Review Summary: 10,000 Days hits the mark - for the most part.
*** I apolagise in advance for the EXTREME length of this review. I reccomend that regular breaks be taken when reading, for health and safety reasons. :) ***
Tool are one of those bands. They have a cult following, yet sell records on a mass scale. They are, in terms of sales, extremely popular, yet if you yelled their name in the street most people would point you to a hardware outlet. Others would ask why you were yelling their name in the street, and no doubt call the services. Suffice to say - it's a mystery. But everything about Tool is a mystery. The rabid speculation on numerous forums as to what the name of the new 2006 album '10,000 Days' even reffered too was enough to keep most entertained - the albums eventual release was merely a bonus. And when I say 'eventual', I mean it.
Tool took yet another 5 year hiatus before they casually rolled out '10,000 Days', a waiting period that was spawned from a lengthy legal battle after the release of 1996's
'Aenima', and for some reason seems to have become a trend for the band, no doubt as a result of laziness and lack of motivation (and wine making/consuming). But, finally, here we are with the next mammoth opus from the kings of alternative/progressive rock/metal (delete as appropriate), and - It's not quite what we were expecting. 2001's 'Lateralus' was a sprawling venture through as many pompous subjects as you could think of - often dealing with rebirth, transendence and other spiritually inclined ideas. Everything about the band's music, and the band themselves, had turned deadly serious on 'Lateralus'. The album was berift of the humourous intermissions found on 'Aenima' ('Die Eir Von Satan', the ingeniously named 'Intermission') and instead boasted solumn wailings and atmouspheric enhancers ('Mantra', 'Eon Blue Apocalypse'). Tool had gone serious. And I much expected '10,000 Days' to merely be a continuation of 'Lateralus' and its general ideas and moods (something which I was fully prepared to embrace as I thought 'Lateralus' was a masterpiece).
However, This is not the case. The album settles the listener in at first, with the familiar Lateralus-esque opening to 'Vicarious', but soon we are bombarded with a guitar riff that, while still being in a strange time signature (I don't know what it is, just pick some numbers...), rocks like a bastard. And while Tool do indeed rock on occasion, they haven't been this 'balls to the wall', if you will, since Undertow. The song trails through various metal passages at an exciting pace, never letting up and giving away to those 'atmouspheric' sections we all know so well. No, this is a rocker. Accept it.
This trend carries on through 'Jambi', a 'chugga-chugga' rocker that, while enthrawling as ever, does take a little too long to get going, truth be told. However, once it's there, it doesn't leave in a hurry - boasting a fantastic talkbox solo from Adam Jones (Guitarist), and an uplifting chorus section with the suprisingly optomistic lyrics 'Shine on forever, shine on, benevolent sun' (or 'son', depending on who you ask) delivered fantastically by Maynard James Keenen. The song then wraps up, rather cleverly, before it gets the chance to completely explode, leaving a distinct air of tension before leading into the next track.
Or should I say next 'tracks', as the mammoth 2-part, 17 minute centerpiece 'Wings for Marie / 10,000 Days' is up next. The first half builds up the tension with some haunting atmouspherics, before Maynards low vocal tones slowly creep up into the mix. The song quickly (by Tool standards at least) reaches a sudden climax, that, while brief, is about as intense as they come.
Once 'Wings..' fades out the listener is slowly eased into '10,000 Days', in which the atmouspherics soon pick up once more, but this time to a far greater extent, with thunder and lightning crashing over haunting basslines and guitar accents. The climax comes, but at a far more gradual pace, with the song twisting and turning with haunting guitar/bass interplay, creating a gradual and ever intensifying wall of sound. The climax of 'Wings...' is then repeated before fading out for Maynard to say his final words: 'It's time for you to bring me home...'
Being based on Maynards mother and her traumatic experiences with paralysis, causing her subsequent (and recent) passing, 'Wings/10,000 Days' was always billed to be the epic. And epic it certainly is. Perhaps one of the most emotional and personal Tool songs to date, it provides one of their most impressive centerpieces yet. However, this is CERTAINLY a grower, perhaps more so than any other song the band have recorded. At 17 minutes it is a very long listen, and as fantastic as it is... I can't help but feel that the first half wasn't really needed - sounding frustratingly like a less ambitious demo of what would later become the second half. Despite this, it is a fantastic piece, and certainly deserves to be heard for it's sheer scope and sentimental value alone.
After the listener has been engulfed by 'Wings/10,000 Days' it's time to lighten things up a little, and 'The Pot' is just the thing. Sounding worryingly optomistic for a Tool song, 'The Pot' is a throwback to the 'Undertow' days of yore (The bands first full length, released in 1993). With a funky bass rhythm and cutting guitar riff, it's almost dancable, but not quite. Danny Carey (drummer) also steps up to the challenge on this track (as he does with most), implementing some complex drum patterns whilst somehow still retaining a wonderfully straightforward beat, which carries the song. Infact, the whole band really pushes the envelope on this one - with Maynard hitting notes previously untouched in the Tool catalogue. This is the musicians song on 10,000 Days, and is a wonderful showcase of the bands talents.
Next up is the long overdue 'silly intermission thing', and it's just as pointless as you might expect - some tribal chanting. I'm sure it means something, to someone, somewhere. But not me. The intermission is fun, but only a couple of times.
Onwards then to 'Lost Keys (Blame Hoffman)'. This may appear to be ANOTHER intermission, but it is in fact an extended introduction to its preceding track, 'Rosetta Stoned'. I can, understandably, see alot of listeners feeling a bit alienated at this point, what with the songs repetition and perhaps overlong running time, but I personally really like it. It builds a fantastically 'dreamy' (and slightly drug induced) atmousphere, especially when a conversation fades in towards the end of a doctor and a nurse talking about the condition of a mysterious patient.
This then kicks in to the aforementioned 'Rosetta Stoned', which tells the tale of the patients unique journey involving otherworldly beings (and drugs. lots of drugs.) Clocking in at an impressive 11:11, its another long player, but stays relatively interesting throughout. What would otherwise become a boring concept is saved by some fantastic instrumentation, constantly shifting and evolving to yet another dramatic climax. One thing i didn't like about this track were Maynards vocals at the start, which, while having the desired 'crazy' effect, are a bit irritating (he basically mumbles and grunts into some kind of walkie-talkie device). The track only really finds its feet about half of the way through where it starts going into more atmouspheric passages and ultimately into an extremely dramatic chorus about... ***ting the bed. Didn't see that one coming. Overall a very good song, but not really anything Tool havent done before music-wise. Still, when no one else sounds quite like you, why change the way you sound?
After the 11 minute barrage of distortion that is 'Rosetta Stoned', the listener is treated to a much more melodic offering, much in the vain of 'Disposition' from 'Lateralus'. Bass is the focus of 'Intension', and rightly so, as Justin Chancellor excells himself with yet another hypnotic bass progression that really sets the mood of the song. Electric drums are also tampered with by Mr. Carey later on in the song, hinting at a possible new direction for the band in future, and really adding to the song. Adam's guitar work is minimal, but really accentuates the mood laid down by Justin. Overall, this is perhaps my favourite song on 10,000 Days, maybe even topping 'Wings... / 10,000 Days' and 'The Pot'. It's not something instantly likable, however, and many will dismiss it as 'boring', or not take a liking to the new drumming techniques upon first listen. Listen again.
'Intension' leads nicely into 'Right in Two', which opens with a sparse guitar progression that acts as a haunting backdrop to Maynards lyrics of the greed of the human race: 'monkey killing monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground...' (yes, they look silly when you read them, but SOUND good. Honest.) The instruments eventually errupt into a soaring chorus or two before drifting into an extended guitar driven jam towards the end of the song, ending the album on an exciting note. Or at least i hoped so.
But alas... 'Viginti Tres'. I knew by the title alone that I wouldn't like this song. So imagine my glee when I find out it's not a song at all, but 5 minutes of what sounds like the band playing with vaccum cleaners. Thats art, i guess.
Despite the albums slight missfires, 10,000 Days is a true contender in the Tool catalogue, and it sure as hell blows most other rock bands out of the water in todays current music scene. Tool only have to battle with their previous releases, and they do this admirably by taking a few left turns that no one really saw coming. It has traces of old, traces of new, and traces of what may come from the band in the future. 10,000 Days is by no means perfect, but nor is it bad, by any standards - not even their own.
