10,000 DAYS

After giving this album countless spins, I just can't bring myself to give it the four stars that I feel instinctively inclined to grant one of my favorite bands. Because when all is said and done, although there are certainly some excellent tracks here, the final product comes off a bit flat in the end.

"Vicarious" kicks the album off with a bang. As usual, Tool opens up with an ass-kicker. Excluding the somewhat commercial chorus, everything about this song rocks. Danny's drumming is spot on, and Maynard's darkly subdued vocals explode at just the right time. "Jambi" is similarly awesome, although it comes off as a bit patchier than it could have been. It seems to have two separate developmental sections, and I'm not sure whether they fit that well together. In fact, this seems to be the biggest problem with 10,000 Days. The album seems to peak in its mid-section with both parts of "Wings for Marie," which are both beautiful and inspiring pieces of songwriting. "The Pot" then seems to come out of nowhere with its funky rhythm section and unusual vocals from Maynard. Don't get me wrong: it's a great rock song, but it just doesn't seem to flow very well from the preceding epic. It's "Rosetta Stoned," though, that I feel really drags the album below excellence. I've always felt that a song over 7 minutes should be worth the time, and I'm still not sold here with this 11+ minute piece. There really isn't anything inspiring here, and the music just never grabs me. And this is not corrected by the final song in "Right in Two," which is surprisingly dull, the lyrics often coming across as uncharacteristically juvenile.

I say "uncharacteristically" not only because Maynard is arguably one of the best lyricists in the prog-metal scene, but because most of the lyrics on 10,000 Days are just as brilliant as we've come to expect from him. In fact, I wanted to give this album four stars just for the lyrics. Similarly to Lateralus, Maynard seems to create a sort of thematic story in 10,000 Days. He exposes the ills of the bloodthirstiness that often comes with a detached hypocrisy by reminding us that sufferring is real and unglorious for those who must cope with it. This way, he forces us to question how we should approach those who suffer or have sufferred, and this can't be a bad thing.

Despite the brilliant lyrics, though, 10,000 Days just never seems to lift off. It's a very good work, but other than a few tracks, I can't say that it's excellent.