10,000 Days does not refer to how long fans have waited for Tool’s fourth album. It just feels like it. The dark princes of psychedelic prog-metal are back in a big way with their follow-up to 2001’s Lateralus, honing their inimitable style as effectively as ever.
For the past couple of years, the trend in rock has been to make music that sounds like it is coming out of your garage; by contrast, Tool have always sounded something like an opium den in 19th century British colonial India—if it were recreated in the future by extraterrestrials.
On 10,000 Days, Tool continue to exert their control over the paradox that many metal bands grapple with, but few can master: the ability to make the most alien sounds reverberate as emotionally and humanistically as anything. In today's climate of reductivist rock, Tool's bizarre, complex East-meets-West-meets-outer space sound has never been more refreshing.
As with Intolerance" on 1993's Undertow, "Stinkfist" on 1996's Ænima and "The Grudge" on Lateralus, the spectacular opening track "Vicarious" wastes no time in opening up a can of whup-brain.
"Vicarious" has everything that makes a classic Tool song: a mind-blowing 5/4 riff by Adam Jones, Justin Chancellor's pounding bass, Danny Carey's double-fisted drumming and the melodic, oddly distinguished-sounding singing of iconoclastic frontman Maynard James Keenan. As usual, Keenan finds ways to work in both critiques of consumer society ("I need to watch things die / From a good safe distance / Vicariously I / Live while the whole world dies") and references to mystical folklore ("We all feed / On tragedy / It's like blood to a vampire").
As good as "Vicarious" is, 10,000 Days hits its emotional stride with the two-song cycle of "Wings For Marie Pt. 1" and "10,000 Days (Wings Pt. 2)." The ethereal melodies and unearthly vocals on "Pt. 1" create a hair-raising song, and combined with the more haunting and dire (though ultimately optimistic) "Pt. 2," they make for a powerful 17 minutes of slow, poignant rock.
The sequence reflects an issue of an extremely personal nature for Keenan. In 2003 his mother, Judith Marie Keenan, died after having been partially paralyzed for 27 years (guess about how many days that is?). Keenan's apparent maternal fascination is not new; perhaps the reason "Pt. 1's" title refers to her middle name is that "Judith" is already one of his other band A Perfect Circle's biggest hits.
The album's only serious misfire is the aggro-metallish, and painfully punnishly-titled, "Rosetta Stoned." Its low-pitched, unintelligibly rapid vocals à la Slipknot or Mudvayne tries the listener's patience for its unfortunate length (more than 11 minutes) and feels far below Tool's standards. "The Pot" begins questionably—it is jarring to hear the stately, articulate Keenan sing lines like "you musta been out your head"—but after the initial shock, "The Pot" proves itself to be likeable, incorporating funkier rhythms than Tool have used before.
No one could accuse Tool of being prolific—they have now released four full-length albums in 13 years—but their periodic disappearances from the rock scene make their returns all the more exciting. Thankfully, 10,000 Days shows that Tool have lost none of the vibrancy and innovation that made them one of the most intriguing acts in contemporary music.
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