10,000 Days (Tool album)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''10,000 Days'' is the fourth studio album by American
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Tool A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ba ...
. The album was released by Tool Dissectional and
Volcano Entertainment Volcano Entertainment (sometimes referred to as Volcano Records) was an American all-round music record label founded in 1996 which released albums by Tool, 311, Size 14, Survivor and "Weird Al" Yankovic. (The latter two were former Scotti Bros ...
on April 28, 2006 in parts of
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, April 29, 2006 in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, May 1, 2006 in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, and on May 2, 2006 in
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
. It marked the first time since recording 1993's '' Undertow'' that the band had worked at Grandmaster and without producer
David Bottrill David Bottrill is a Canadian record producer. He has won three Grammys. Formerly, he owned Rattlebox Studios in Toronto, Ontario with producer Brian Moncarz. Moneen, Basia Lyjak, and The Getaway Plan are among the artists to have recorded at th ...
. ''10,000 Days'' spawned three top 10 rock singles: "
Vicarious Vicarious may refer to: * Vicariousness, experiencing through another person * Vicarious learning, observational learning In law * Vicarious liability, a term in common law * Vicarious liability (criminal), a term in criminal law Religion * Vic ...
," "
The Pot "The Pot" is a song by American rock band Tool and was released as a promotional single from their fourth studio album '' 10,000 Days'' (2006). It became Tool's first number one song, topping the '' Billboard'' Mainstream Rock chart in 2007. ...
," and "
Jambi Jambi is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the east coast of central Sumatra and spans to the Barisan Mountains in the west. Its capital and largest city is Jambi. The province has a land area of 50,160.05 km2, and a sea area of 3, ...
." 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 the
RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
. ''10,000 Days'' was Tool's last release for more than a decade; the band would not release their next studio album, ''
Fear Inoculum ''Fear Inoculum'' is the fifth studio album by American rock band Tool. It was released on August 30, 2019, through Tool Dissectional, Volcano Entertainment, and RCA Records. It is the band's first album in 13 years, due to creative, personal, ...
'', until August 30, 2019.


Background and recording

Tool recorded the album at
O'Henry Sound Studios O'Henry Sound Studios was a commercial studio complex in Burbank, California, that was owned by engineer Hank Sanicola and his wife, Jacqueline Sanicola.
in Burbank, as well as at The Loft and Grandmaster Studios in
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...
,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. It was mixed at Bay 7 in
North Hollywood, CA North Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, the El Portal Theatre, several art galleries, and the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. The North ...
and mastered at Gateway Mastering Studios in
Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...
. 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 A talk box (also spelled talkbox and talk-box) is an effects unit that allows musicians to modify the sound of a musical instrument by shaping the frequency content of the sound and to apply speech sounds (in the same way as singing) onto the sou ...
guitar solo A guitar solo is a melodic passage, instrumental section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. In 20th and 21st century traditional music and popular m ...
on the song "
Jambi Jambi is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the east coast of central Sumatra and spans to the Barisan Mountains in the west. Its capital and largest city is Jambi. The province has a land area of 50,160.05 km2, and a sea area of 3, ...
." Drummer
Danny Carey Daniel Edwin Carey (born May 10, 1961) is an American musician and songwriter. He is the drummer for the American rock band Tool. He has also contributed to albums by artists such as Zaum, Green Jellö, Pigface, Skinny Puppy, Adrian Belew, Carol ...
operated many of the sound effects on the interlude tracks on the album using
electronic drum Electronic drums is a modern electronic musical instrument, primarily designed to serve as an alternative to an acoustic drum kit. Electronic drums consist of an electronic sound module which produces the synthesized or sampled percussion sounds ...
s called
Mandalas A mandala ( sa, मण्डल, maṇḍala, circle, ) is a geometric configuration of symbols. In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of practitioners and adepts, as a spiritual guidance tool, for e ...
. ''10,000 Days'' has a heavier sound than its predecessor, largely because of the influence of
avant-garde metal Avant-garde metal (also known as avant-metal, experimental metal, and experimental) is a subgenre of heavy metal music loosely defined by use of experimentation and innovative, avant-garde elements, including non-standard and unconventional soun ...
band
Fantômas Fantômas () is a fictional character created by French writers Marcel Allain (1885–1969) and Pierre Souvestre (1874–1914). One of the most popular characters in the history of French crime fiction, Fantômas was created in 1911 and appear ...
, who toured with Tool before the writing process. The title ''10,000 Days'' is thought to refer to the
orbital period The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy, it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting planets ...
of the planet
Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
(actual time period is 10,759 days). According to singer
Maynard James Keenan Maynard James Keenan (born James Herbert Keenan; April 17, 1964) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and winemaker. He is best known as the singer and primary lyricist of the rock bands Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Pusci ...
, the
Saturn return In horoscopic astrology, a Saturn return is an astrological transit that occurs when the planet Saturn returns to the same ecliptic longitude that it occupied at the moment of a person's birth. While the planet may not first reach the exact loc ...
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."


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 Stereoscopy (also called stereoscopics, or stereo imaging) is a technique for creating or enhancing the depth perception, illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word ''stereoscopy'' derives . Any stere ...
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 Alex Grey (born November 29, 1953) is an American visual artist, author, teacher, and Vajrayana practitioner known for creating spiritual and psychedelic paintings. He works in multiple forms including performance art, process art, installation ...
, 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 A logarithmic spiral, equiangular spiral, or growth spiral is a self-similar spiral curve that often appears in nature. The first to describe a logarithmic spiral was Albrecht Dürer (1525) who called it an "eternal line" ("ewige Linie"). Mor ...
toward the center (adapted from a previous Alex Grey painting, "Collective Vision"). As with Tool's other albums, the lyrics are not printed within the artwork; vocalist
Maynard James Keenan Maynard James Keenan (born James Herbert Keenan; April 17, 1964) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and winemaker. He is best known as the singer and primary lyricist of the rock bands Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Pusci ...
has instead released the lyrics online. On May 5, 2006, the band's official webmaster hinted that "the four individual photos
f the band members F, or f, is the sixth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet#Let ...
can be used as the pieces of a kind of puzzle," but the puzzle and its meaning "will just be another nut to crack." In an interview,
Alex Grey Alex Grey (born November 29, 1953) is an American visual artist, author, teacher, and Vajrayana practitioner known for creating spiritual and psychedelic paintings. He works in multiple forms including performance art, process art, installation ...
, 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 AyahuascaPronounced as in the UK and in the US. Also occasionally known in English as ''ayaguasca'' (Spanish-derived), ''aioasca'' (Brazilian Portuguese-derived), or as ''yagé'', pronounced or . Etymologically, all forms but ''yagé'' descen ...
. He described the ''10,000 Days'' cover as "a blazing vision of an infinite grid of Godheads during an ayahuasca journey", and also talked about the ''Lateralus'' cover in a similar fashion. Grey stated in another interview when making the ''10,000 Days'' cover that it depicts visions received during a DMT trip (the main chemical ingredient in ayahuasca).


Release

On March 27, 2006, ''Billboard'' posted an article about ''10,000 Days'', which mentioned that "
Vicarious Vicarious may refer to: * Vicariousness, experiencing through another person * Vicarious learning, observational learning In law * Vicarious liability, a term in common law * Vicarious liability (criminal), a term in criminal law Religion * Vic ...
" would be the album's first single. "Vicarious" was officially released to radio on April 17, and entered both the
Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...
and
Mainstream Rock Tracks Mainstream Rock is a music chart in ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in Ma ...
charts both at number 2. A music video for the song was released on DVD on December 18, 2007. The song has also been featured as a playable track on the video game ''
Guitar Hero World Tour ''Guitar Hero World Tour'' (initially referred to as ''Guitar Hero IV'' or ''Guitar Hero IV: World Tour'') is a music rhythm video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the fourth main installment in the ''Guitar Hero'' ...
''. The second single from the album was "
The Pot "The Pot" is a song by American rock band Tool and was released as a promotional single from their fourth studio album '' 10,000 Days'' (2006). It became Tool's first number one song, topping the '' Billboard'' Mainstream Rock chart in 2007. ...
", which peaked at No. 5 on the Modern Rock chart. It was the band's first number 1 single on the
Mainstream Rock chart Mainstream Rock is a music chart in '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched i ...
. A video for "The Pot" was scheduled to shoot over the 2006 holiday season. "
Jambi Jambi is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the east coast of central Sumatra and spans to the Barisan Mountains in the west. Its capital and largest city is Jambi. The province has a land area of 50,160.05 km2, and a sea area of 3, ...
" was the third radio single and received airtime on both Modern and Mainstream Rock formats. Tool also shared new video for upcoming “10,000 Days” record on their Instagram account.


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. Nevertheless, the album won a 2006 Metal Storm Award for Best Alternative Metal Album. In addition, the song "Vicarious" was nominated for the
Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance The Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance was an award presented to recording artists at the Grammy Awards until 2011. The academy recognized hard rock music artists for the first time at the 31st Grammy Awards (1989). The category was ori ...
. ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' magazine named it the 38th Best Album of 2006. The album also received a
Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
in 2006 for Best Recording Package. In 2008, ''10,000 Days'' garnered another Grammy nomination when "The Pot" was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance. At
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, 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 AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
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 ''Drowned in Sound'', sometimes abbreviated to ''DiS'', is a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site features reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums. History ''D ...
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 Alternative press may refer to: Individual publications * ''Alternative Press'' (magazine), an American music magazine Alternative journalism * Alternative media ** Alternative media (U.S. political left) ** Alternative media (U.S. political ri ...
'' 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 ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' stated that on the album, the band "maintains a level of craftsmanship and virtuosity unparalleled in metal." Nevertheless, Adrien Begrand of
PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...
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 ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...
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 A Perfect Circle is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1999 by guitarist Billy Howerdel and Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan. A Perfect Circle has released four studio albums, the first three during the early 2000s: ' ...
record." Ayo Jegede of
Stylus Magazine ''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog. Addi ...
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."


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. It was certified
Platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...
in the U.S. by the
RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
on June 9, 2006.


Track listing


Personnel

*
Maynard James Keenan Maynard James Keenan (born James Herbert Keenan; April 17, 1964) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and winemaker. He is best known as the singer and primary lyricist of the rock bands Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Pusci ...
 – vocals * Adam Jones – guitars,
sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in ...
,
talkbox A talk box (also spelled talkbox and talk-box) is an effects unit that allows musicians to modify the sound of a musical instrument by shaping the frequency content of the sound and to apply speech sounds (in the same way as singing) onto the so ...
on "Jambi" *
Justin Chancellor Justin Gunnar Walter Chancellor (born 19 November 1970) is an English musician best known as the bass player for progressive metal band Tool since 1995. He was also the bassist of the band Peach. After settling in the US, along with his engage ...
 – bass, additional guitars (7) *
Danny Carey Daniel Edwin Carey (born May 10, 1961) is an American musician and songwriter. He is the drummer for the American rock band Tool. He has also contributed to albums by artists such as Zaum, Green Jellö, Pigface, Skinny Puppy, Adrian Belew, Carol ...
 – drums, percussion,
tabla A tabla, bn, তবলা, prs, طبلا, gu, તબલા, hi, तबला, kn, ತಬಲಾ, ml, തബല, mr, तबला, ne, तबला, or, ତବଲା, ps, طبله, pa, ਤਬਲਾ, ta, தபலா, te, తబల ...


Guest musicians

*
Lustmord Brian Williams is a Welsh industrial musician, sound designer and film score composer. He is often credited for creating the dark ambient genre with albums recorded under the name Lustmord. His experimental work has been described as "not tra ...
 – weather effects on "10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)" * Bill McConnell – vocals on "Lipan Conjuring" * Pete Riedling – voice of "Doctor Watson" on "Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)" * Camella Grace – voice of "Nurse" on "Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)"


Production

*
Joe Barresi Joe Barresi (nicknamed "Evil Joe") is an American record engineer and producer who has worked with Kyuss, The Melvins, Tool, Chevelle, Queens of the Stone Age, Coheed and Cambria, Tomahawk, L7, The Jesus Lizard, Parkway Drive, New Model Army, Ba ...
 –
engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
and mixing (credited as "Evil Joe Barresi") * Adam Jones –
art direction Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the visi ...
*
Alex Grey Alex Grey (born November 29, 1953) is an American visual artist, author, teacher, and Vajrayana practitioner known for creating spiritual and psychedelic paintings. He works in multiple forms including performance art, process art, installation ...
 –
illustration An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vid ...
s *
Bob Ludwig Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Qu ...
 – mastering * Mackie Osborne – design, layout * Travis Shinn –
photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Certifications


Singles


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:10, 000 Days 2006 albums Tool (band) albums Volcano Entertainment albums