10,000 Days (Tool album) explained

10,000 Days
Type:studio
Artist:Tool
Cover:10000Days.jpg
Alt:Cover art for 10,000 Days, done by artist Alex Grey, featuring what he describes as "a blazing vision of an infinite grid of Godheads during an ayahuasca journey"
Caption:Digital cover. On physical formats, the cover features a flap with two large 3D lenses over the eyes.
Recorded:August – December 2005
Studio:
  • O'Henry Sound, Burbank, California
  • Grandmaster, Hollywood, California
  • The Loft, Hollywood, California
Genre:
Length:75:45
Label:
Producer:Tool
Prev Title:Lateralus
Prev Year:2001
Next Title:Fear Inoculum
Next Year:2019

10,000 Days is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Tool. The album was released by Tool Dissectional and Volcano Entertainment on April 28, 2006 in parts of Europe, April 29, 2006 in Australia, May 1, 2006 in the United Kingdom, and on May 2, 2006 in North America. It marked the first time since recording 1993's Undertow that the band had worked at Grandmaster and without producer David Bottrill. 10,000 Days spawned three top ten rock singles: "Vicarious," "The Pot," and "Jambi."

It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, with first week sales of 564,000 copies. The album was awarded a double platinum certification by both the RIAA and the RMNZ. It was also certified platinum in both Australia and Canada, and gold in Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Poland, and the United Kingdom.

10,000 Days was Tool's last release for more than a decade; the band would not release their next studio album, Fear Inoculum, until August 30, 2019.[2]

Background and recording

Tool recorded the album at O'Henry Sound Studios in Burbank, as well as at The Loft and Grandmaster Studios in Hollywood, California. It was mixed at Bay 7 in North Hollywood, CA and mastered at Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland, Maine.

Guitarist Adam Jones employed various recording techniques for the album, including a "pipe bomb mic" (a guitar pickup mounted inside a brass cylinder), and a talk box guitar solo on the song "Jambi."[3] [4] Drummer Danny Carey operated many of the sound effects on the interlude tracks on the album using electronic drums called Mandalas. 10,000 Days has a heavier sound than its predecessor, largely because of the influence of avant-garde metal band Fantômas, who toured with Tool before the writing process.[5]

The title 10,000 Days is thought to refer to the orbital period of the planet Saturn (actual time period is 10,759 days). According to singer Maynard James Keenan, the Saturn return is "the time in your twenty eighth, twenty ninth year when you are presented the opportunity to transform from whatever your hang-ups were before to let the light of knowledge and experience lighten your load, so to speak, and let go of old patterns and embrace a new life." Keenan expected that the songs composed would "chronicle that process, hoping that my gift back would be to share that path and hope that I could help somebody get past that spot."[6]

Packaging and artwork

The compact disc packaging for 10,000 Days consists of a thick cardboard-bound booklet partly covered by a flap holding a pair of stereoscopic eyeglasses, which can be used to view a series of images inside. Viewed with the glasses, the artwork produces an illusion of depth and three-dimensionality. Alex Grey, who created a majority of the album art for Lateralus and its accompanying video "Parabola," reprised his role for 10,000 Days. The CD face itself is decorated with stylized eyes, arranged in a seemingly logarithmic spiral toward the center (adapted from a previous Alex Grey painting, "Collective Vision").[7] As with Tool's other albums, the lyrics are not printed within the artwork; vocalist Maynard James Keenan has instead released the lyrics online.[8] On May 5, 2006, the band's official webmaster hinted that "the four individual photos [of the band members] can be used as the pieces of a kind of puzzle," but the puzzle and its meaning "will just be another nut to crack."[9]

In an interview, Alex Grey, who worked on the illustrations for the 10,000 Days and Lateralus covers, said that many of his artworks for Tool have been based on and influenced by the visionary journeys of a brew called ayahuasca. He described the 10,000 Days cover as "a blazing vision of an infinite grid of Godheads during an ayahuasca journey",[10] and also talked about the Lateralus cover in a similar fashion.[11] Grey stated in another interview when making the 10,000 Days cover that it depicts visions received during a DMT trip.

Release

On March 27, 2006, Billboard posted an article about 10,000 Days,[12] which mentioned that "Vicarious" would be the album's first single. "Vicarious" was officially released to radio on April 17, and entered both the Modern Rock Tracks and Mainstream Rock Tracks charts at number 2. A music video for the song was released on DVD on December 18, 2007.[13] The song has also been featured as a playable track on the video game Guitar Hero World Tour.The second single from the album was "The Pot", which peaked at No. 5 on the Modern Rock chart. It was the band's first number 1 single on the Mainstream Rock chart. A video for "The Pot" was scheduled to shoot over the 2006 holiday season.[14] "Jambi" was the third radio single and received airtime on both Modern[15] and Mainstream Rock[16] formats.

Reception

10,000 Days received generally favorable reviews, albeit with less enthusiasm than previous Tool albums. Most critics praised the album as another example of Tool's musicianship. Critics who gave 10,000 Days a relatively low score questioned the merits of its ambient interludes, which Tool have also used on their previous releases.

However, the album received a Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Recording Package. That same year, the song "Vicarious" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance. In 2008, 10,000 Days garnered another Grammy nomination when "The Pot" was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance.

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 68, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 19 reviews. Rob Theakston of AllMusic wrote: "It's not only a step forward for the band, but a re-embracing of the epic-length rock songs found at the roots of early heavy metal." Nick Cowen of Drowned in Sound praised the album, describing it as "probably the most engagingly brilliant heavy metal album that'll be released on a major label all year." Alternative Press magazine wrote: "As with everything in Tool's oeuvre, 10,000 Days packs enough beauty, heartache and triumph that it will be dissected, studied and envied by younger bands for years to come." Evan Serpick of Rolling Stone stated that on the album, the band "maintains a level of craftsmanship and virtuosity unparalleled in metal."

Nevertheless, Adrien Begrand of PopMatters stated: "Stupendously packaged, the music robustly mixed and often achieving new levels of bleak beauty, 10,000 Days is too strong a work to call a disappointment, but the constant need to fill out a CD to 75-80 minutes is threatening to become the band's undoing." Jess Harvell of Pitchfork Media was critical in his assessment of the album: "Rather than delving further into experimentation or exploring their strengths, Tool have made an...A Perfect Circle record." Ayo Jegede of Stylus Magazine panned the album, criticizing the band in the terms of "being progressive": "I'm not sure, but I think "progressive" is about growth and change. I think it's about not being trapped in your own little universe where everything you say matters."

Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album as the 38th Best Album of 2006.[17]

The album won a 2006 Metal Storm Award for Best Alternative Metal Album.[18]

Commercial performance

10,000 Days entered the U.S. Billboard 200 chart at number 1, selling 564,000 copies in its first week. It was Tool's second album to top the Billboard 200 chart upon release. In the UK, the album debuted at number 4, the highest chart position the group have managed in that country.[19] It was certified Platinum in the U.S. by the RIAA on June 9, 2006.

Personnel

Guest musicians

Production

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (2006)Peak
position
Irish Albums (IRMA)[23] 6
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[24] 16

Year-end charts

Chart (2006)Position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[25] 37
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[26] 20
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[27] 78
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[28] 74
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[29] 11
US Billboard 200[30] 31
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[31] 5

Singles

YearSingleChartPeak position
2006"Vicarious"Billboard Hot 100115
Mainstream Rock Tracks2
Modern Rock Tracks2
"The Pot"Billboard Hot 100style="text-align:center;"-
Mainstream Rock Tracks1
Modern Rock Tracks5
2007"Jambi"Mainstream Rock Tracks7
Modern Rock Tracks23

Notes and References

  1. Tool's New Album: Everything We Know. Grow. Kory. January 18, 2018. Rolling Stone. November 14, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20190801160331/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/tools-new-album-everything-we-know-253649/. August 1, 2019. live.
  2. Tool Set Summer Release Date for New Album. Blistein. Jon. 2019-05-08. Rolling Stone. en-US. 2019-05-08. https://web.archive.org/web/20190508163754/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/tool-new-album-release-date-832784/. May 8, 2019. live.
  3. Gill . Chris . June 2006 . Tool: Sea Change . . 27 . 6.
  4. Web site: Jeff Forlenza . The Making of Tool's '10,000 Days' . https://web.archive.org/web/20060825085407/http://mixonline.com/recording/projects/audio_making_tools_days/ . August 25, 2006 . June 1, 2006 . Mix.
  5. Web site: November 11, 2020. Tool Hammer Away At New Album . April 7, 2004 . Jon . Wiederhorn . MTV.com. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20150808121637/http://www.mtv.com/news/1486242/tool-hammer-away-at-new-album/. August 8, 2015 .
  6. Web site: 9 Years Ago: Tool Unleash '10,000 Days' . . January 14, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160509021125/http://loudwire.com/tool-10000-days-anniversary/?trackback=tsmclip . May 9, 2016 . live .
  7. Web site: Net of Being. Alex Grey. September 28, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141003133821/http://alexgrey.com/art/paintings/soul/net-of-being/. October 3, 2014. live.
  8. http://toolshed.down.net/lyrics/10kdayslyrics.php lyrics to "10,000 days"
  9. Puzzle?. May 10, 2006. Billboard . Blair Mackenzie Blake. https://web.archive.org/web/20060508013123/http://toolband.com/news. May 8, 2006 .
  10. Web site: Interview for the Examiner . Alex Grey . 2014-02-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130305092036/http://alexgrey.com/press-media/interviews/interview-for-the-examiner/ . March 5, 2013 . live . mdy .
  11. News: Bain . Katie . Ten Celebrity Ayahuasca Users . 4 . LA Weekly . 2013-10-03 . 2014-02-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140109184638/http://www.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/archives/2013/11/22/ten-celebrity-ayahuasca-users?page=4 . January 9, 2014 . dead . mdy-all .
  12. Tool Feeling 'Vicarious' On New Album . Billboard . April 28, 2006 . Jonathan Cohen. https://web.archive.org/web/20060508092314/http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/58956/tool-feeling-vicarious-on-new-album. May 8, 2006 .
  13. Web site: Tool News . October 18, 2007 . October 20, 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20071021025858/http://www.toolband.com/news/index.html. October 21, 2007 .
  14. Web site: Tool finds "Pot" of Gold with Latest Single . The Rock Radio online . November 29, 2006 . January 18, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070118163624/http://www.therockradio.com/2006/11/tool-finds-pot-of-gold-with-latest.html. January 18, 2007 .
  15. Web site: Modern Rock – Available for Airplay . December 13, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20061022002554/http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=16770. October 22, 2006 .
  16. Web site: Mainstream Rock – Available for Airplay . December 13, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20061207090553/http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=16697. December 7, 2006 .
  17. The Top 50 albums of 2006. Rolling Stone. December 29, 2006 . January 24, 2008. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20080314193857/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/50albums/page/8. March 14, 2008 .
  18. Web site: Metal Storm Awards 2006 - Metal Storm . April 10, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120826024602/http://www.metalstorm.net/awards/archive.php?year=2006 . August 26, 2012 . live .
  19. Hard Work Pays Off For Tool's 'Days' . . January 14, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151107113026/http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/58388/hard-work-pays-off-for-tools-days . November 7, 2015 . live .
  20. News: Tool Newsletter . Tool website . https://web.archive.org/web/20130118061852/http://www.toolband.com/news/letter/index.php?t=1&id=44 . January 18, 2013 . dead . mdy-all . March 7, 2010 .
  21. News: Butcher Biograph. Butcher website. https://web.archive.org/web/20120209082240/http://www.butcherband.com/butcher/bio.php . 2012-02-09. dead.
  22. News: Joe Barresi. McDonough Management . https://web.archive.org/web/20131104095024/http://www.mcdman.com/barresi.html . 2013-11-04. live.
  23. Web site: Top 75 Artist Album, Week Ending 4 May 2006 . . 4 August 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180502210853/http://www.chart-track.co.uk/index.jsp?c=p%2Fmusicvideo%2Fmusic%2Farchive%2Findex_test.jsp&ct=240002&arch=t&lyr=2006&year=2006&week=18 . dead . 2 May 2018.
  24. Web site: 10,000デイズ Tool. Oricon. ja. October 29, 2021.
  25. Web site: ARIA Charts - End Of Year Charts - Top 100 Albums 2006. Australian Recording Industry Association. June 16, 2021. January 27, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140127032212/http://www.aria.com.au/pages/ARIACHarts-EndofYearCharts-Top100Albums2006.htm. live.
  26. Web site: Jaaroverzichten 2006. Ultratop. June 16, 2021.
  27. Web site: Jaaroverzichten – Album 2006. dutchcharts.nl. June 16, 2021.
  28. Web site: Top 100 Album-Jahrescharts. de. GfK Entertainment. offiziellecharts.de. June 16, 2021.
  29. Web site: Top Selling Albums of 2006. Recorded Music NZ. November 16, 2021.
  30. Top Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 2006. Billboard. June 16, 2021.
  31. Top Rock Albums – Year-End 2006. Billboard. June 16, 2021.