Is it just me or does anyone else listen to this CD and only hear 8 songs, or tracks? This isnt a complaint, i love the new cd, but it seems as though most of te songs go together. For example
wings and 10,000 days of course
Lost keys and Rosetta stoned
intension and right in two

all six of thse songs flow right into eachother without pauses. at first i thought that intension and right in two were separate songs but after reading lyrics and listening more, they clearly have similar ideas and connect very well. i think that this is just one more reason that this new album kicks some serious ass.

Have you ever listened to a Tool album before?

Yeah, it's six long songs with The Pot as the interlude/relief.

some of the best albums made only have 5-6 songs on them i.e. atom heart mother / meddle

My only criticism of the album would be that it could use one more 5 - 6 minute long song. They could have dropped or significantly cut down Viginti Tres, shaved a bit from the start of Intension and perhaps omitted the first thirty seconds or 1 minute of Lost Keys.

Surely they would have had enough left over riffs to come up with something else if they had wanted to. Alas, I guess this didn't flow into their concept of what they wanted the album to be. Either that or a fiasco ensued (most of you probably know what I mean here). Apparently this is what killed the possibility of Thirteenth Step being a double album, or even a lengthy single album for that matter.

Granted, even if you cut out LK and 23 altogether, this disc is a lot longer than most albums. I don't have a major problem with V.T. - it's fine to close the record, despite it being very similar to Faaip. But in the end, it still would have been nice to have another tune that could stand on its own ala Vicarious, Jambi or The Pot. In my opinion, this would have truly elevated the album to 'epic' status.

Please elaborate/explain what you mean by this

Yeah, I think Lateralus only had 8 **full blown lyrical** (yes, I enjoy disposition and triad) songs:
Grudge
Patient
Schism
Parabol/a
Ticks & leeches
Lateralus
Reflection

And 10,000 days had 7:
Vicarious
Jambi
Wings/10kdays
The Pot
Rosetta Stoned
Intension
Right in Two (I think Intension and Right in Two are separate enough musically to count by themselves)

If Lateralus has 8 songs out of 13 tracks and 10,000 days has 7 songs out of 11 tracks, don't they have about the same music to filler ratio?

i agree also. even an instrumental song would be better than V.T. Just like the band playing live - there is too much filler.

Hmm, it'd probably be better to compare total time of "songs" and "not songs," rather than the number of tracks. Seems to me like tracks are rather obscure/poinless when it comes to these two Tool Cds.

If I remember correctly, during promotion for Thirteenth Step, Billy Howerdel stated that everyone was basically stunned when Maynard came back from his Lateralus duties with Tool and rejected a major portion of the songs that Billy had written while he was away. He said that he had intended Thirteenth Step to be a double album and it was very difficult to work on the new songs when Maynard returned, as he was having trouble putting words to them and favored the more aggressive songs, whereas Billy wanted the album to have some more of the ethereal, softer stuff that was featured on Mer De Noms. The result was that Billy stated in interviews that he would still release the music he had written - either he would sing himself or he mentioned that he might attempt to find a female vocalist to do them, as he had originally intended for Mer De Noms. He wasn't sure at that time whether this music would be released under his own name as a solo effort or as the next APC record, without MJK.

That being said, I don't propose that this sort of situation occurred with 10,000 Days. However, one must consider that Justin mentioned that a wealth of material was left over from Lateralus and Danny also commented (a while ago) that their follow-up *could* have been a double album. No way to know what happened really, but the point of all this is that there surely should have been enough material to include another 5 or 6 minute tune on this record.

Someday, I would like to see Tool release an 80 minute album that straight out rocks with stacked stand-alone tracks one after the other. An all-out aural assault. No interludes, paired tracks, filler, or what have you. This isn't to say that there can't be atmosphere within the songs ... you know what I mean.

That would be like having a 2 hours dvd of hardcore porn with the best looking chics you can imagine :-) It would in other words be orgasmic! But Tool are to unconventional to make an album that is such straightforeward. They will propably always have interludes and 'weird' parts on their albums.

Wait, wait... Billy thought Mer de Noms was "soft and ethereal"? I'd love to see what he had planned for Thirteenth Step in that case.

well, you have Orestes, and Three Libras, and Brena, and Over... and even Sleeping Beauty is pretty soft and ethereal... I'd call magdelena ethereal but not soft.

i personally get a feeling from this record that the length between next albums won't be near as long and we may see some of that other material show up... i predict a new album and possibly may be final album within 2-3 years tops especially with no more apc.

I turn the album off after track 5.

Sucks to be you.

if tool didn't get you this release it just means you are an odd little mutant creature ;)