty.
Drags me down like some sweet gravity.
That ever present voice that constantly aims to get us to do things we don’t want to do or things we know we shouldn’t, that’s what this line calls to mind. We all have to fight the negativity inside of us that threatens to crush us with uncertainty, with false hopes and promises, with deceit. The idea that this voice has enough power to completely and utterly break me is something terrifying. I never want to give it that kind of power.
Sober
There’s a shadow just behind me,
Shrouding every step I take,
Making every promise empty,
Pointing every finger at me.
As someone who has suffered depression for many years, these lines haunt me. They are, for me, a representation of the never ending, always present fear of depression and when it will take hold. When it does, nothing I do feels good enough and I feel ashamed for my actions. As a result, it becomes a chore to even do anything at all, meaning that any promises I may have made could be broken, only furthering the self guilt and shame.
These lyrics terrify me.
Ticks and Leeches
My blood is bruised and borrowed.
You thieving bastards.
You have turned my blood cold and bitter,
Beat my compassion black and blue.
By taking advantage of my kindness, my charity, my generosity, you have turned me into a shell of what I once was, a husk. And that husk, that revenant, is, as the song says, bruised and bitter, unable to ever become the person that they once were. By being used over and over, they lose that compassion forever.
As someone who gives freely as often as I can, I know that feeling of being burned, or realizing that I’m being used. And it has changed me, although I don’t know if it’s for the better. That’s what unsettles me. How would I be different had I not encountered these parasites?
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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