2026 Anniversary Series 052: Tool – 10,000 Days

Scribed by Sandre the Giant Released: 1st May 2006 I remember vividly the first time I ever encountered Tool as a kid, seeing the videos for ‘Schism’ and ‘Parabola’ on Kerrang and MTV2 and being completely lost as to what the fuck was going on. The music was calling to me, but that aesthetic weirdness was too much and it took me a while to really accept the band into my life. But I remember it really clicking in the days just before I went to university in 2004, and when the rumours of a new Tool record finally began for 2006, they had become a real favourite of mine. ‘10,000 Days’ had a huge legacy to live up to though, with the band’s previous records being considered some of the most impressive and forward thinking albums ever written. I loved ‘Lateralus’ in particular, but I was really ready for some new Tool by this time. The release of ‘10,000 Days’, twenty years ago, would cement the band in my mind as one of metal’s real auteurs. Opener ‘Vicarious’ was enough on its own to…