Tool’s new album, 10,000 Days, is completely worth the five-year wait. There—I didn’t want to keep you in suspense. You’ve waited long enough already. Unlike other bands, Tool doesn’t follow a two-three year album cycle where releases feel forced and tuned to the current music scene. Instead, they wait until they’re good and ready to release something new, and even then they take their time laboriously perfecting everything before they share their creation with the rest of the world. 10,000 Days is perfect evidence of this, and, as should be expected from Tool, it does not disappoint.
Starting out the new album is the single “Vicarious,” Tool’s most accessible song yet, even while clocking in at seven minutes in length. The song is heavy, but it is perfectly balanced to please both longtime Tool fans and the rock radio circuit. Singer Maynard Keenan is at his most cynical as he belts out “I need to watch things die/From a distance/Vicariously, I live/While the whole world dies/You all need it too, don’t lie.” He goes on to criticize our addiction to television and the violence in the news that keeps people watching it.
Following “Vicarious” is “Jambi,” which sounds like a much heavier version of something off of their Ænima album. The third and fourth tracks, “Wings For Marie (Part 1)” and “10,000 Days (Wings Part 2)” are my favorites on the album. Part 1 begins with a sort of chanting as the guitar floats beautifully over Maynard’s melancholy notes. Then his depression turns violent as the guitar and drums erupt and the band vents out everything that it had built up in the song.
Afterward, it returns to Maynard’s introspective crooning and fades gently into “10,000 Days (Wings Part 2).” While it can be difficult to interpret the hauntingly beautiful lyrics, it is obvious that the subject at hand is intensely personal. Rumor has it that the meaning of “10,000 Days” is that Maynard’s mother was left paralyzed from a stroke for a little over 27 years (10,000 days) before she passed away. Maynard doesn’t waste his time with crowd-pleasing angst so typical of today’s metal scene. He transcends that, as he always has. Here he speaks of spiritual enlightenment as he sings “Ten thousand days in the fire is long enough, you’re going home/You’re the only one who can hold your head up high/Shake your fists at the gates saying/‘I have come home now!’”
“The Pot” is the largest digression from the rest of the album, sounding as if it would better fit somewhere on the Undertow album. It, however, provides a reprieve from the heavy material found everywhere else on the album. With comic imagery strewn throughout the song and the reprise of “You must have been so high,” the material of the song is blatantly drug-related. Following “The Pot” is “Lipan Conjuring,” which sounds like a tribal dance of sorts.
The next song, a four-minute long interlude entitled “Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)” is likewise drug-inspired. It consists of a psychedelic guitar warbling over a conversation between a nurse and a doctor about a mystery patient admitted to a hospital. It is beautiful musically and reminds me of a longer version of “Eon Blue Apocalypse” off of Tool’s Lateralus album. Also, the “Hofmann” in the title refers to the Swiss scientist who discovered the psychedelic effect of LSD in 1943.
“Rosetta Stoned” concludes the drug tetrad, with a song structure similar to that of “Third Eye” from Ænima. The song evolves over its 11-minute span, expertly blending Tool’s metal and progressive influences. Maynard’s voice is at a jagged screech throughout much of the song, similar to that heard on Lateralus’ “Ticks and Leeches.”
“Intension” and “Right In Two” are the last two music tracks left on the album, with “Viginti Tres” there only to noisily (and creepily) close the album. The precious 16 minutes left of the album are put to excellent use because these two tracks are staggeringly good. “Intension” starts with a bongo drum arrangement mixed with vocals and turns into a mix of something like the Salival album’s “Pushit (Live)” and the entirety of Múm’s Yesterday Was Dramatic—Today Is Okay album. It then fades into “Right In Two,” which starts off similar to “Intension” but again evolves beautifully and crescendos late in the song.
With misanthropic lyrics, shifting time signatures, utterly unique drum work, and heavy progressive influences, 10,000 Days has all of the quintessential Tool trademarks. It also definitely qualifies as a concept album, something that is not new at all to Tool. The lyrics and interludes all match together to tell a coherent story, one that is best left up to the listener to decipher because each person interprets Tool’s music differently.
Long-time fans will notice that Tool has changed a good bit since their last release in 2001. Some aspects of Tool are now more available to the public, such as Maynard’s lyrics. Maynard speaks very candidly about his distaste for fellow humans on both “Vicarious” and “Right In Two,” while on other tracks his lyrics are less abstract than in previous albums. On the other hand, Tool has shied away even further from mainstream music. The songs are more complex in nature on 10,000 Days and are heavier as well.
The album teems with emotion, but it is never overbearing or clichéd. Maynard’s vocals are brought to the back throughout the album, but it becomes obvious why in songs like “10,000 Days,” where the music poignantly conveys the same despondency and vulnerability, you hear Maynard’s voice.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that 10,000 Days is flat-out perfect. It is the culmination of everything Tool has done up to this point. Many songs are of a personal nature, and the band takes you into their world and leaves you emotionally shaken at the end. This is supported by rock-solid musicianship, and, as usual, the album only gets better after repeated listening. With most songs coming in at over six or seven minutes, this 76-minute-long opus is not for those who haven’t weaned themselves from MTV yet. It is complex, richly rewarding, and well worth the five-year wait. I absolutely love it, and after a few listens, I’m confident anyone else would too.
