Tool Will Never Play This Song Again

Playing through your average Tool song feels like doing heavy metal calculus. 

The constant tempo switches and trying to understand what goes into a song like ‘Lateralus’ tends to feel like putting your brain in a blender. Tool may throw down with those songs every night, but the one song they refuse to play comes from when they were still cutting their teeth.

Undertow is probably their most straightforward body of work, but  Tool’s lyrics go to some insanely dark places. These days, the band is no longer playing ‘Prison Sex’ due to the dark nature of the song’s lyrics.

Back when they still played it live, Maynard James Keenan said the song’s origin was about:

“Recognising, identifying, the cycle of abuse within yourself. That’s the first step of the process: realisation; identifying. The next step is to work through it. But, this song is about the first step in the process, which is recognizing.”

Since the music is so abrasive, the song might be triggering for people who have been in those horrible situations. 

The music video doesn’t sugarcoat things either, with Adam Jones creating some disturbing imagery to go along with Maynard’s polarizing lyrics. 

This song is also a bit of a jab at Maynard’s religious household when he was growing up which he described as “intolerant and unworldly,” especially at the expense of the sexual allegations that were coming out against priests when he was growing up.

Ever since Maynard’s mother Judith passed away, the song has been more or less retired because it apparently upset her that her son played the song live. Tool always had a bit of an edgy streak about them, but this might have gone that one step too far. 

Do you wish Tool still played the song live? Sound off on Instagram.