rone | tool - 10,000 days

I'm not sure if it's fair to say that Tool has gone full-on prog in this album, but throw in the music with Marsvoltaesque track titles like "Lipan Conjuring", "Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)" and "Viginti Tres", well, if the shoe fits, put that motherfucker on and run track, as hannibaltaburss was wont to say long ago.

The packaging is unique, which has been a Tool trademark since Ænima; in this case, it's a cardboard case that has two inset lenses to allow you to enjoy the artwork in stereoscopic vision. It works if you fiddle around with distance, but it's a bit of a pain to get right.

The arrangement of the tracks is rather symmetrical; three average-length tracks, followed by an 11 minute track, another average track, a short track with chanting, another average track, another 11 minute, and three more average-length tracks to close the album (and the final track is another bit of weirdness and noise, yet another Tool trademark). It's good, but it doesn't have that one track you can point to and say, "This is incredibly fucking awesome," like "Ænema" or "The Grudge" or "Lateralus". I'm gonna have to listen more. It's good, for sure, but i'm not yet sure just how good.