Tool - 10,000 Days
Rating
RIYL
A Perfect CircleMelvins
Quicksand
Clutch
Soundgarden
Release Date
05/02/2006
Label
VolcanoTracklist
1. Vicarious2. Jambi
3. Wings For Marie (Pt 1)
4. 10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)
5. The Pot
6. Lipan Conjuring
7. Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)
8. Rosetta Stoned
9. Intension
10. Right In Two
11. Viginti Tres
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With 10,000 Days leaking to the Internet weeks before its release, many fans have been voicing their disappointment in the album on music forums and in chats rooms. Indeed, such fans my find irony in the lyric “I need to watch things die from a distance,” which Maynard sings in the album’s lead song, “Vicarious.”
Not uncommon for the band given its past, this album took nearly five years to complete. Put off because of Keenan’s duties to A Perfect Circle and drummer Danny Carry’s side project Pigmy Love Circus, 10,000 Days is, needless to say, one of the most anticipated rock albums in the last 10 years, if not thee most anticipated. But this is all irrelevant now because the album is (finally) out… and the word is in: 10,000 Days is the most unconventional, uncompromising, and unbelievably profound record this band has released.
We love this band because it’s experimental. But “experimental” doesn’t begin to describe this album in context to what we’ve come to expect from Tool: 10,000 Days is a creative rebirth for the band. Consider “Wings for Marie” (Part I and II): “Wings,” over 17-minutes long, is one continuous build without much climax. While building, Keenan manipulates his voice gorgeously as if it were an instrument (a style he’s clearly perfected with APC). Lyrics become meaningless when the voice is used in this way.
Further, 10,000 Days shows Tool at its most minimalistic, more concerned with rhythm, tone, movement and motion, rather than intricacies, over-structuring, heaviness and general “rocking out.” Plainly put, less is more – a lot more. With prolonged intros, found in the brilliant “Right in Two", “Lost Keys” (which is actually an intro into “Rosetta Stoned”), as well as “Vicarious,” and simple riffs, found in the beginning of “Jambi” and “The Pot,” minimalizing moods makes this an album of consistency rather than difficulty; of being rather than becoming. Tool has never been this melodic or this concerned with how they carry sonically.
However, this album does have its holes: Carry’s drums are unusually low in the mix, and the vocals are often too far in the background, as in “Vicarious.” Keenan also opens “The Pot” awkwardly with a melody that would make any vocal coach cringe. The rest of this song, however, he absolutely nails it, especially in the pre-chorus where his vocal phrasing and melisma are jaw-dropping. Next to “Right in Two,” “The Pot” is this album’s strongest song. Disregarding the intro to this song, I think this is the best Keenan has ever sounded on a Tool record.
Since Ænima, Tool has had a tendency to include random instrumentals between songs. 10,000 Days isn’t plagued with an over abundance of these unnecessary interludes, though it does possess a few: “Lipan Conjuring” which sounds like either a Sioux chant to summon buffalo or a spell to conjure dead ancestors (I’m not sure which), and “Viginti Tres” which closes the album in a bizarre and demented, haunted-house sounding way.
The very thing that makes Tool a brilliant band is what makes this album brilliant: it’s uncompromising. Thus, this album should be listened to, evaluated, and I would even argue admired, more for what it isn’t rather than what it is. It isn’t just another Tool album (incidentally, Lateralus at times felt more like a continuation of Ænima than a cohesive release), but rather a portrait of a rebirth from a band most of us have grown to envy and admire a great deal. I don’t know why you listen to Tool, but for me they embody more artistic grit than any other rock band today, even more than The Mars Volta, and there’s something to be said about that.
This album not only reinforces that idea – the idea that you can create something free of standards – but that it can be done on your own terms, on Tool’s own terms. To me, this album says that a selfish artist is a successful artist, and in my opinion that artistic dogma must be considered when trying to comprehend the real beauty and significance behind this band – one whose music seems to only touch on the surface of its real message.
--Brent S. White
Comments
NY/PA
I guess I'll just pigeonhole myself into the group that believes 10,000 Days doesn't have a lot of new ideas to offer. I really would have liked to have seen them approach its music in an entirely different manner with this album, since I respect them all as musicians and feel like they could do much better than simply making another "tool" album. We've all heard this Tool sound before, and since Lateralus, we've seen a MILLION Tool knockoffs, so to see Tool hitting so close to home again just isn't impressive to me. I wanted to see them reclaim their territory and show me why they were better than all their clones, instead of referring to the fact that they were there first, but in my eyes they failed to do this.
Nice review though, you support the other side well. The musicianship is stellar from the band, as expected.
Minnesota
Find me EVERYWHERE:
NY/PA
Not at all, Tool was most definitely one of my favorite bands in high school, so I've been awaiting this one for quite some time.
Minneapolis, MN
When Lateralus was released, I still pretty much felt the same way. Good music, but I had no idea how deep it actually was. Then I started reading about all the fibbinocci sequence stuff and the true track order stuff online and it really gave me a whole new respect for Tool. The band has never come out and said anything about this alternate track order though so I don't know if it's true.
I can only hope that there's some sort of secrets hidden within 10000 Days, but what I can see on the surface right now is this is Lateralus Pt. 2 with a bit more experimentation.
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los angeles
did they offer you buttsex?
Fort Bragg, CA
Do you happen to have a link about this stuff?
Atascadero, CA
Decoymusic.com (CEO/Founder)
Blue Reef Design Studios (Web Development)
http://aarontroy.tumblr.com
AZ
btw, this statement is completely moronic:
those two albums are so completely different from one another, I'm not ever sure you listened to them hard enough.
www.myspace.com/arcoftheaurora
PA
I also like the comments I'm reading. Yes, TOOL does really crazy shit with secrets in their songs. Lateralus's time signatures in a part follows the fibonacci sequence, Reflection played backwards plays the entire song with different lyrics because...well...a reflection of the original song. (could be the other way around too)
So far there are some secrets with this album. The beginning of Intension has whispers played backwards. Play it forwards...Maynard says..."Stay in school, listen to your mother, father is right..."
It's not retarded like the Stairway to heaven bullshit. They actaully played it backward in the studio and overtracked the whispers so it's actually him saying it, not what people think he says. It's cool.
Music Blog.
Depths blog. (my band)
Fort Bragg, CA
Florida, USA
*files under 'disappointment' on the year-end list*
Fort Bragg, CA
The Great North Woods
what are you implying?
fuck it, i'll say it:
Dr. Dre > Tool
(by infinity points)
Darla Farmer
RIYL:
the Beatles
Tom Waits
Murder By Death
A Whisper in the Noise
the Blood Brothers
nj
I believe you can find that on toolshed.down.net but its just a bunch of tool fans being typical tool fans.
Fort Bragg, CA
chicago, il
stop talking shit
rhode island
Boston, MA
Stereo Typing
Tweet at me, bro
Boston, MA
Stereo Typing
Tweet at me, bro
Northampton, PA
SCV, CA
Cleveland, OH
It's a good album, not sure how I'd rate it yet. Probably an 8/10 or so.
Scene Point Blank / Escapist Records
This album is freaking amazing.
PA
HAHAHA. That was funny. I don't want to hear no more about it. Lol.
Music Blog.
Depths blog. (my band)