10,000 DAYS

I'm going to go ahead and say this right off the bat: if you go into this album expecting a masterpiece of Prog Metal that completely blows away Lateralus (or AEnima, or whatever happens to be your favorite Tool album) you will most likely be disappointed. There a few good songs on here that are basically standard Tool fare, but overall, the album just feels very uninspired and dull. Many fans will love this album simply because Tool didn't try to stray from their usual style, but for me, Tool needs to change. This sort of stuff just doesn't hold my attention anymore. It's boring. Let me put it this way: I'll listen to when I don't want to really focus on the music. There's really nothing wrong with this CD (there are some pretty cool parts), it's just that I could listen to any of their other CDs and have basically the same experience. But on to the review (I'll try to keep every description bite-sized.)

-Vicarious: Reminiscent of the stuff on Lateralus (particularly Schism) with a little APC tossed-in for good measure. A good song, but not exactly mind-blowing. I don't really have any problems with it, but there's nothing that jumps-out about this song. Danny Carrey's drumming along with Maynard's vocals are the stars of this show, per usual. [7.5/10]

-Jambi: Slightly edges-out Vicarious. It has a good opening, more variety sonically, a nice heavy breakdown in the middle, and an awesome (if simplistic) Talk-box solo by Adam Jones. Again, Maynard and Danny do a great job. [8.5/10]

-Wings for Marie (Part 1): Meh. This whole "suite" could've easily been one song. I might even consider this song "filler". It's drawn-out and boring. Not the kind of stuff I listen to Tool for. [6/10]

-10,000 Days (Wings Part 2): Better than the last one. Good lyrics, nice, gradual build-up. Very ambient stuff in the beginning. Maynard gives a very heartfelt, powerful performance on this one. Some noticable APC similarities on here. Adam was a bit weak on this one though. [8.5/10]

-The Pot: I actually like this one a lot. It's very catchy. Maynard's voice returns to it's Opiate/Undertow-sound on this track. The Bass is especially prominent in this song -- Justin's slapping works very well. [8.75/10]

-Lipan Conjuring: Filler. Basically a joke. It's actually kind of unfair to score this one, but hey, what're ya gonna do. [1/10]

-Lost Keys: Yet more filler. Fun times. What a horrible waste of disc space (both on the CD and my computer.) [3/10]

-Rosetta Stoned: Kinda funny. Kinda creepy. Kinda cool. Kind of annoying. This one's hard to score, but I like it. Some King Crimson influences in here, which is always a good thing. One of the better tracks on 10,000 Days. [8.75/10]

-Intension: Hard to call this one filler, because it's definitely a song, but it's just really boring, long and uninspired. [6/10]

-Right in Two: Very Lateralus-esque. Good song. [8.5/10]

-Viginti Tres: What a surprise, the CD ends with yet more filler. This one's a little chilling, but overall it's just boring. Noise. [3/10]

Man, I really wanted to like this album. I was so excited about it, I bought a 10,000 Days t-shirt before I even heard it. It's too bad, really. I hope Tool's next release is at least a little more interesting than this, but if I have to wait another 5 years for a lackluster CD like this, I'm probably going to give up on these guys. Please, make something different. You've clearly established the "Tool sound", now do something new.

Final Verdict: A good, but very flawed release. Skip the filler and what you have left is a handful of decent songs. Nothing great.