“Lateralus” is one of the heaviest and meaningful songs in all of Progressive Metal. Never before has another band wrote the way Tool does. Tool’s essential message to the song “Lateralus” is that every man should have the ability to think laterally.

Essentially, Keenan is a strong believer in individuality, and how it changes a person for the better. He makes this obvious as he explores the depth and madness in his own head, as this song is the product of just that.

“Lateralus” is littered with symbolism, and its beat was created by a sequence of numbers referred to as the ‘Fibonacci Sequence.’ Keenan wrote the lines, “I embrace my desire to/ I embrace my desire to/ Feel the rhythm, to feel connected/ Enough to step aside and weep like a widow/ To feel inspired/ To fathom the power/ To witness the beauty/ To bathe in the fountain/ To swing on the spiral/ To swing on the spiral to/ Swing on the spiral/ Of our divinity/ And still be a human.”

The Fibonacci sequence, as mentioned above, is a pattern of numbers where each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers, starting with 0 and 1: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13…This sequence has connections to several different mathematical and natural subjects, including the golden ratio, the Fibonacci spiral, and Pascal’s triangle. Because of its wide range of appearances and applications, it has become a subject of fascination and popular culture. The writer of a commonly known book about this sequence, Devlin Martin, states clearly, “It’s not ‘God’s only rule’ for growing things, let’s put it that way.”

I believe that the use of geometry within this piece is his way of telling us that we are all the same, looking at life through different angles. Especially referred to in the line, “As below so above and beyond I imagine/.”

The philosophy involved within this song is about one’s ability to be able to think laterally to be just as alive as another. Although life has its ups and downs, and everyone lives a different one, Keenan brings up the ideal that we are all the same mechanical beings who live the same lives at different angles.

I believe the use of the symbolism behind the choosing of the Fibonacci sequence and its golden spiral is that we are to be used until we are nothing more and that would lead to the Golden Age of Human Perfection once we accept our collective godship instead of our individuality.

All of this makes “Lateralus” one of the most philosophically driven songs in all of metal, as it makes 4 points in one. We are not to be unique, our downfall is written for us already, we have an ability to collect and grow, and every man should be able to recognize this fact.