Tool - 10,000 Days
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Free Music Notes for 10,000 Days
Free Music Review: Tool's legend again grows
Hit: 5 Stars
With every album, Tool continues it's metamorphasis from compelling prog-metal band, to a band that really matters. 10,000 Days goes beyond the average song format most bands conform to. It is an album full of pieces that flow together. With the exception of maybe, Vicarious, most of these songs are not meant to fit the regular radio format (although it would be extremely refreshing to hear the local stations push the envelope and play some music that does the same.
Vicarious: Excellent song. I could picture this song being on Aenima or Lateralus... definitely the perfect song to bridge their previous material to the new.
Jambi: Another great song. It has that classic sound you can only describe as "Tool". Cool wah-wah solo.
Wings for Marie: Haunting... Reminds me a lot of Pink Floyd, but again, it retains that "Tool" sound.
10,000 Days (Wings for Marie Part 2): Ah, the Pink Floyd influence is strong... but pleasantly so, as this song is obviously vintage Tool.
The Pot: This song could have been a B-Side for Aenima... or maybe even Undertow. It's aggressive, heavy, defiant.
Lipjan Conjuring: I'm not sure who Lipjan is, but this is some creepy filler. I would not recommend waking up to this track in an old, dark house that makes odd, inexplainable sounds... like I did.
Lost Keys (Blame Hoffman): A couple of eerie,detuned, sustaining notes on a guitar open this track, giving way to a pleasant riff accompanied by strange voices.
Rosetta Stoned: Another track whose aggresiveness and defiant tones would have fit in pretty well on Aenima... Kind of reminiscent of Third Eye.
Intension: More tabla... one of those cinematic type songs that starts out slow and beautiful, builds into some sampled, frenetic electonic ambience, and ends as slowly as it was born.
Right in Two: Great song. More table, lots of changes in tempo and intensity. Gets fast and furious towards the end (with some of Danny Careys most awe inspiring fills ever... an eclectic ending, and a peaceful fade.
Viginti Trees: The only real letdown for me. Sounds like a bunch of static... Ever see the film, White Noise? Yeah. But this is pretty much a Tool trademark now, closing albums with something we have to guess pretty hard to figure out what it is.
BOTTOM LINE: This album is not Aenima! It is not Undertow! It is not Laturalus! It is simply the next step in Tool's evolution into a band that creates music that is more than just music. 10,000 Days is a masterpiece, a symphony, and just a kick-ass musical journey. Lets just hope 10,000 days is not how long we have to wait for the follow up. 3 or 4 years to develope their art seems to be a good formula.
Free Music Review: A Prog-Metal Masterpiece
Hit: 5 Stars
I love this disc by Tool. Personally, I feel like the artwork alone is worth the price of the disc.
I finally convinced one of my son's into getting off his copy for a few days. Now I'm going to have to support the band (again) and buy this disc. I have to say, I'm completely diggin' this record. You'll find it contains groovy riffs so heavy I can see where it might require a back hoe to pick the disc up out of the music store rack.
Tool crunches right into things with the opening song Vicarious. This is a great song with heavy riffs. I think it's placed perfectly on the disc (at the beginning) and leads to desiring further explorations. It's catchy without being simplistic, and lays down some heavy grooves.
However, it's much, much more than that. Each song is an adventure. They manage to keep the songs interesting and fresh by moving through different time changes but staying true to finding a massive groove and punching it through the speakers.
Just when you think this new Tool disc is going to be heavier than the current water being brewed up in Tehran, they switch to a Native American sounding song (Lipan Conjuring) that flows gently and sets you up for the next dose of heaviness. I've heard a few complaints from Tool purists about this song (and the other ethereal songs on the disc), but I'm always up for a new adventure in prog-metal.
I can't really describe this disc. It moves through so many different progessions of sound that I'm just gonna have to settle for prog/groove/crunch/metal. Tool has effectively incorporated the sitar, tabla, and other effects that put them firmly in the prog-metal camp.
And the bass work. Man. Justin Chancellor just freaking nails down some thick, juicy, lubricious bass lines that are at once massively heavy, yet slide all over you like warm Crisco. Some interesting effects are applied to the lead guitar work, and I dig it. The leads fit the songs and are not at all predictable.
I don't pay attention to folks that call some of the songs "filler" when it comes to this record. They're entitled to their opinion, but I prefer to let the artist be the artist and do what they want. Sure, some artists are just ripping you off and filling the disc to get it into production, but Tool has had years to work this disc. I rather prefer to think they put out a product they're proud of, and it's exactly the way they wanted it. I'll take it!
In my last novel I credited Rush and Opeth in the acknowledgements for inspiration and helping to drive me towards excellence. Tool will make the acknowledgements in my next novel.
I could go on and on, but you get the picture: Recommended!
Free Music Review: the album that sets the bar for popular metal, once again
Hit: 5 Stars
I was in love on first listen. Vicarious starts doing tool the way that no-one else can, and even tool probably couldn't before this release. Off-jointed rythems and lurching riffs pull the song to a technical climax after a typical build up. As the song ends on a toolesque cliche that I can't really identify (tool, when they use cliches, instead of becoming one, show us that it is possible to make better music through what was trite until now), my adrenaline is pumping, and jambi stops it in its tracks. As it drones, I lay back, slightly dissapointed, and don't really pay attention again until the guitar solo. I wasn't all too impressed with this song, at first. Then, on comes wings for marie. Carey brushing the drums in a unique way, anticipation, and then creepy guitars a la ripe with decay from NIN's the fragile come in and decelerate, boooooommm the bass guitar rings, and Maynard comes in with some heavy effects on his voice making him sound like a buddhist choir. Goosebumps alight my skin, and I am raptured throughout the entire song. By the time it ends, I am convinced that it is the most beautiful song ever recorded, and anyone who says it is boring is a dumb idiot. 10,000 days follows the same thread, and is also very beautiful, although not as good, it is still an absolute masterpeice. Then, the pot comes on. What the heck? I am disgusted by the way they follow up such beautiful songs. lipan conjuring, okay I suppose. The Hoffman lost keys song gets me wondering if this is a concept album, and then rossetta stoned is really cool, but I phase out after the beginning, and am sort of half listening through the rest of the album, because they gave me plenty to think about.
After that, this album grew and grew on me. I listened to it obsessively, and I can conclude that this album is easily just as good as lateralus, and even better at its best moments. I listen to tons of obscure music, and I could probably still fit both this album and lateralus in my top ten. I urge everyone to listen to it a ton and let it creep up on you. This is tools most mature and haunting release. If you can't appreciate beauty and would rather rock your brains out, then stick 1,5,&10 on the end of aenima or something. Or just don't buy it. I would go so far as to reccommend this album to fans of classical music and or jazz, because it easily stands up to it. Tool is neoclassicalism as metal music. Reqeuim by Mozart reminds me of 3 and 4 in its emotional impact.
On a side note, apparently, 3,4, and 11 go together by putting 3 and 11 together, and then playing it at the same time as 4. it makes an uber 10,000 days.
Free Music Review: Just Really Good
Hit: 5 Stars
When I heard Vicarious, I thought hmm... kinda like Lateralus as an album... but it isn't.
Lateralus was very cerebral, songs were about very abstract concepts, the music was very repetitive and carefully jammy.
So how do we open up the new Tool cd? A song about how humans need to watch stuff go down in flames, with some vivid and direct imagery.
Next up, we have Jambi with its odd-time stomp and frightening (with headphones) talkbox solo, the topic of which is a testament to.... ?
Following the stomp, we pick up some insistently plodding songs where Maynard pours out his soul regarding his mother's death after suffering the affects of a stroke for roughly 10,000 days.
Abruptly, omgwtfbbq, is that Maynard singing? Yeah, it's Maynard singing the intro to The Pot. Wow, I can't believe he did that! Well, he did that song on the Underworld soundtrack so don't be so surprised. Anyway, this song is the next radio single or I'm going to eat my hat. A big tirade following Ticks and Leeches, and Opiate, it rocks hard and features a pretty trippy guitar solo... except it's a bass solo. Also, it's not really about pot. Surprise!
Lipan Conjuring is some weird stuff.
Lost Keys is this album's Parabol, a long intro with no words this time, save a dialogue between a badly-voice-acted nurse and an Aussie doctor regarding a patient who seems catatonic and freaked out.
Rosetta Stoned is why the patient's catatonic and freaked out. I wanted to write it down for all the world to see, but I forgot my pen. This is a somewhat startling and really, really, really awesome song. It's about drugs, but it also reminds me of a greek myth...
Intension was seemingly boring, but it's not. It's just not a hard rocker. Enjoy.
Right In Two is a great look at how silly humans can be, and ends up the album quite nice.
Viginti Tres is a weird pile of noise.
This album is really pretty awesome. That's a good way to describe it... awesome. Not awesome like, awesome dude, san dimas rules!! but more like, full of awe.
Finally, the stereoscopic packaging takes the weird lenticular graphics of Aenima and the Alex Gray eyeball-spiral-buddhist-dmt-acidtrip artwork of Lateralus and smashes them together in 3D photos of the band, signature Adam Jones artistic creepiness, and metaphysical trip-out graphics.
If you like tool and think this album completely sucks, I would be surprised. This album is Tool, as much as any of their other work, if not more.
Free Music Review: How do you eat an elephant?
Hit: 5 Stars
More than any band of this generation, TOOL demands time. To review a TOOL album mere days after its release is frankly an insult to the band. So this represents an initial observation rather than a review; I'm glancing at the menu not gorging on the feast.
If you want a bubblegum rock album that's going to grab your attention for a few minutes and then quickly lose its flavor, then this is not the album or band for you. The 'singles' from 10,000 days ('Vicarious', and eventually 'The Pot') contain as much depth as an entire album of the majority of modish recycled music that pollutes the airwaves these days. That said, 'Vicarious', 'Jambi', 'The Pot' and 'Right in Two' are accessible enough to leave an immediately pleasant taste in the mouth. These four songs represent the more contemporary elements of TOOL's music. They're heavy, and superbly executed. You can put them in a box and stick a label on it, which is what most of us seem to need to do to become comfortable with music.
The rest of the album is harder to classify but will eventually be more rewarding It's essentially just two long songs, one shorter one and a pair of segues. The first major piece is the Wings / 10,000 days duo. Many others have explained the meaning of this opus, so I'll deal with the flavor rather than the ingredients: this is an ethereal piece of music which is touching, personal and at times very uplifting. This segment of the album is a quiet treasure, in which Maynard gives much of himself to the listener.
The second experimental piece is the Lost Keys / Rosetta Stoned pair. The beginning is reminiscent of early Floyd, maybe a piece of Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast, but once the scene is set, the mother of all jams begins. 'Stoned' is enigmatic, it's both fabulously spontaneous and at the same time meticulously designed and engineered. The best parties are always the ones that are unplanned, yet this one is both a riotous drunken ball and a choreographed high-society wedding. This one will grow, I'll wager it's the track that no one likes on first hearing, yet it's the one talked about for years.
As I've already said, this album is essentially unreviewable and probably will be for a few months yet. I don't want to give it a rating, but Amazon insists I must. So I'll therefore rate it at the level which I assume it will eventually reach. However, if you don't have the patience to immerse yourself in TOOL's music and allow it to slowly consume you, then you're wasting your money.
As Maynard might say, "We can always play you some Green Day"