10,000 Days

TOOL is kinda like Jesus. You shouldn't hate them just because their fans are mostly shitheads.

This fourth album of TOOL is not their best, but still great progressive rock music. Some slower songs and the closer are not that interesting.

We really went from no Tool albums on the original list to three Tool albums on the user list. Gotta hand it to Tool fans. I always underestimate this band. This is really not the kind of music you'd expect to be pulling 200 million Spotify streams on some songs. Is it an essential metal opus like Lateralus and Aenima? Nah. Too unfocused and bloated for that. Did I still have fun with it? Definitely. 4/5.

Love this! The atypical rhytms, spiritual sounds, heavyness and calmness in one. Tool takes you on a trip

Like most Tool albums, I like it a lot, but aren't smart enough to understand it without memorizing Wikipedia.

Okok TOOL might have multiple good albums

I loved Undertow when it came out. But after that I kind of grew away from the band. When these records came out I just wasn’t interested. Turns out I’ve been missing out.

I like tool as much as the next tool but I think there's now too many tool albums on the user-made list. tool tool tool

Love some TOOL here and there but man sometimes the albums just feel like they are 10,000 days long

I’m a tool

Ænima and Lateralus have both already been suggested, so might as well round out the trio eh? Although they debuted with Opiate in 1992 and quickly followed up with Undertow in 1993, it wasn't until their 1996 record Ænima that Tool found their signature alt-prog metal sound. Then they really took off. 10,000 Days sees the band mellowing out their sound to something more rock than metal. Still heavy in many ways, this album creates many winding guitar and bass passages that are dense in technical proficiency but light in substance. By the end of the album you might recognize that Tool only has the one trick up their sleeve: noodle around with scales while trying to find a riff that sticks, and build around that with atmosphere and tight drumming. The most competent songs in this run seemed to be Rosetta Stoned and The Pot, while others managed to be little more than filler. To their credit, the scales they play do sound nice. Too bad it ends on a low note with a throwaway ambient instrumental that leaves us hanging for the last 5 minutes. Not much of a final impression. CONTENDER FOR THE LIST: I would only choose one Tool album, and it wouldn't be this one.

Solid singles but not the best of their discography. I have a feeling every album will eventually be here.

My heart sank. Two Tool albums in three days. Who did I anger?? It’s not for me.

This is my favorite TOOL album. Vicarious and Jambi are a blistering dark energetic opening that continues its vibe with Wings Pt. 1 & 2. The Pot culminate the first half with another tortured energetic hit. The throbbing bass and drums in this is perfect with Maynard's twisted delivery. Though the latter half doesn't quite hold the ferocity of the first part, the album itself is absolutely great.

Genius

Monkey killing monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground Silly monkeys, give them thumbs, they make a club and beat their brother down How they've survived so misguided is a mystery Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here

Man, I didn't used to know TOOL's stuff very well, but I think the list is making me a fan. They're 3 for 3 so far.

Tortured guitars for the sad boy set

Rosetta Stoned? Really? Definitely has the classic metal sound. The Pot is good. And most of the other songs don't really disappoint. But the real reason I love it is because it's a fourth studio album. Which is when real music gets made.

Seriously guys, we didn't need to add every Tool album. But that's what Tool fans do, isn't it? I bet the guy who added this checked to see which one was missing (if he didn't already know instinctively) and it was all he ever planned on submitting. It's funny - back in 2002 or so, we used to pick on Dream Theater for being *that* band, but Tool has really overtaken them these days. I guess that's the advantage of scarcity - DT has thrown so much shit at the wall at this point that even their superfans admit there's a bit of stink in there. Tool fans, not so much. Tool is a pretty good band, all things considered - they'll never top the first song on their first album, but everything they put out is decent at a minimum. But they're also, with exception of that first album, never really truly GREAT. This album is good enough - it plods along for its 75min (Tool albums go for 75min) competently, it stays safely in its lane, it has a little bit of that 90s alternative vibe in its sound that's been missing since the 90s. It gets a little too jammy for me in places (the title track being a good example) and you have to be stoned to truly appreciate the hypnotic aspects of it all, but it's all well done. It feels solid. The production is thick. The instruments are all perfectly mixed. You know that tangible bump in quality when you get out of a Mazda and into an Audi? That's how listening to Tool feels after the myriad of b-tier metal bands I otherwise listen to all day. The problem is, with the exception of Vicarious (and maybe The Pot), I'll never remember anything from this album. It's "Tool album good". You know how Amorphis puts out the same album every year, and it's a damn good album, but it doesn't excite you and it's hard to pick out individual songs anymore? Same kinda deal, just with less frequency. Wait, what? You've never heard Amorphis? omg. It's getting a 4/5 and fuck you.

Not entirely sure I needed a third Tool album on the user suggested list, but this held up to the others. While I haven’t and likely won’t listen to these three albums enough to discern which is “best” or what exactly each uniquely brings to the party, it was a good listen that I don’t regret.

I've come across this album and band before- high level musicianship, lyrics and production. I even 'favourited' it in Spotify but ultimately it's very much in it's own genre. I like it and respect it but wouldn'y say it touches my soul or anything deep like that.

Still not my favourite Tool ablum but great anyway.

After Lateralus, 10,000 Days feels like a more meditative, personal, and ultimately less focused album. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth your time. It’s still Tool, and that means enormous sound, precision drumming, weird time signatures, and Maynard’s cryptic, layered vocals weaving between it all. The emotional core is clearly the title suite with Wings for Marie and 10,000 Days (Wings Pt. 2) being a tribute to Maynard’s mother, who spent 27 years (or 10000 days) in a coma. As a whole, though, the album can feel bloated. It doesn’t have the tight, aggressive focus of Ænima or the precision of Lateralus. Some tracks sprawl without clear direction (Rosetta Stoned), and there’s a sense of the band stretching things out just because they can. Still, the highs are really high. “Vicarious” is classic Tool. “The Pot” grooves hard. You just have to wade through a little more to get to the gold. 10,000 Days isn’t their best, but it’s a worthy chapter: emotional, strange, and occasionally brilliant.

Oh. More tool. Probably the best one on the list so far

The Pot is good 3

Rating: 6/10 Best songs: The pot

So, I'd have to be in a specific kind of mood to want to hear Tool, and 3 user submitted albums are more than I probably will ever need. But... they do make really good albums. Smart, nuanced, intense stuff. Fave Songs: Vicarious, Jambi, The Pot

Feel this is some of the heaviest riffage I’ve gotten from a Tool LP, and enjoyed the heavy guitar and layered instrumentation. As usual with these outings, I don’t think I’m stoned enough to get the whole picture – Shave twenty minutes off this thing and you’d have a lean, mean chugging album, but the prog elements are what make this band so acclaimed and I haven’t listened enough to get it quite yet

Yep, that's some TOOL. I don't hate it, I respect the talent and execution of it, but the uniformly dour tone and lyrical self-importance of this genre of music puts me off. This one was also egregiously over-long, particularly considering several extended non-musical interludes that did nothing for me.

When I added my album I was reluctant to add a second Tool album. There are now 3 on the users list and this one is, in my opinion, Tool’s 4th or 5th best. Which may sound bad but it’s still a very good album. Their earlier stuff is just a bit more impressive. This was made once Tool was pretty established and there just wasn’t as much of an edge on this one. 7.5/10

This felt more mainstream than the other tool album but that could also just be because the pot is a nostalgic song for me (also a very good song).

I'm guessing the 2 earlier Tool albums had already been voted for! Tool fans! OK it's got that bleak beauty that the others have. I don't know why they feel they have to fill albums with 75 mins of music. It's fine but I won't return to it as I prefer Lateralus and it doesn't deviate much from it. 3.5

Another Tool album literally the next day? This one leans more into that abstract and proggy side post-Lateralus, with winding song structures and a lack of real clarity and hooks compared to their previous two albums. It’s still magnificently played but the songs have nowhere near as much punch as their Ænima or Lateralus (arguably even Undertow) and I never really find the urge to revisit this one.

Yeah ok I get it, we needed a TOOL album on the official list. But this is the 3rd tool album on the additional list, that’s more than enough TOOL thank you!

Tool are alright, I find them a bit overrated though.

10,000 Hours was preferable to Fear Innoculum, especially Wings Pt 1 and 2, and I also liked Intension near the end. Same comment as yesterday really, and unfortunate that they arrive back to back; I like them just about enough but not a lot, and might like them more if I listened deeper and for longer. Some of that might be backed up by the fact I liked the second of their back to back suggestions more, I dunno, higher 3/5 than yesterday.

Progressive metal, alternative metal. Aburrido. Un 2.

Lateralus should be on this list. Aenima should be on this list. This album, no. I was honestly shocked when this album came out just how much of a drop in quality there was following Lateralus. Every so often I'll revisit it just to make sure that I wasn't wrong, and every time I'm reminded to go with my gut.

Too many Tool albums in these recommendations, or at least, three in a short space of time. This one wasn't as interesting or fun I'm afraid.

👎🏻

I get that the people who love Tool really love Tool and I'm happy for them. But Tool bore the very pants off me. DNF because I'm literally not going to learn or experience anything new.

Epic but mostly in the sense of being overly long, overly self-serious and tedious in the extreme. Sure, it's a juggernaut but of gudge-gudge-gudging guitars and bouncy, trampoline-like drums and vocals that sound like a VO audition for a bad horror movie. One can neither abide nor in good faith recommend for list proper (though switching out with any Metallica record would be like for like, in one’s view, a fair swap indeed).