{"id":453670,"date":"2026-05-21T23:31:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/453670\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T23:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:31:17","slug":"you-cant-make-music-in-a-test-tube-and-do-math-there-has-to-be-spontaneity-with-a-little-planning-and-a-lot-of-mistakes-how-tool-created-enigmatic-brain-bursting-alternat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/453670\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cYou can\u2019t make music in a test tube and do math. There has to be spontaneity with a little planning and a lot of mistakes\u201d: How Tool created enigmatic, brain-bursting alternative rock with a late-\u201990s masterpiece"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fifth track from Tool\u2019s second studio full-length \u00c6nima sits amongst the progressive metal quartet\u2019s most beloved recordings.<\/p>\n

Although it dates all the way back to 1996, Forty Six & 2 remains one of Tool\u2019s most performed songs and appeared on the setlist when they played the Back To The Beginning show at Birmingham\u2019s Villa Park in 2025, which made history for being Ozzy Osbourne<\/a>\u2019s final performance.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Forty Six & 2 begins with Justin Chancellor\u2019s earth-rumbling bass before guitarist Adam Jones joins in with some palm-muted staccato notes to accentuate the minor tonality of the main riff. The intervals in that motif around the D root are the minor second, the minor sixth, the minor seventh as well as the perfect fifth and major third, which are the ingredients for the D Phrygian Dominant scale. This can also be looked at as the fifth mode of G Harmonic Minor.<\/p>\n

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As with nearly all of Tool\u2019s music, the guitars and bass are tuned to Drop D with the lowest string detuned a whole tone.<\/p>\n

The time signature is mainly 4\/4, though there are sections of 7\/8 and even moments where every one of the instrumentalists is working to a different meter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proggy parts are great \u2013 I enjoy them,\u201d Adam Jones once told this writer. \u201cBut you can\u2019t make music in a test tube and do math. There has to be spontaneity with a little planning and a lot of mistakes \u2013 that\u2019s how you get good results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drummer Danny Carey echoed these sentiments in a 2009 interview with Modern Drummer magazine.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWell, good riffs are good riffs, and good beats or whatever,\u201d he explained. \u201cUsually those are the building blocks. The parts that we come up with on top of them are all our own. Very seldom are we playing in unison.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe resulting sound \u2013 there\u2019s not much of us playing the same thing at the same time. We find parts that are complementary. There\u2019s more of a counterpoint situation, so it leaves it open for us to express ourselves with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

TOOL – Forty Six & 2 (Official Audio) – YouTube
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Notorious for being cryptic and elusive when it comes explanations of their lyrics, the four members of Tool tend to keep their cards close to their chests when it comes to the meaning behind the music.<\/p>\n

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It is, however, generally understood that the title of Forty Six & 2 is a reference to an idea first conceived by American spiritualist and new age author Drunvalo Melchizedek, writer of books such as The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life Volumes I & II, Living In The Heart: How To Enter Into A Sacred Space Within The Heart and The Serpent of Light: Beyond 2012.<\/p>\n

The concept is centred around the possibility of human evolution when the body has two more than the normal 46 total chromosomes, made up of 44 autosomes and two sex chromosomes. The addition of two more autosomes into human DNA would therefore drastically alter how the body develops.<\/p>\n

On the Salival webcast recorded in 2000, singer Maynard James Keenan was able to confirm this interpretation was in fact correct.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually about 46 chromosomes and then [the two sex chromosomes], that\u2019s what the 2 is about, not necessarily 48 chromosomes,\u201d he commented.<\/p>\n

He was joined by Carey who clarified that \u201c48 and then the other two would be a horrible mutation\u201d, with Keenan contemplating such a scenario could result in a creature \u201cbordering on hermaphrodite\u201d \u2013 something which can occur in plants and animals but not humans.<\/p>\n

The song\u2019s lyrics also touch on concepts by ground-breaking Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, with lyrics like \u201cchange is coming\u201d and \u201cI want to feel the metamorphosis\u201d referring to the \u201cshadow\u201d \u2013 the element of ourselves which we fear and repress.<\/p>\n

Tool – Forty Six & 2 (Live at Back to the Beginning, Birmingham, 05.07.2025) – YouTube
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Speaking to this writer in 2015, Adam Jones elaborated on why the group have often delved deep into the metaphysical and philosophical, adding concepts like sacred geometry and golden ratios into their musical furnace of brain-bursting alternative rock.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt came from trying to relate to those things in life or nature we all have in common,\u201d he told me. \u201cIt\u2019s something that people have been studying since the beginning of time. So we wanted to apply that to our music, that\u2019s why we got more into the idea behind series, science, metaphysics and the myth of communication.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cThere are things that we don\u2019t understand about the planet that affects us. Everyone knows the colour red, people use their eyes\u2026 but how would you describe the colour red without using that word or pointing at something?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kinda what we do through music \u2013 finding themes that create something. Maybe it leads to a shape or colour or vibration.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fifth track from Tool\u2019s second studio full-length \u00c6nima sits amongst the progressive metal quartet\u2019s most beloved recordings.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-453670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}