10,000 DAYS

Look, I don't care if this isn't the groundbreaking masterpiece that Lateralus was (the band didn't have any more ground to break, folks), but I defy anyone to listen to the title track epic without getting chills down your spine! I contend that "Wings for Marie/10,000 days" is Tool's finest piece thus far. Wow! It is powerful, chilling, and dang it's got polyrhythms too!

Another great example of how ridiculous expectations can ruin an album for people is 10,000 Days. People didn't know how to feel about such an unusually mundane title for the band, and so it is with the music too. The evolution is clear, but apparently the direction is not what many fans were looking for. The weird, non-song tracks have been demoted to the title of "filler" tracks for some, and the actual songs are apparently not as good as they were used to from Tool. I find that neither is the case; 10,000 Days is a complex, rhythmically driven, melodic, powerful album like its predecessor, just with more emphasis on atmosphere. Some tracks are still start-to-finish rockers, like the first two tracks, but there are also pieces like the title track and "Intension" where the band opens up, stretches out and let's the atmosphere take over for a while. This is similar to tracks like "Parabol" and "Disposition," only they don't serve as intros and they have more parts to them and are more dynamic (since they are more than intros, naturally) and are extra awesome for it.

Let's look at the said "filler" tracks: "Lipan Conjuring," "Lost Keys" and "Viginti Tres." First, we have a track that's not much longer and certainly not less interesting than some of the ambient tracks on Lateralus. Second, we have an intro to the monster "Rosetta Stoned" that is rather interesting. Third, we have 5 minutes of noises, which some believe actually works with "Wings for Marie" to sync with "10,000 Days (Wings, pt. 2)." It seems like the noises work well, but I'm not convinced with the other half. Even so, what is wrong with 5 minutes of soundscapes? There's more going on here than "(-) Ions" for certain.

This album comes just under Lateralus and it is a wholly enjoyable and powerful expereince. It may not be a full-on masterpiece from beginning to end, but I'll be darned if I don't enjoy it enough to rate it as such.