TOOL – 10,000 Days [Remastered 2019] *Exclusive*

It finally will happen; after innumerable delays alt-prog-metal heavyweights’ TOOL got their fifth LP ready to be released at the end of the month, 13 years after their last studio album. But there’s more; finally all the band’s catalog has been remastered and it’s available digitally for the first time, 2019.
Titled “10,000 Days“, this is the last Tool studio album to date, however it clocks 13 years already and worth this remastering, overall quite clearer especially the drums.

For almost 25 years Tool’s hasn’t been available for streaming. The band stated that they doesn’t wanted their work consumed in random pieces, that’s why it wasn’t available on iTunes or Spotify, and they never allowed its recording label to split up its songs into a Greatest Hits collection.
This has changed now… it’s 2019.

It wasn’t “10,000 Days”, but five long years for Tool to get this fourth album completed. Yet it was worth the labor pains and wait to deliver. 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.

The album starts out with “Vicarious,” venomous song, a biting commentary on reality television, information stimulus overload, and living through others’ experiences. It’s only a brief glimpse of what’s to come, as “10,000 Days” also offers some of front man Maynard James Keenan most confessional lyrics.
The 17-minute epic “Wings for Marie / 10,000 Days” is an ode to his mother, who passed away during the band’s hiatus after dealing with paralysis from a stroke for 27 years. In a way, it’s voyeuristic to listen to someone working out family issues on disc, but Keenan does it in a way that’s sensitive and honest without ever treading the careful line between melodrama and sincerity.

Most of the songs are a bit long in the tooth when compared to most metal songs these days, but then again, Tool isn’t exactly just another band, either. With most songs clocking in over six minutes, the exercises in songwriting wouldn’t work as well with any other band.
But when you have such high-caliber musicianship as Danny Carey and Adam Jones anchoring drums and guitar, respectively, it’s hard to make a wrong turn. The anger that served as fuel for some of their greatest works has been replaced with calmer and more introspective moments as they patiently work out rhythm and melodic passages from one theme to the next.

That’s not to say the anger isn’t still there; it does check in from song to song, but like most of Tool’s fan base that has stuck with them through their first recordings, the group has evolved beyond that stage and has moved on to new concepts to explore.
So depending upon which Tool you are looking for, you’re either going to love or hate “10,000 Days”. If it’s the hard-driving band with an intellectually driven existential anger and fits of Hot Topic-laden angst, they’ve fled for other pastures. But if you’re looking for the Tool whose passion and introspection is complemented by intense emotion, brutal honesty, and musical maturity, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better elaborated progressive / metal album in recent time.

Tool’s four albums to date contain some of the richest, most immersive rock music of the past 25 years. And what should by all appearances be a cult band is actually a mainstream juggernaut: two of these albums debuted at Number One; and all are platinum certified.
If you never heard this band before, these 2019 remastered reissues are the perfect way to start.

01 – Vicarious
02 – Jambi
03 – Wings For Marie (Pt 1)
04 – 10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)
05 – The Pot
06 – Lipan Conjuring
07 – Lost Keys (Blame Hofman)
08 – Rosetta Stoned
09 – Intension
10 – Right In Two
11 – Viginti Tres

Maynard James Keenan – vocals
Adam Jones – guitar, sitar, art director
Justin Chancellor – bass guitar
Danny Carey – drums, percussion, tabla
guest musicians:
Bill McConnell – vocals on “Lipan Conjuring”
Pete Riedling – “Doctor Wasson” voice on Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)
Camella Grace – “Nurse” voice on Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)

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www.highresaudio.com/en/album/view/43fhxb/tool-10-000-days-remastered