Tool: The Band

If you're not familiar with the band Tool, allow me to introduce you to one of the greatest rock bands of our time, if you're a Tool fan, let's rejoice in the release of their album 10,000 Days. Tool's fourth offering that came 5 years after their masterpiece Lateralus, which led some people to call them "The slowest tempoed Progressive band ever!" especially with the fact that Lateralus followed their second album Ænima after another 5 year hiatus. (Follow the album links for track samples, for Tool virgins I suggest starting with Schism off Lateralus, and Eulogy from AEnema, and from their first full length album Undertow, check out Sober).

To say it was well worth the wait is an understatement, I've been listening extensively to the album for about a week now, all I can say is MIND BLOWING. Tool's music is the high intensity type that grabs hold of your very being and shakes you to the core, the gripping music is accompanied by a powerful message that explores the human psyche and tackles controversial issues such as organized religion. This album delivers big time on both of these fronts, the title of the album 10,000 Days is in reference to the 27 years that Maynard James Keenan(Tool's front man)'s mother spent in a wheelchair before passing away,

10000 days in the fire is long enough.
You're going home...

You're the only one who can hold your head up high,
Shake your fist at the gates saying,
"I have come home now!"

Fetch me the spirit, the son and the father,
Tell them their pillar of faith has ascended.

I'll probably revisit Tool and the 10,000 Days album in other posts, but I want to share some quick excerpts about the album, and tell anyone who enjoys rock music that this as good as rock gets, buy the CD.

Kelefa Sanneh in a NY Times article said:

"..."10,000 Days" is full of grand, heavy, slightly mysterious progressive rock."

"Certainly "10,000 Days" evokes a bygone time when musicians expected listeners to swallow their albums whole, and in order"

"So "10,000 Days" (Volcano/Zomba/Sony BMG) is purely a CD, though it's a pretty elaborate one. Along with those 77 minutes of music, you get a wraparound hardcover case; the booklet is printed stereoscopically, with lenses built into the cover."

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