Friday, February 22, 2013

Tool 10, 000 Days Sep 30, 2006 12:02AM PST

(Disclaimer: long blog) Before we get into this, first I want to make clear I was never before a Tool fan. Their music all sounded the same to me and kind of still does. Of course, back then I didn't know they were "progressive rock", and though I still consider that somewhat of an excuse from certain fans who defend ANYTHING this band does, I have to admit I started enjoying the music a lot more once I "progressed" into it. Of course, I didn't have to progress into loving the first single, "Vicarious" that just gave me that "I wanna jump" feeling from the first time I heard its main riff. The song is about how we stare numbly at violent television and want more, which isn't exactly a new or original subject for rock songs, but it's so well written it SOUNDS deeper than other songs about the same thing. Then, "Jambi" keeps the loud and "makes me wanna jump" thing going at first, but then gets softer... and then louder again. At first I didn't like this but after a few listens I really enjoyed this type of songwriting and it adds depth to the song itself. I don't exactly remember what this song was about, but the moody "shine on forever shine on" lines are still stuck in my head in a good way. Now the slow stuff. "Wings for Marie Pt. 1" is an almost all slow song save for one bit of guitar crunching(which sounds... not overly original) which is good, but probably wouldn't stand out too much on its own. The song it acts as an introduction for("10, 000 Days(Wings Pt. 2)" however is another fine example of progressive rock at its best. Starting out slow after the quiet ending to "Wings Pt. 1", it elaborates on the death of the lead singer's mother, who died after trusting religion to heal her in the hospital(a story that's almost the exact same as lead Metallica man James Hetfield's experience). Like "Jambi", it builds up and falls down at various points, but it's more epic and interesting than "Jambi". There are so many good lines and moments in this song that does a great job of connecting you to the lead singer's emotions at the time of his mother's death, it's hard to find just a couple examples but "look God in the eye and tell him,never lived a lie, never took a life, but surely saved one" and "you are the light they will only read about" are some that simultaneously connect you to both the lead singer's anger at God and love for his mom. Very deep, very good. And then comes "The Pot" with its nonsensical lyrics like "when you pissed all over my black kettle, ya musta been high", random lines like "got lemon juice up in your eye" mixed with "kangaroo done hong the guilty with the innocent", and no apparent connection or meaning to the phrases. Yeah..... WTF? But it's totally excused for managing to somehow SOUND deep through its great riffs and vocals, and is one of the most enjoyable tracks on the album. And now, random noises. "Lipan Conjuring" is just an Indian tribe chanting "oooh oooh ooh oh yeah" and then "Lost Keys(Blame Hoffman)" mixes white noise with a doctor and nurse discussing their mysterious patient and asking said patient to tell them what happened to him. It can be delightfully trippy, but some may get pissed off at this intentional filler. But when the patient from "Lost Keys" starts describing in a distorted voice what happened to him, the result is the track "Rosetta Stoned", the best track on the album in my opinion. It once again follows that rise and fall and rise again formula but its falls are still loud and the song never fails to keep its fast and hard progression, making it extremely fun to listen to this wierd story through the patients' eyes. He's told he's a savior, never graduated high school and shit the bed. And he does it all with a damn good beat :) "Intension" is a relatievely quiet track that goes "pure as we begin" yadda yadda yadda. I'm not in a cult so I could care less what the hell their chanting about for 7 minutes. "Right in Two" makes things a bit more interesting with some nice guitar bits and lyrics like "angels on the sideline/baffled and confused/father gave them free will this is what they choose/ monkey killing monkey killing monkey all around/give them thumbs they make a claw and beat their brother down". Pretty obvious that monkey=human, and yup, he's calling us violent morons. Offensive? Somewhat, but you can't really argue too much. Oh and once again we see the rise and fall and rise and fall formula. Finally, we come to the conclusion, the end, the way to end the album with..... airplane noises? Needless to say, "Virginti Tres" was kind of dissapointing, I don't care what the artistic purpose was. Initially I was dissapointed with this album as most songs seemed to fail to live up to "Vicarious"'s awesome riffs and lyrics. But then I listened to it a bit more, and the world Tool was trying to create really grew on me. Overall, your getting 8 real songs, 3 that are just introductions to other songs or white noise and an anticlimactic ending, but if you give the album time to grow on you you'll realize how interesting and fun it can be. You might even appreciate a couple of the non songs and how they lead you into the album's bigger events. Be warned though, Tool is still very much an acquired taste. As a bonus, the album artwork comes with 3D glasses that actually work! Packaging FTW! 8.75/10 Lead singer: Maynard James Keenan Guitarist: Adam Jones Bassist: Paul d'Amor Drummer: Danny Carey

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