''10,000 Days'' is the fourth studio album by the 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 Wale ...
band
Tool
A tool is an Physical object, object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many Tool use by animals, animals use simple tools, only human bei ...
. The album was released by Tool Dissectional and
Volcano Entertainment
Volcano Entertainment (sometimes referred to as Volcano Records) is an American all-round music record label founded in 1996 which released albums by Tool, 311, Survivor and "Weird Al" Yankovic. (The latter two were former Scotti Bros. Records ...
on April 28, 2006 in parts of
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
, April 29, 2006 in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
, 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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, and on May 2, 2006 in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
. 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
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
* Subst ...
", "
The Pot
"The Pot" is a song by American rock band Tool, which 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 200 ...
", and "
Jambi
Jambi is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the east coast of central Sumatra
Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of i ...
".
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
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 ...
and the
RMNZ.
It was also certified platinum in both
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
, 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
''Fear Inoculum'' is the fifth studio album by the 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, persona ...
'', 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, Burbank, California, that was owned by engineer Hank Sanicola and his wife, Jacqueline Sanicola. in
Burbank
Burbank may refer to:
Places Australia
* Burbank, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane
United States
* Burbank, California, a city in Los Angeles County
* Burbank, Santa Clara County, California, a census-designated place
* Burbank, Illinois, ...
, 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 that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. It was mixed at Bay 7 in
North Hollywood, CA and mastered at Gateway Mastering Studios in
Portland, Maine
Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...
.
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 so ...
guitar solo
A guitar solo is a melody, melodic passage, instrumental section (music), section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, classical, electric guitar, electric, or acoustic guitar. In 20th and ...
on the song "
Jambi
Jambi is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the east coast of central Sumatra
Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of i ...
." Drummer
Danny Carey
Daniel Edwin Carey (born May 10, 1961) is an American musician who is the drummer for the progressive metal band Tool. He has also contributed to albums by artists such as Zaum, Green Jellö, Pigface, Skinny Puppy, Adrian Belew, Carole Kin ...
operated many of the sound effects on the interlude tracks on the album using
electronic drum
Electronic drums are 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 Drum synthesiser, synthesized or Sampler ...
s called
Mandalas
A mandala (, ) 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 establishing a sacred space and as an aid ...
. ''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, art metal and experimetal) is a subgenre of heavy metal music loosely defined by use of experimentation and innovative, avant-garde music, avant-garde elements, including non-stan ...
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 appeared ...
, 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 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...
(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, philanthropist, record producer, and winemaker. He is best known as the singer and primary lyricist of the rock bands Tool (band), Tool, A Perfe ...
, 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." The title ''10,000 Days'' is additionally theorized to refer to the amount of time that Maynard's mother, Judith Marie Gridley, was paralyzed.
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 illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word ''stereoscopy'' derives . Any stereoscopic image is ...
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
A logarithmic spiral, equiangular spiral, or growth spiral is a self-similarity, 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" ("ewi ...
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, philanthropist, record producer, and winemaker. He is best known as the singer and primary lyricist of the rock bands Tool (band), Tool, A Perfe ...
has instead released the lyrics online. On May 5, 2006, the band's official webmaster hinted that "the four individual photos
f the band memberscan 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, 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.
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
* Subst ...
" 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 between 1988 and 2009, and Alternative Songs between 2009 and 2020) is a music chart published in the American magazine ''Billboard'' since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-playe ...
and
Mainstream Rock Tracks
Mainstream Rock is a music chart published by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States. It is an administrative category that combines the " active rock" and " heritage rock" ...
charts 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'' is a 2008 rhythm game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the fourth main installment and the sixth overall installment in the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series. The game was launched in North A ...
''.
The second single from the album was "
The Pot
"The Pot" is a song by American rock band Tool, which 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 200 ...
", 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 published by ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States. It is an administrative category that combines the " active rock" and " heritage rock" fo ...
. 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
Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of i ...
" was the third radio single and received airtime on both Modern and Mainstream Rock 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
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
in 2006 for
Best Recording Package
The Grammy Award for Best Recording Package is one of a series of Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize out ...
. That same year, 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 from 1990 to 2011.
The academy recognized hard rock music artists for the first time at the 31st Grammy Awards in 1989. The category ...
. In 2008, ''10,000 Days'' garnered another Grammy nomination when "The Pot" was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance.
At
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, 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 database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
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 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 r ...
'' 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, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason.
The magazine was first known fo ...
'' 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, ...
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 magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...
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 music, rock Supergroup (music), supergroup formed in Los Angeles, California in 1999 by guitarist Billy Howerdel and Tool (band), Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan. A Perfect Circle released three of their ...
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."
''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason.
The magazine was first known fo ...
'' magazine ranked the album as the 38th Best Album of 2006.
The album won a 2006 Metal Storm Award for Best Alternative Metal Album.
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; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...
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, philanthropist, record producer, and winemaker. He is best known as the singer and primary lyricist of the rock bands Tool (band), Tool, A Perfe ...
– 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 the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in 19th-century India. Khusrau K ...
,
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 1971) is an English musician, best known as the bassist for rock band Tool, a position he has held since 1995. Prior to joining Tool, he played in a band called Peach. After settling in the US ...
– bass, additional guitars (7)
*
Danny Carey
Daniel Edwin Carey (born May 10, 1961) is an American musician who is the drummer for the progressive metal band Tool. He has also contributed to albums by artists such as Zaum, Green Jellö, Pigface, Skinny Puppy, Adrian Belew, Carole Kin ...
– drums, percussion,
tabla
A ''tabla'' is a pair of hand drums from the Indian subcontinent. Since the 18th century, it has been the principal percussion instrument in Hindustani classical music, where it may be played solo, as an accompaniment with other instruments a ...
Guest musicians
*
Lustmord
Brian Williams is a Welsh musician, sound designer and composer. He has released albums under the name Lustmord starting in the 1980s and through the present.
Williams began as a recording artist within the industrial genre, working with Ch ...
– 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, Apocalyptica, Queens of the Stone Age, Coheed and Cambria, Tomahawk, L7, The Jesus Lizard, Parkway Drive ...
–
engineering
Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
and
mixing (credited as "Evil Joe Barresi")
* Adam Jones –
art direction
Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games.
It is the charge of a sole art director to super ...
*
Alex Grey –
illustration
An illustration is a decoration, interpretation, or visual explanation of a text, concept, or process, designed for integration in print and digitally published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vi ...
s
*
Bob Ludwig
Robert Carl Ludwig (born December 11, 1944), is a retired American mastering engineer. He 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 Zeppeli ...
–
mastering
* Mackie Osborne – design, layout
* Travis Shinn –
photography
Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating 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 empl ...
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Singles
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:10, 000 Days
2006 albums
Tool (band) albums
Volcano Entertainment albums