Tool · 2001 · 9 · 8 · 7
The 9 · 8 · 7 polymeter in Lateralus by Tool
Press play to hear the rhythm isolated. Slow it down, speed it up, or change the counts to feel how it works.
Every player fits the same bar: A splits it into 3, B into 2. They meet on beat 1.
Note: The song plays 9/8, 8/8, and 7/8 in sequence, not simultaneously. The demo stacks them so you can compare the three bar lengths side by side.
Tempo: The tempo shifts between sections on the record, so no single BPM applies. The demo pulse is set for comfortable listening.
Simplified educational demo, not a transcription of the recording.
Hear the real thing
Playing the track pauses the demo automatically (and vice versa) so they don't fight each other.
What's happening rhythmically
The chorus riff of Lateralus cycles through bars of 9/8, 8/8, and 7/8, a sequence Danny Carey and the band have discussed openly, and famously tied to the Fibonacci-patterned vocal phrasing.
On the record those meters happen one after another, not at the same time. The demo stacks nine, eight, and seven-pulse loops simultaneously instead. A different beast, but the clearest way to feel how much each bar length differs, and why the song keeps pulling the ground out from under you.
What to listen for
- On the record: the riff shrinking by one pulse each bar (9, then 8, then 7)
- In the demo: three downbeats drifting at different speeds (the full cycle is 504 pulses)
- How a single missing eighth note completely changes a riff’s center of gravity