10,000 Days First Review

So Tool's 10,000 Days LP was released yesterday. Of course I purchased the disc and I highly recommend everyone else to do the same. Of course Tool, like Aenema and Lateralus, had to have a unique, yet awesome packaging of 10,000 Days. 10,000 Days comes with a viewpiece that when looking through at the disc artwork appears in 3D. There are several pictures including a separate picture of each band member, all of which look cool. Tool will always win the Grammy for best packaging...maybe one day they will be good enough to actually win a Grammy - and that of course is spoken with as much sarcasm as one can apply.

My network of friends are all big Tool fans so of course I have had several conversations with them already about the new Tool and initial reaction from several of them are that they think it is already better than Lateralus. I think it is too early to make that definitive of a statement, but we all agree that 10,000 Days is some good stuff.

This album further entrenches Tool with it's already hardcore fans and I think it will also rid the band of all the 'bandwagon' fans...those that think Sober is the greatest Tool song of all time. This album, along with Lateralus, are requiring all new Tool fans to really 'pay their dues'. That is, if you haven't heard of Tool and were to 'get into them' then you are doing what the band wants you to do...that is listen to their entire album because that is what you have to do to fully appreciate Tool. 10,000 Days is a complete concept/theme album. Lyrical songs are all 6+ minutes in length, going through several degrees of rocking. Of course there are a variety of interludes that transition the listener from one song to the next.

Tool doesn't make music, they create an atmosphere. If there is a 'downside' to Tool is that it is very difficult to find appropriate times to just listen to a song or 2 here or there - but I usually suck it up and do so anyways. The upside is that when you are able to listen to their complete album wire-to-wire (especially with headphones!) your experience is always different, yet always a good one.

Tool is by far the band I enjoy the most and they are continuing their career as I would like to see it. I really don't think that 10,000 Days will be a huge commercial success - yet by industry standards will be. Tool remains a fairly unknown popular band primarily because their music isn't 'radio friendly', as I think the band predeterminates. The band continues to put out excellent music, interesting album artwork and I'll find out next Friday what the new live Tool is shaping out to be...but I'm fairly confident they will be as awesome as in the past, never a disappointment.