by Rafiq Hilton

Created on: February 09, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

The long awaited follow up to the seminal and critically revered 'Lateralus' has recently arrived in the land of progressive metal.

Tool are a band, for those who don't know, who like to experiment. With thematic content often being labelled psychedellic and artwork to match up to this moniker (courtesy of artist Alex Grey - go check out his website www.alexgrey.com)Tool have returned with an album characterised by slow burning epics. Perhaps what you might be expecting to hear given previous offerings from the American 'Psychedellic Math Metal' band, but here it is with a difference.

The album as a whole definitely emenates a journey type quality, as is their style, and if you are prepared to sit and listen to the album from start to finish you will find this to be the case. However, it is on '10,000 days' that the band opt for a quieter and moodier tone, particularly on tracks such as 'Wings For Marie (part 1)' and '10,000 Days (wings part 2)', tracks which blend into each other and lyrically explore the same territory. Similar could be said of the dark and almost zany quality found in 'Lost Keys (Blame Hoffman)' and 'Rosetta Stoned', again tracks which blend into one another and build in a way different to 'Lateralus', an album noted for tracks that lead to epic crescendoes.

The technical proficiency of the band is again abundantly evident on '10,000 days' as is their ability to integrate this with thought provoking lyrical content, musical restraint (no showboating to be found despite the choice of complex rhythms, dynamics and time signatures) and compelling artwork. Tool were amongst the bands known to speak out against Napster back in the day and true to form they truly provide something worth owning - the album sleeve consists of a booklet of phenomenal psy-art accompanied by a set of lenses that make the pieces 3D when you look through them! Don't take my word for it though, go and buy the album for the artwork alone, it will be worth it! Of course this perfectly compliments the lyrics on the album. As usual a bittersweet combination of the beauty and evil inherent in humanity, poetically delivered and with a continual undercurrent of the metaphysical and transcendent. From the fascination with spectacle, television and tragedy (that is ironically tragic) explored on opener 'Vicarious' (I need to watch things die/From a good safe distance/Vicariously I/Live while the whole world dies/You all feel the same so/Why can't we just admit it?) to the angelic perspective of humanity on 'Right In Two' (Don't these talking monkeys know that Eden has enough to go around?/...Monkey killing monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground). An observation at once poetically delicate and chilling. But thats not where the biblical buck stops, as you will find the lyrical tone to echo the good book in a number of songs, particularly the suggestions of a sort of jesus-like resurrection of a character named Marie (perhaps a sugggestion that after so long a period of male dominated society, we might be in for a dramtic reintroduction to the Mother element of the universe?) And of course it wouldn't be a Tool album without the references to alien abduction and garbled extra-terrestrial messages from beyond (see lyrics to Lost Keys/Rosetta Stoned).

Altogether this is an album worth owning. If you are not currently a Tool fan and this new addition to their catalogue is your first purchase, you will not be disappointed. A lot of work has clearly gone into the production of this piece (and it is a piece) and it may require a certain level of work and committment from longer standing Tool fans who may expect something as immediately gratifying as the timeless Lateralus. But believe me it is worth it!

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