10,000 DAYS

"10,000 Days" is the 4th full-length studio album by US alternative/ progressive rock/ metal act Tool. The album was released in May 2006 by Tool Dissectional/ Volcano Entertainment.

From the first second of the first track "Vicarious" there is no doubt that you´re listening to a Tool album. The band have created a sound over the years that´s unmistakably their own. A strong and adventurous rythmic foundation is the backbone of the often dark and desperate sounding tracks. The desperate part is mainly due to frontman Maynard James Keenan´s vocal delivery. Often mellow and subdued but occasionally bursting out anger and frustration.

The album is 70 minutes long and the songs are generally rather long and intricate, but some are actually rather repetitive, stoned and well...too long. I miss a bit more aggression and progressive playing and could have done without the often unneccessary long mellow building parts/ songs. Some even build toward climaxes that aren´t very powerful and some build towards climaxes that never come. If you sense a bit of frustration here your observation is right. I really miss the more simple, powerful and direct delivery from the first two albums. Much of the material on "10,000 Days" sound like it was conceived while jamming stoned and completely lack aggression of any sort. It´s mellow and and probably well suited for chilling out, but I miss structure and memorability. When Tool decide to rock out, they shine though, but unfortunately it happens so rarely on this album that I´m left frustrated.

The musicianship is of course excellent and the production is wonderful, so no problems there.

So with my above complaints about the songwriting on the album in mind I can´t say I think "10,000 Days" is an artistically succesful album. The band don´t expand upon what they´ve done in the past either and in the end I´m disappointed that it took Tool five years to come up with so little. Frustrated or not I still think there are enough quality material on "10,000 Days" to warrant a 3 star rating, and people more into meditative, mellow and stoned jamming type music might find this album more appealing than me, so don´t just take my word for it. This is the kind of album that you need to listen to yourself to see if it appeals to you.