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Let me begin by recognizing Tool. Tool will go down in music history as a classic band of the 90's. They have such a strong and seemingly unexplicable fan base due to a complete lack of promotion and the band's tendency towards seclusion. However, there comes a point in every band where they cease to be relevant. For Tool, this point is 10,000 Days. This album strikes me as the leftover ideas from Lateralus, and I do not hear the 4 years of separation that this album should hold. What did they do with those four years? Maybe they had an economic realization that if a pop band can sell 10 million copies by re-releasing an album, they can do it too. But don't Tool fans expect something new? Would Lateralus have been Lateralus had it not come immediately after Aenima. I'm not saying Lateralus would have been less good had Aenima not existed. Nor am I saying this album would have been any beter had Lateralus never been released. What I am saying is that in the past, Tool did an excellent job redfining their sound. Not recreating like many bands do but modifying, re-tuning. Maybe Lateralus was the apex and there was simply nothing to be done that could have made it better. While I may be of the opinion that Lateralus had it's flaws, it still could have been as perfect an album as Tool will ever make.
Vicarious is a good song. The synth I like especially. The riffs are good. Everythign is good. But nothing is more than good. This song sounds to me like a recycled Schism. In fact, for the most part this album reminds me of Schism. Is it any suprise though? Schism was by far Tool's most commercially succesful song, why wouldn't they attempt to recreate that?
The Pot and Intention are the highlights of the album as far as I'm concerned. The Pot does an excellent job taking the sound they are re-using and making it better as opposed to the sort of half conceived feeling I get from the rest. In fact, the Pot is the kind of song that could've turned Lateralus into a fully 5/5 album for me. It is a great song and I applaud it. However, it is still not really a sound removed from Lateralus. It is a perfected sound.
Intension on the other hand intoduces a totally new sound. An album of Intension would have made this the step Tool could have taken to continue their redefining progression. The electronics and overall mood is a change from what else we've heard. Does Tool need to go on being a hard rock band? They do so well with their atmospheric, comtemplative sound. They still use their same riffing ideas from every album, but they rephrase them. Gone are the pounding drums and driving guitars. Instead, they did just as I had hoped and readjusted. They created something great and new, not something good but old. I'm not saying Tool should from now refrain from using heavy riffing, but it feel more intelligent and thoughtful to not, or use it as an accent rather than the whole sound. Right in Two is a good example of that. While it sounds like Lateralus much more than Intension, it utilizes the heavyness as an accent or a build, rather than the whole point. Still, I miss the electronics.
Electronics and Tool make sense together which is why I am so disappointed with this album. If they weren't there at all I'd be happier because I would feel like they never even though of using them but the fact that they are there but go unused for so much of the album is distressing. Couldn't they hear that they were onto something?
I suppose not. Otherwise this album would be a triumph. I am not impressed. Maybe my tastes are just more towards those of Tool haters but I feel like this is the album to which I can honestly say Tool has fallen. They are not the musically creative superpower I once knew them as. Now, they are an old band, trying to hang on to their diehard fans with old songs I've heard before. This is the last album Tool can possibly wait to release because I don't see anyone waiting around another 4 years for this.
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Realistic view of the album, that's for sure. I think it will get a lot of 5/5 just because it's Tool, and not because it's really great music.
Just rating, and I think it's around mine as well once I had more time with the album. Good review
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great review. I enjoyed reading that.
Apparently, I'm not missing out when I dont buy this album. I owned Lateralus, and I thought it was good, but I lost it a long time ago and have never pursued intreast in retaining it.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Dancin Man, the best review so far. Votes
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I don't know what everybody sees in Vicarious. Its a very bland, boring song IMO. Nice review.
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good album. and your point of view has something...
for me the album lacks the grudge  and not angry enough.
lateralus did it for me because of its aggression mostly/
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Pretty good review, but it could've been more objective. The comments toward the end about how you're disappointed, or not impressed, or how they're not the "creative superpower" you once knew, are really not helpful to me since I may disagree. Minor nitpick, though; I didn't neg you or anything.
If the track list is any indication, this album seems to continue with the same atmosphere of cheap, new-age spirituality that Lateralus had. Aenima had similar moments (Third Eye, etc), but it didn't seem as overt. I think Aenima was their best work.
Eh, I'll still buy it just to see what the fuss is about. This Message Edited On 04.30.06
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Haven't heard it yet.This Message Edited On 05.04.06
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Decent review, though I disagree with much of it.
As with most of these 10,000 Days reviews, I feel it's far too early to judge the rating of this album after only a couple of weeks, or days in some peoples cases.
My rating may very well change, thus I wouldn't write a review on it at this stage.
Much of the album dosn't sound like Lateralus at all. Vicarious sounds the most like Lateralus, yet has a new feel to it that nothing from Lateralus had. And the Pot sounding like Lateralus? Rubbish... it sounds more like an Undertow styled song than anything from Lateralus.This Message Edited On 04.30.06
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Mediocre review. You gave it a rating of 3 for Good, yet hardly highlighted any of its good components. Even when you did, all you said was "____ is good", with no explanation as to why. It just seemed more like a retort to the other reviews, rather than an independent review. I also agree with Slack that you could've taken a more objective point of view, since after reading this I hardly learned anything about the album itself besides the fact that some parts sound like Lateralus, some don't, you liked songs, you didn't like songs, and you were disappointed there wasn't much use of electronics.
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I hate Danney Carey impeccable drumming. Eh ok review, but I agree with pretty much everyone elses comments. I don't think this will compare to prior efforts though. Still I'm glad to see something from Tool again.This Message Edited On 04.30.06
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I wanna buy Aemia 1st, then ill check this one out.
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
A much more fair review than the others.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Sounds slightly dissapointing, but I can understand why you said everything. People shouldn't automatically assume it's a classic because it's solely made by Tool.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Agreed^
To be honest, i'd say it would be fair to say this album is worth anywhere between 3.5 and 4.5 at this stage.
I suppose less if you don't actually even like Tool anyway.This Message Edited On 04.30.06
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Talk about Intension people.
Shadius - I do like Tool. I used to be quite the fanboy. I just came to realize that they are a really good band, but not the best.
Iluvatar - It's true, I wrote this because of how disappointed I was. I wrote it with an agenda. The agenda being the counter the other 2 (well, 2 for now. There will be more) reviews that were so impressed. I really wrote this review for the Tool fan. Ehh, not some of my best work.
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I thought this wasn't released until May 2nd? :confused:
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Different release dates for different locations.
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Well Dancin' Man is American, isn't he? He should not have reviewed this yet.
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Tool really should have done alot better after so long of a recording period.
Personally, I think the members of the band are no longer allowed to be jerks the way they always are to reporters, fans, etc.; because this album is so terrible and what gave them the right to be pricks was being so talented and astounding in their music... and this album sucks.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
I can't do it even if I got a copy sent or brought back?
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