10,000 Days Review

10,000 Days is Tool's fourth full-length studio album. It was released on April 28, 2006, in parts of Europe and April 29 in Australia, and on May 1 and May 2 in the United Kingdom and North America, respectively.

Following a five-year gap after their previous album, Lateralus, Tool's newest release was subject to much speculation and rumor, just as its predecessor had been. Rumors surrounding the band's activity reached a point where it was speculated that they had fabricated a "decoy" album, creating an elaborate hoax to fool audiences until the day of release. These rumors began to subside when a leaked copy of the album was illegally distributed via filesharing networks on or around April 18, 2006. 10,000 Days elaborates upon the sound of Tool's earlier records, while stylistically acknowledging the musical influence of the band's tourmates Fantômas and Meshuggah. The album has been given mixed reviews by many critics.

On March 27, Billboard posted an article about 10,000 Days, which mentioned that "Vicarious" would be the album's first single. "Vicarious" was officially released to radio on April 17, and entered the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks chart at #2. A music video for the song is tentatively scheduled to premiere in early July 2006.

However, an unofficial video for 'The Pot' appeared online around the first week of June 2006, directed by Morgan Routt.

The album was recorded at O'Henry Studios in Burbank, California as well as at The Loft and Grandmaster Studios in Hollywood, California. It was mixed at Bay 7 in North Hollywood and mastered at Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland, Maine. The May 2006 issue of Guitar World (released April 11th) featured an interview with guitarist Adam Jones discussing the new album. Jones explained that recording techniques for the album involved the use of a "pipe bomb microphone" (a guitar pickup mounted inside a brass cylinder), and a talk box guitar solo on the song "Jambi." Drummer Danny Carey triggered many of the sound effects on the album using electronic drums called Mandalas.

The CD 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 (including, for the first time since Undertow, a portrait of each band member). The glasses give the artwork 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 artwork's 3D modelling is credited to Ray Zone while the illustration and CGI concepts are credited to Grey (including several adaptations of his painting "Net of Being"). The CD face itself is decorated with stylized eyes, arranged in a seemingly logarithmic spiral towards 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 has instead released lyrics for previous Tool albums online following their respective releases. However, it is unknown if this trend will continue

In a May 5 post on the band's official website, it is 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."

On April 14, a 30-second clip from "Vicarious" aired on Pittsburgh radio station "105.9 The X". Subsequently, the entire song was leaked in WAV format when a private FTP server (used to distribute the song to radio stations) was left open without password protection for a few minutes.

The entire album was later leaked to the Internet, despite heavy security and strict conditions regarding listening parties and media previews. Exactly how the album came to be leaked is unknown. Some rumors had led fans to believe that the band leaked it as an attack on their record company. However, statements from Keenan in interviews expressing his distaste for internet leaks seem to contradict this.

On average, 10,000 Days received a cooler critical reception than previous Tool albums, with a mediocre Metacritic average of 63, reflecting a mixed reception. Critics giving 10,000 Days a relatively low score noted its abundance of ambient, filler tracks, and its at times unimaginative guitar riffs. Further, these critics deemed the length of the tracks excessive given their lack of musical development, evidenced by the repetitious nature of tracks such as "Vicarious" and "The Pot." While other critics praised the album, these favorable reviews note that the album is rather a "love or hate"-affair.