10,000 DAYS

A really good album, has grown on me consistently since I got it. A thinking ,am's metal masterpiece, although not as good as Lateralus. It still has my top two Tool songs, namely Jambi and Wings for Marie/10,000 Days. The rest of the album is good too.

Vicarious is a good rocking opener, about how bad the media is. Reminds of Schism and Lateralus mixed. A fully-developed and awesome song.

Jambi is tremendous. Everything about it is insanely good, from the machine gun riffs beneath the haunting vocals, to the moving vhorus and outro. A tremendous song, and my favorite from Tool.

Wings for Marie is the parabol to the title track's parabola. A slow, emotional, moving song, haunting suff. Dreamy.

10,000 Days starts off dreamlike, beautiful and haunting. It slowly develops and beings rocking harder and harder (via a sweet guitar solo) until it reaches its climax, and the last two minutes are calm and haunting.

The Pot is reminiscent of Parabola. It rocks, and is one of the catchier songs on the album, although there is a wealth of stuff to be heard. Good song.

Lipan Conjouring isn't bad as far as filler goes, and I don't skip it any more, but I used to. Its OK.

Lost Keys is maybe a minute and a half too long, but its hypnotic and not bad. So, OK.

Rosetta Stoned is the Ticks and Leeches of this album. It features a lot of good stuff, but it is overshadowed by the not-very-good vocal style; In T&L it was the screamy death metal stuff. In this, its some low fast talking stuff, not rap exactly, but not good. But its only at the beginning, and the rest of the song is more or less great, so OK.

Intension is way too long. Its not bad, but they could have lopped a good three minutes off. With that said, it is hypnotic and good, but its a tossup between this and RS for worst actual song on the album.

Right in Two is great. Great lyrics, music, instrumental parts, heavy stuff. Starts out slow and dreamy, then goes all heavy for the rest of its epic nine minutes.

Viginti Tres is also way too long, but it has some cool effects. Not a bad way to end the album, but like Faaip de Oiad, it is by far the worst track on this album.

So all in all this is a very good album of prog metal/hard prog rock. Everyone is in top form. The best songs are Jambi, Wings for Marie/10,000 Days, Vicarious, The Pot and Right in Two. Rosetta Stoned and Intension are less good, but good nonetheless. Lipan Conjouring, Lost Keys, and Viginti Tres are all filler, but they complete their task of keeping the flow of the album well. So, while I used to listen to tracks 1-5 and then 9 and 10, I now listen to the whole album straight through. A great album.