5 Opinions For Tool’s 7empest Meaning

Tool Band

1. Opinion 

I think there are a few ways to look at this, but personally, I believe it to be about those who don’t think that others can change. The song is told from the point of view of someone who has no desire to admit or see that the person he’s talking to has become a better person; he’s claiming that this flawed person cannot change while he himself refuses to rethink his own perspective. In some ways, this song is the Yin to The Pot’s Yang. The Pot describes someone (rightfully) pointing out a hypocrite, while 7empest is saying that just because someone may have been flawed does not mean we ourselves are not. I think behind the heavy instrumental, what Tool is really trying to say is that even though we should be vigilant and wary of others who would do us harm, we must also be willing to offer love to those who are trying to become better people (and to try and become better people ourselves).

2. Opinion 

My view. Look up Intermittent Explosive Disorder. Imagine a person who can go from tranquil to rage on the turn of a dime. This is my 7empest. The love of my life. She has Intermittent Explosive Disorder. I have said the words “Here we go again” so many times, which of course fuels the rage.

Think Incredible Hulk. Mild-mannered Bruce Banner / Hulk. Or Jean Grey / Dark Phoenix. Dr. Jekyl / Mr. Hyde. These comparisons are exactly what this disorder is like. It is not an additional personality, it is a short circuit of the brain, in relation to a poor foundation due to extreme childhood trauma.

7empst says “You’re gonna happen again. That’s what I think”

This is my life with my love. I know she will short circuit again. I know the 7empest will return, I know she will lose control. With this theme in mind, 7empest continues to tell the story of one who will wreak havoc, unapologetic havoc. Blame others for the havoc they cause. It is their nature.

The lyrics themselves, in my opinion, are self-explanatory, however, I am living with and loving my own 7empest. I am moving out in a day though. I will always be her person, will be her husband, however, I will maintain a separate address. I will have my own safe place to take refuge during the 7empst. I do not hate the 7empest, I respect it, and let it do its thing.

This may sound like crazy talk to those who are not living the life I am, this song is about a loose cannon. One who cannot control their actions. One who is tranquil. One who becomes the 7empest.

3. Opinion

This song is about people who deceive others into a false sense of security, trying to lull people to sleep by explaining away the signs of a coming tempest as coincidence.

Almost every person in control of this world does it- the status quo is king, right? No need to worry, business as usual. Keep praying, keep working, keep voting and everything will be ok. Just make sure to give your dues to society (aka make us rich by being an ignorant dumbass).

But as Maynard says, the lies will all be revealed when the tempest finally comes and washes everything away

4. Opinion

Given the album is a concept-driven by an antidote to fear…in whatever manner that may arrive…and taking into consideration Tools own comments regarding individuals to place their own interpretation on the tracks… personally, I find the album taken as a whole a sublime masterpiece … and message… the Tool offered by the album is self-belief and rebellion through both self-awareness and awareness on our interaction between each other, our impact on the environment…and how near the abyss we actually are…… its a tool against becoming a manipulated unquestioning sheep…swallowing the materialistic BS we are fed from every angle… the 7empest… the number 7 can relate to transcendence…overcoming a spiritual dilemma… rebelling against spiritual destruction, fighting through self-awareness a bad thing and winning…

Anyhow… to me it’s saying it’s time to work together again ( here we go again) and destroy the demigods and regain our awareness… Trump is the personification of ignorance and greed…. and his 7empest should not be our 7empest.

5. Opinion 

To me this song, the more I think about it, is horrific. I ruminated on this one for a while and then just focused on the strict definition of the word tempest. With tempest understood as a great, powerful, and devastating force of nature many of the phrases I was confused with made sense.

Nature is brutal. I can look at the night sky and wonder at the serenity of it all, the peace, the tranquility, but left alone in the vacuum of space I wouldn’t last long. Nature is violent. The Earth is riddled with a history of natural catastrophes responsible for the many extinction-level events that have wiped countless species of life from the planet.

Personifying nature is such a human thing and brilliantly managed in the lyrics. Almost coy, one can envisage Mother Nature with tongue in cheek after the disaster of the hurricane leaves once beautiful landscapes and the security of a home in complete ruins…as if she were caught in the ‘lie’ of offering submission to our feeble attempts at subduing her.

Our ruin, though, cannot fully be blamed on the nature of cyclical extinction. We argue, out of arrogance and ignorance, over (Nature’s) intentions, for example, deciphering the ‘evidence’ of a warming planet as a response to our polluting behaviors, a natural part of a climate not static, or some mixture of both. None of this matters. We need to start thinking about what to do in light of an impending tempest…it’s coming…we know its true nature…to destroy and make room for the next ‘bastard’.

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