Tool return, fans still burning down message boards - grab a coffee for this one.
Even though the album has leaked into every orifice of the Internet and even if you've downloaded it, please support Tool and buy this album when it comes out.…
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
Article comments
326 - Plewright
I was thinking this new album was a bit crap compared to Lateralus. One thing noticeable is the lack of Maynard's open sustained voice. It is a lot more rare on this album but when it does come it blows you away. 10'ooo days will probably take that long to fully appreciate. I am already starting to enjoy the journey. It just pisses me off every time I get cut short two or three songs in. I think that Lost Keys/Rosetta Stoned is about a person admitted into hospital suffering from drug induced psychosis. Rosetta Stoned is obviously a reference to the Rosetta Stone which is a key monument. Perhaps the person in the song is monumentally stoned? The same person stupid enough to end up lying in bed shitting on themselves is the same idiot who would give creedence to conspiracy theories involving some connection between aliens and ancient civilisations. Too much StarGate and LSD I think.
327 - Sid
I’m on hour 489 of straight through listening to 10,000 Days on my ipod, car, work computer, etc… My goal is like the album 10,000 hours. And I have to say, with each listen, I pick up something that I haven’t realized before, nudged in between the pieces of music and it is so cool. The music makes you really ponder the absoluteness of virtually everything around us and whether pursuing it is vainglory in the precious, mock existence allotted time we have. I’ve also discovered that if you have an equalizer and you boost the overtones in the harmonics, shifting them slightly to the right channel with lots of mids in the room, the album sounds generate a sparkling effect that leads to more absorbing of all the small little cascading effects and thus, truly revealing the hidden deep layers of this great album. But it requires many listens. I say this record is up there with Lateralus, perhaps even better.
328 - mensa
By the way, I didn't know if you people knew this. But, If you burn both Viginti Tres followed by Wings for marie .. Then, play that track as one with 10,000 days as another track and play both at the same time, Both Wings for Marie AND 10,000 days sync ! It is incredible ! It is like an 8 piece band but it all FLOWS ! It flows like one song.. It is the most unique and incredible thing I have ever heard in my life.. BadA$$ ! The vocals, drums, the guitar riffs, everything flows ! Both songs get heavy at the same point at 9 minutes and 14 seconds in, it is magical ! This band synched tracks ! They synched them in testament to Maynard's mother passing to sound like an 8 piece band.. The vocals wisp back and forth almost like a conversation during the sync.. It's UNREAL !
Tool meant these tracks to synch.. If you look at the track times, "10,000 days" is 11 mins and 13 seconds long.. When you add the track times of "Viginti Tres" and "Wings for Marie" it adds up to 11:13 as well.. Look at the album cover ! There are 3 faces with one in the front.. This SICK band meant for all three tracks to play as one song for the self-title track "10,000 days" . Freaky !!
By the way, "Viginti Tres" means the number 23 in Latin . 23 is the number of synchronicity . And nothing is more synchronous than hearing the tracks mixed as I described .. Everything Tool writes is for a reason. These aren't merely interludes and fillers this band puts between songs. All their tracks have a meaning and there's a reason why they are there .. They are truly a one of a kind band like no other.
I recommend using a surround sound system for this.. Play 10,000 days in the rear and viginti treS + Wings for Marie in the front.. It's much better than headphones with listening each tune in one ear.. Because you have a fade with headphones.. Ever notice sometimes the bass guitar (or the effects) will only play in one ear with headphones ? And you may have to adjust the bars and volume.. But once you set it right, the sync is undeniable and it is a pure treat .. Well this is what I mean . It must be heard with a surround system . About two minutes in there will be sounds swingin around your head..It is so cosmic and trippy. When it gets heavy at 9 minutes and 14 seconds in, Both songs get heavy at the same point and it sounds like a cohesive 8 piece band. It's crazy ! I havent stopped listening to this musical feast for 3 days now.. This band is SICK SICK SICK !!
Tool, once again, has come up with something totally innovative on an album. A band that is truly unparalleled IMHO. They never disappoint . On the 2001 release Lateralus , they did the infamous fibonacci sequence in the title song.. Tool's Lateralus is the best album front to back I have ever heard, PERIOD.. They are intoxicating once you give them enough time to squeeze into your consciousness. And with hours of straight listening, your flattened.. Because this band is so deep, it takes a long time for you to absorb their musical complexities , waves and textures. But once you absorb them with alot of listens, it is entrenched into your psychy and they are a mad MAD addiction ..
Every album this foursome comes up with has some new mad musical ideas, they are like mad musical scientists .. Here, in 10,000 days they sync three songs , to make it sound like one incredible song ! The only band in history to accomplish this incredible feat on an album.. This band is pure genius. And with every release they never cease to amaze me. For about 10 years now this band has made me just speechless. I have received such pleasures over their sound over the years that I believe these 4 guys who call themselves "Tool" , are really from another planet ... Pure genius . What innovation . What an experience . Album of the year . This is a masterpiece !!
329 - Swed
Hey Mensa, how can you make a surround sound system play 10,000 days on the rear speakers and play Viginiti Tres/Wings on the front speakers? Don't you need 2 cds playing at once to listen to the synch? How can you do this?
330 - Tance
People can say what they want if they like the album or not. I don't really care what all of you say 10,000 day is a very good album. One of my friends introduced me to Tool and I am glad he did. They are a very good band and I love their songs. Good job Tool, hope to see more albums in the future!
331 - Frankie
10,000 Days is by far Tool's greatest album. It whips Lateralus's ass! Although, I thought Tool couldn't get any better after Lateralus. For some people it might take a few listens of the entire album to get used to how really great the album is. At first the songs may seem unique from all the others but thats what makes this album the best Tool album of all! I have listened to every Tool song, and these are by far the best.It has it all! It's simply amazing.
332 - Brainiac Fingers
To "mensa" who said: "On the 2001 release Lateralus , they did the infamous fibonacci sequence in the title song.." Er, I'm sorry to shatter your illusions, but the band didn't intended to it to be that way. Here's what Danny Carey said about it in an article from Rhythm magazine - August 2002:-
"It was originally to be called 9-8-7 because there was a bar of 9,8 and 7...we had some great jams on that one...it tuned out that Maynard came up with these words about spirals which were based on the Fibonacci sequence; the 987 is one of the steps on the sequence. We were so amazed at the synchronicity of it".
So there you have it straight from the drummers mouth; it was a fluke that the time signature matched a step in the Fibonacci sequence . Therefore, I'd imagine any "synchronicity" that might occur from the superimposition of three completely unrelated songs would also be a fluke and/or a figment of one's imagination. But, hey, if people want to listen to every track on a Tool album simultaneously rather than one track at a time - the way Tool intended - then go for it.
333 - Toneman
The first time I listened to the album, I was disapointed. Now, I am disapointed in myself for being disapointed. This is easily some of TOOL's best work. The whole album is FANTASTIC, even Lipan Conjuring, which to me is MUCH better than the baby crying on Aenima. The more I listen to 10,000 days, the more I love it. I saw TOOL live in Toronto on May 16th, they played Vicarious, Jambi, LostKeys/Rosetta Stoned and Right In Two, which are all Brilliant live songs. TOOL has done it yet again. I would rate this album my very close 2nd favorite, after Aenima. I could say that 10,000 days is my favorite, but I want to give it time before I make that assumption.
TOOL RULES!!!
334 - zac
fuck all you no money making wannabe critics fuck off
335 - wonderkid
Is it really possible to give urself a bj!?
336 - Christopher Rose
I once had an affair with a woman whose husband's "ability" and, er, taste for doing that was one of the major causes of her infidelity...
337 - 8ball
erm...........the guy on lost keys is the guy from the last track on lateralus.......the message......one of hope for those to hear it and a warning to those who do not............is his warning about disasters coming.....the population should be moved to unpopulated areas.....blah blah blah.............and maybe the tracks are supposed to be syncronised..............would be a good way to beat the internet file sharing........for one track to be split and hidden on the album.....with clues and hints in the artwork..............i myself sncronised lost keys and lipan conjuring.........!
338 - Brainiac Fingers
...Wow! I wonder if they'll "synchronise" live. What a plie of crap that would be.
339 - yeah
"The Pot" is unreal
340 - 8ball
y the fuck is every one comparing this album to old albums..........u just dont fuckin get it do ya ppl!
341 - Ass Foot
Tool is the devil. Maynard is the devil. All their albums are straight up evil and sound like circus music bellowed from an anus. They are nothing like the crowbar I have, let alone like any other of my tools. MISLEADING!
342 - 11:11
Alrighty then
you say you never thought that you would get excited over an album because your 21 years of age "holy f**cking sh*t"
Oh my your so grown up and all...
343 - Jessa
No, not really. I suppose I just likened being excited over a new album 'teenybopper-ish' and that I thought I was a little over that stage.
344 - Ass Foot
Wait... I now have ACTUALLY listened to their music! I retract my last statements.
What a sheep I am.
345 - TOOL!!!
Don't compare this to anything.. listen to it.. understand wat ur saying before u say it.. love it.. then go fuck urself u fuckin wannabe critics.. this album is amazing
346 - TOOL!!!
oh and nice review jess
347 - Frankie
This album is by far the best Tool album. I've been a Tool fan for many years. They are one of my favorite bands. I've listened to every album numerous of times and this is by far their best work. It surpasses Lateralus, yet it is a different style sort of, but still progressive and also aggressive at points. 10,000 Days may not seem like much the first time you listen to it because you are used to Lateralus or other albums. You don't need to listen to any older albums before listening to this one because this one is one of kind. Even the instrumental songs sound cool such as Lost Keys and Intension. Lipan Conjuring isn't that specail. Wings of Marie and 10,000 Days really grab you and it makes you want to listen to this album over and over again. This album should be considered a work of art. I don't see why some people think this albums sucks! I guess they dont see the true meaning of this band...
348 - Jack
i downloaded all the songs off limewire and it was wierd coz it wasnt even tool. they made u download it and it was sum shit that isnt music. and i thought it would be a crap album by that but ive looked at reviews and asked ppl and they say its worth it so yeh i was a bit confused and will be buyin the album on this weekend
349 - RingWorm
Forms ! ) Jesus..... Love it or hate it i would like it better if you hated it tho. To many tool fans out their with no clue SHEEP !. 10,000 Days is a album that the more you listen to the more you hear, I love albums like that. Stop looking to tool for the way you should think or feel about something.
350 - ToolGod
RingWorm your add to the post was quite odd but i hear ya man to man freaks on a leash out there. BTW god Hates you
351 - Ray
Yeah, HIGHLY addictive album. Masterpiece. The more you listen to it, the more you're drawn in by it emotionally. And that's before you start realising the lyrics through the repetition. Once you get those (checking out sites like toolshed.down.net also helps), it just rockets the experience to a new level!!! F|_|ckin awesome!!! Ray, 30, South Africa
352 - I Don't Know!!
I have no idea whether I should buy the album or not. I have heard that's it's exceptionally great and that to others it sucked ass. I want to know from others. But please no Tool freaks or Tool Haters, just common ppl. Help a Tool listener out please. Thank you. :)
353 - p-jizzle
Save your money dude. You should just download "right in two," the only decent song in my opinion.
354 - AgentOrange
How do you guys know 10000 days (wings part II) is about Maynard's mother? Not that I don't believe you, I was just wondering if someone actually heard this for a fact from Maynard? Honestly, when I first heard this song, I thought it was about Satan finally gaining acceptance into heaven. Listen to the lyrics and tell me what you think.
355 - Unhappy fan
Hey guys, before you diss me for my handle, let me say that I am huge Tool fan, and honestly I was really disappointed at Maynard's behavior after the show in Kansas City. A friend of mine was let backstage, she was a girl of course, Maynard will not allow men backstage with him, apparently he is a total male whore (and no, this isn't what bothers me, of course most males who could get as much punani as him would be a male whore). Ok, so let's get to what I am mad about. First off, this girl who was let backstage has been backstage with Maynard 3 times, so she has seen his behavior a couple times. The first time she was backstage there was another girl who brought her brother, which totally pissed Maynard off cause he only wanted girls backstage, and she said to Maynard,"Hey my brother is a huge fan, he has loved every album you have ever done, it would mean so much to him if you would just give him your autograph and then he'll leave". So in response to this, Maynard did give him his autograph, he took a permanent marker, signed a grapefruit, then threw it at this kid's head and said, "why don't you cry about it you fuckin pussy", then he had the kid violently thrown out. I'm sure the rest of you Maynard fans would be pretty pissed if one of your favorite artists treated you like this, he could have easily just been nice and secured himself another lifelong fan. I really think that behavior is totally fucked up.
Then, after the show at this Friday at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri, Maynard invited this same girl backstage; she was one of four girls who made it backstage by the way. Anyway, they are talking to Maynard and they ask him what it's like to be onstage with everyone cheering, basically what it's like to be the center of so many people who totally love what you do. Maynard shrugs and says, "whatever, it pays the bills". The girls then respond to him and say, "but, being the center of so much energy must energy must be awesome right, I mean isn't that what keeps you going?". Maynard replies, "nope, it just pays the bills". Then he says something to the effect of how he doesn't enjoy what he does at all.
You guys can say what you want, but Maynard just lowered himself significantly in my opinion. I'm sure if he heard me he'd just throw a grapfruit at my head and say, "Why don't you cry about it you fuckin' pussy".
Unhappy fan
356 - Meh
In response to unhappy fam I have to say I thought they were all cool guys but now that I have read your story I admit Maynard sounds like a total jackass. But hey there are celebrities in this world who are complete nice people and there are those jerk-off asses like Maynard. But you have to realize after about 15 years of this you'd think he'd get a little tired of putting up with the press and stuff right? But still even if you are a musician and a fan comes in for just a second to get and autograph suck it up and treat everyone with respect. So yeah I'm sorry to hear Maynard is a dick to guys and kids but that's who he is and I'll still listen to Tool all the same.
357 - jonathan
i actually hate this album a lot
the primative vulnerable nature that i loved so much is gone, the production/mastering is poor at best, and maynard has, imo, become a mascot rather than a good vocalist
even danny doesn't sound like he gives a shit
not a bad album, but i hate it because it represents the death of the near perfect quartet
358 - jeff
Wow...a lot of unhappy reviewers. I can't blame them. This album was a letdown. 5 years it took for this?
I agree with a comment way above who says they think Tool Has taken a step backwards. I however do not agree with the comment way back who says Tool is done. Please they are not Metallica, this album was good but just not Tool good.
But compare it to some of the crap thats out there now and this album is awesome.
Have faith in Tool. They are one of the only few credible bands left.
This band put out Aenima and Lateralus. Two of the best albums ever. I am sure they still have some more left in there brains.
Don't give up on Tool.
359 - lux ex Tenebris
Maynard has a bad behavior. Why?
This is called initiation. What you love in this plane of life has a begining and thus an end. All that you perceived is Maya. which is illusion. Don't cheer the source. Just enjoy what your mind, at the moment, can handle and understand. They are not themselves the fathers of their own music....and they don't go cry at God. Cogito Ergo Sum.
Love is the Law, Love under Will....
Quit the night and seek the Day!
360 - tyler beaujon
Sorry to see so many tool fans saying that if you dont like the new album we're not Real fans. Maybe we just expect greatness from the greatest prog rock band ever. Maybe we dont just love it cause its tool. Thats a real fan....we dont just settle for the myriad of one chord songs that go nowhere in ten minutes....sorry but vicarious sounds like some band trying to write a song in the form of tool. I feel like tool fans have become as annoying as greatful dead fans...just rubbing one out to whatever they do as if its great just because its them... use your heads ...i love tool, but ten thousand days is long winded and lame but i guess im not really a fan, right ?
361 - Unknownsdsfj
HAHAHAHA
"5 years it took for this?"
C'mon, they didn't spend 5 years doin 10k days..twas 6 months actually
362 - jiveturkeysuckafool
Streaming, disorganized thoughts about this album:
Perhaps this is due to the fact that my musical tastes haven't evolved much since the mid/late 90s, but this album is VASTLY superior to lateralus - i still enjoyed that album immensely, but it seemed a bit too grandiloquent and preening at times (though this album certainly has its moments).
aenima is transcendent (along with radiohead's ok computer)for commercially-accessible rockish music, and i seriously doubt that anything that will be produced in the foreseeable future will even approach what that (those) album(s) was (were).
album starts with a musical/lyrical reversion to aenima with vicarious, then looks back further to undertow and even opiate with jimba. wings for marie/10000 days should be called "eulogy 2" in virtue of its lyrical motivation, though the music seems to my untrained ear to be a fairly ambitious, new enterprise. the pot...is by far the worst tool track to ever be publicly consumed...sounds like some obscene marriage between radiohead and monster magnet with tinges of opiate(that being said, it's still far superior to the vast majority of alternative radio fodder). in true tool fashion, one of their greatest pieces of musical work is combined with lyrical levity (relative to some of their metaphysical/epistemological solilquizing) in lost keys/rosetta stoned. intension is another musically unique track for tool...though it might be more aptly named "the nietzschean pot." one reason that tool is my favorite extant band is exemplified by right in two: take fairly simple music and cajole it into an engaging, distinctive sound, combine lyrically with a self-contained, moderately intellectually-accessible idea that is spruced up by its point of vantage, and the result is an overall captivating song.
not that anyone should care (about any of what ive wasted time writing here), but i rate the five tool albums as follows:
aenima
10000 days
undertow
lateralus
opiate
363 - Ben
THE BEST TOOL ALBUM YET
any tool 'fans' who bag this album don't truly know what tool is about, they're not just progressive in their music, but in their albums.
This album is another step up from their previous ones, and connects to people on a whole new level.
VICARIOUS - BRILLIANT
JAMBI - VERY GOOD
WINGS - BRILLIANT
10 000 DAYS - BRILLIANT
THE POT - AWESOME
LIPAN CONJURING - INTERESTING
LOST KEYS - GOOD
ROSETTA STONED - AWESOME
INTENSION - AWESOME
RIGHT IN 2 - BRILLIANT
VIGINTI TREES - COOL
10000 days is a brilliant album.
11/10
364 - Morphox
This album has made me realise, Nine Inch Nails are better than tool by miles.
365 - Morphox
The album is alright, just not as good as there old stuff.. I don't get why a band would release an album that they don't feel surpasses their previous work. Well if they do feel it, I don't care because Tool have become insignficant.