We live in a real world. Almost nothing is exceptional or mythical. There are no dragons, doors to different dimensions, underwatercities that got lost 10.000 years ago. Well, maybe there are things we don't know of but as long as we don't know them it isn't in our lives. To feed our minds with fantasy we read books, watch films and listen to music. One band, that feeds us with fantasy so much, is Tool. In all the bands of the world, Tool is one of the most exceptional band. Their complex, dense but also rough, slow songs succeed to give feelings that other bands don't. In every song there is a story, some are happy, some are sad. The only thing the songs have in common is that they are all mysterious, you'll never know the real meaning
Maynard is singing, or what would happen after the song will end, or what would be the song if there was a part 2. Let's make an example:
Disposition and
Reflection (from the album
Lateralus)
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The story starts calm and peace, like sitting on a grassfield watching the sunset. You'll know that something is going to happen as Keenan sings "Watch the weather change", but you just want to sit down relaxing. The weather IS in fact changing. No more is the wind very calm but now it is more rough, you better go home. Clouds come and the streets get darker. Lights go on and you start hurrying before the rain falls down. As you open the door of your home, the song is over. Enter
Reflection. As you open the door, you know something is wrong. Lights are all dimmed and nobody is home. You're home alone. As you walk trhough your house you discover a door you haven't seen before. The door is covered with strange symbols that are placed all over the door. Although the house is closed, the door still moves like wind is going through it. Because you are curious you want to take a look inside it. As you step through the door you enter a place where everything that isn't supposed to be true is ehm.. true. Animals you haven't seen before crawl trhough the place you are. The room you're in now is flipped upside-down. Chairs and Tabels are glued to the ceiling while a lamp is hanging to above like gravity is different for each object. You walk to another room and when you come in you see a incredible large clock ticking with a pendulum. The pendulum seems to hypnotize you and tell you a story (read the lyrics and you'll get an impression of what he is saying). It tells you about the world, the changing and evolution. It tells you about the time and space. It tells you about hell and heaven. It tells you about everything the human race is still unable to know. As soon you wake up you're lying in your bed, unable to tell if this was a dream or real.
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That was one story of one song, all songs have other stories.
Schism goes deeper into the mind, our brains, while
The Patient is a song about waiting, having patience. That's one big reasong why I love
Tool, but there are more. The band members. How you look or turn around every picture or whatever, you can't deny that
Danny Carey is one of the best (I'm not saying he is the best, cause we don't know who is best) drummers alive. His drumtabs which seem to flow perfectly with the song, his high speed or his unbelievable technique he has.
James Maynard Keenan, the vocalist. With mythical lyrics he tells stories which I explained earlier in this review, his clear voice of calmth but anger at the same time. He somehow gets the right note, the best note he needs to complete the song.
Justin Chancellor the bassist is also unique, with very nice bass effects he plays his fingers of (or in fact plectrum). Although he is not even close to the best bassist in the world, he does make very original bass riffs. Then we have left the guitarist,
Adam Jones. He is with no doubt the least talented member of the band. Does that matter? No! Although he can't do blistering solo's like in
Children of Bodom I would prefer to have him in my band more than
Alexi Laiho. His guitar riffs are all unique and perfectly fits into the songs.
Now to their new album.
10.000 days. I have to say I was affraid. Affraid that their new album wouldn't be better than
Aenima and
Lateralus but worse. The songs I've heard on their last 2 albums where so special, so good that It would be very hard to make even better songs. Also the names of the songs. The new names are good, but not as much as the old names are. Maybe it's a matter of time to get used to the names but It's very hard. I heard
Vicarious the other day and I was shocked. Once more
Tool could deliver us a great song, with a thick sound and a progressive feeling. I could put my expectations higher, thinking an album would come that would succeed as good as Lateralus was. Then I got the CD...
All I can say is that I was highly disappointed, I'm not saying the album was a failure, but when compared to their last 2 it was. After hearing the beginning of
Jambi, a mix between heavy and calm, I was even more excited than
Vicarious (at the intro). The song comes in with a agressive guitar part but soon goes over into the mysterious couplet. The chorus is in fact a letdown, I've heard those chords partly in
H. and some other songs. As the song goes further, every new interlude, every chorus or couplet, the song drags down even more. Especially at the guitar solo, with annoying effects the song doesn't seem to end. At the end the song finally goes into some great riffs that reminds me of
Third Eye of
Aenima. But the song itself is very, very average for tool standards. So... is every song average, no. Some of their calmer songs seem to be much better than the albums before. A nice example is the title track:
10,000 days. The song is 11 minutes long, longer than
Reflection. But again, many parts of the song remind me of older songs, like
Eon Blue Apocalypse.
Intension, seems to be the part 2 of
Disposition, with the difference that Intension is a song on its own, while
Disposition is more the intro-song of the massive
Reflection. It seems that the album gets enough different topics, the bad thing is that those topics are already used in their earlier albums.
The Pot is a more poppy song with
Maynard singing higher than anything he has done before. The song has a very steady beat, would do well if it becomes a single.
The Pot slightly goes back to the
Lateralus and
Aenima standards, but there is one song that is a real
Lateralus song.
Right In Two. This song is definitialy the best song on the album with guitars, drums and vocals go completely back to the
Lateralus roots while not copying riffs or beats. the song may be best comparable with
Push*t Live from the
Salival CD. With a conga (correct me if I'm wrong) solo from
Danny Carey and some really emotional singing from
Maynard. This is how I want my
10k Days to be, the second
Lateralus. Not an half experimental, half copy with lots of soft, ambient songs and some
Meshuggah-like songs.
Now I mainly talked about the musicianship, but another very important aspect of songs are lyrics. Anyone has read
Tool's lyrics? Very complicated, has deep meanings and flows perfectly in the songs. Although the music itself may disappoint people, the lyrics are the other way around. This album features probably the best lyrics
Tool has ever made. Although the album isn't really a concept album, the main point of the lyrics are to the mother(
Marie) of
Keenan who died 27 years ago (10,000 days to be exactly). The big highlights are the two songs that are specific made for his mother;
Wing For Marie and
10,000 Days.
Track Ratings
1. Vicarious 9.5/10
2. Jambi 7.5/10
3. Wings For Marie (Pt.1) 9/10
4. 10,000 Days (Wings Pt.2) 10/10
5. The Pot 9.5/10
6. Lipan Conjuring 9/10
7. Lost Keys (Blame Hoffman) 8/10
8. Rosetta Stoned 8/10
9. Intension 9/10
10. Right In Two 10/10
11. Viginti Tres 5/10 (this song is just plain boring)
This album is just more hardcore. Not in terms of music-style but the fact that it's a lot harder to digest. It is clear that not many people will really like Intension, the most just don't have the patience for it, and some more think it's too soft. It is all about patience, anyone without patience will not like it.
Till now, the album seems a 4/5 for me, this album just couldn't be qualified as Tool, which is very disappointing (I'm not saying the album has bad songs, in fact there are lots of good stuff in it). I still hope that their next album (at least 7 years of waiting...) will be the album I hoped this album was.
a 4/5!!!!!!!
