{"id":39786,"date":"2006-06-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-06-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/10000-days\/"},"modified":"2006-06-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-06-05T00:00:00","slug":"10000-days","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/10000-days\/","title":{"rendered":"10,000 Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

In 2002, I eagerly waited for the Village
\nVoice<\/i> to release its results for the best album of 2001 in its
\nyearly “Pazz and Jop” poll (a compilation of about 120 critics’
\n‘best of’ list). After listening to Lateralus<\/i>, I just
\nthought it was a given that Tool’s album would get the honor not
\nnecessarily for ‘album of the year,’ but certainly best heavy metal
\nalbum of the year. But that honor went to System Of A Down’s
\nToxicity<\/i>. I was disappointed, but not crushed. If anything,
\nit illuminated the glaring differences between both bands.<\/p>\n

First off, I am not trying to imply there’s a System
\nOf A Down\/Tool rivalry. Both bands have helped raise hard rock and
\nheavy metal to new artistic heights. But the way each band does
\nthis couldn’t be more different. System Of A Down does it by
\nincorporating Frank Zappa-like weirdness with breakneck, punkish
\npacing and incendiary lyrics. Tool elevates heavy metal by making
\nmetal unsettling again through creepy multimedia packaging (videos
\nand album art) and even creepier atmospherics to their songs,
\ncourtesy of their phenomenal musicianship. Yet, both bands could
\ntake some valuable pointers from each other.<\/p>\n

Listening to System Of A Down’s scalpel-like
\ndissection of what’s wrong with the corrections system in the
\nUnited States (“Prison Song”) and their impassioned rantings about
\nthe war in Iraq make me wonder if it’s the same band that includes
\nthe equivalent of musical fart jokes in songs like “Cigaro” and
\nsettle for easy targets like Hollywood and Tony Danza (see the
\nfinal few songs in Mezmerize<\/i>). But at least with System Of A
\nDown, you are done with one of their albums in about the same time
\nyou hit Track 4 of the ultra-serious Tool (only ten more tracks to
\ngo!).<\/p>\n

Tool’s latest album 10,000 Days<\/i> already comes
\nwith its own joke: It takes 10,000 days to get through. Fans have
\nalready flooded discussion groups stating this album was the first
\nmajor screw-up for the band. Other fans who believe Tool can do no
\nwrong lament “You really aren’t going to get into the album until
\nabout the 37th listen!” Unfortunately, many of us don’t have time
\nto listen to a 70-plus-minute album for 30 times in hopes of
\nfinally “getting it.”<\/p>\n

It may be fatigue from trying to juggle A Perfect
\nCircle with Tool, but one major letdown I encountered with
\n10,000 Days<\/i> was its first song. With all of Tool’s other
\nalbums, from the incredible jugular strike of “Stinkfist” from
\nAenima<\/i> to Danny Carey’s amazing drumming on “Schism” (from
\nLateralus<\/i>), the first song Tool releases has usually been a
\nreason to celebrate the band’s return. With “Vicarious,” Tool
\nattack is focused on voyeurism that is television pop culture. “We
\nall feed on tragedy \/ like blood to a vampire,” Maynard James
\nKeenan sings. True, Keenan proves why he’s one of the best singers
\nin rock on this song, but the topic is such an easy target, the
\nsong really isn’t effective until Keenan’s last cathartic scream
\n“Vicariously I live while the whole world does \/ Much better you —
\nyou than I.” The band definitely brings the heavy artillery with
\nthis song, but it seems like it’s just another one of Tool’s
\nheavier songs, nothing more, nothing less.<\/p>\n

With the exception of “The Pot” and “Right in Two,”
\nTool relies heavily on brooding, often plodding arrangements.
\n“Wings For Marie (Pt. 1)” and “10,000 Days (Wings Pt. 2)” are both
\nheartfelt dedications to Keenan’s late mother, but sadly the music
\nisn’t compelling enough to justify the combined length of almost 20
\nminutes. The closing song “Viginiti Tres” rates up there with Pearl
\nJam’s “Hey Foxymophandlemama, That’s Me” or the Beatles’
\n“Revolution 9” as a song that will test the limits of even the most
\ndedicated fan.<\/p>\n

Still, Tool is one of the few bands that can take
\nfive years to record an album, and that’s OK, because it
\npractically takes five years to digest the density of their
\nmaterial. But 10,000 Days<\/i> is missing that indefinable
\n“creepiness” that made Tool’s best albums so compelling. It may be
\nthe because this is the first Tool album to go sans “Parental
\nAdvisory,” or it just may come with the territory of being on the
\nscene for almost 15 years, but 10,000 Days<\/i> is the first time
\na Tool album has been called predictable. Will that stop myself or
\nseveral perplexed fans from trying to figure out what’s missing
\nfrom 10,000 Days<\/i> by giving it a twentieth chance to sink in?
\nHell no.<\/p>\n

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