I think Maynard's voice sounds amazing on the album, and Vicarious really demostrates that. By the final chorus he's just inhabiting that song, cinematically, as an actor would approach a role I guess. Whether he's doing a whisper or a scream he just never pulls his punches with the vocals. The "new world order" line from Pet sent chills up my spine the first time I heard it (still does), and there are parts in Vicarious and Right In Two that do the same. Rosetta Stoned and Wings For Marie are growing on me fast as well.

I tried to do a review of the whole disc, hopefully I did it justice. It's going to take a while to digest it all.

http://hammeroftheblogs.blogspot.com/2006/05/10000-days.html

Pull your head in...

Maynard sings an F# over a riff which is based on a D chord and happens to contain an F. So basically what's happening is Maynard is singing the major 3rd over a predominantly minor tonal centre... something that Tool have been doing for YEARS. This particular harmonic structure is a signature stamp of TOOL, that has pretty much defined their sound. You'll hear the same thing in: Sweat, Prison Sex, Undertow, 4degrees, Stinkfist, Eulogy, The Patient, And loads of others that I'm not anal enough to go through and list here.

I agree but careful with the Aussie bashing, eh?

I love it when ignorant people with strong opinions make posts like this...Maynard is an incredible singer for many reasons...his range both dynamically and tonaly alone set him apart from all the other shit you hear on the radio now a days...i've never sat in on a Tool recording session, but after seeing them live 4 times, i know his pitch is great...not to mention, auto tune will do nothing for a vocal as harsh as his without it being blatantly apparant...if you dont like his voice, great, you have that right...but dont be starting threads about shit you know nothing about...top 3 rock singers of our generation...patton, cornell, maynard....not in that order

In my opinion what makes a singer a singer so great is the ability to have a unique voice that sets them apart from any other, and blend it with the ability to adequately match the music. I really cannot think of someone that can match Maynard's voice, even though there are those that try. His voice just stands out.

What truly amazes me about Maynard's voice is how well it blends in with the music. Some people are talking about how it's not that great as just a single voice, but that's not at all what it is. His voice blends in with the instruments perfectly, and that's why Maynard is such a good singer IMO.

agreed

Here's another vote for Patten and MJK to be the two strongest vocalists EVER! OMG, Angeldust! There are times I worry that his lungs are just gonna plop right out of his mouth onto the studio floor ... and STILL on tone and ANGRY! Has anyone seen Patten live? When he gets into the intense screams he 'gets into position' almost squats all the way to the floor and lets it loose.

Damn, I read third_eye96's post and was about to comment when I read your post.

Tool has indeed been using this for years, and it's a beautiful sort of dissonance that really doesn't sound all that dissonant but more colorful, in my view.

It's an idea based on chromatic harmony rather than diatonic harmony that is actually a staple of a lot of heavy metal and harder rock. It's also a blues staple.

Which is why it makes me so upset that people say Tool always play in the key of D minor, when in fact they usually just use that as a tonal base for far more interesting harmnoic ideas.

I think that maynard is amazing. Yes he IS getting older. At coachella I thought a few parts were a bit rough and he was "speaking" some parts as opposed to singing them (JAMBI for one). I also thought that Adam was a bit rusty in a few parts of the songs (anyone else hear this?). He almost completely lost the timing of Lateralus towards the end but pulled it back together, and there were a few other mistakes here and there. Anyone hear JC's botched bass note on the intro to Schism??

My point of pointing this out IS NOT to bash them. They are absolutely amazing, but alas, even though some of us really DONT want to believe this, they are human. I play in a band myself (a professional band). I have major studio and live experience. I for one can't imagine what their nerves must have felt like before hitting that stage with 60,000 people awaiting their first live performance in how many years??? They must have been nearly sick. ESPECIALLY with the high level they know that people place them on. AND knowing all the bootleggers who will no doubt get EVERY SINGLE LIVE SHOW they do on tape. The odds of a few mistakes happening are certain. I actually enjoy hearing the rough parts (the video of MJK tossing the mic on Parabola and AJ forgetting the solo to Third eye are my favorites) because I PERSONALLY hold them on a high level and as a musician who strives to be amazing it can be frustrating to see a band as good as tool. They never fail to blow my mind. The little mistakes just remind me they ARE human. Anyone that is a pro musician can relate to this I'm sure.

As for Maynard not sounding good if you took the band away, ever hear the last track off of Emotive (i know the album was kinda lame, but come on)? What is that like 4 harmonies he pulls off? Any vocalist I play that for is blown away, regardless of liking the cover itself, just basing it off of pure talent. And for whoever said that it's so easy to sound amazing in the studio that just isn't really true. Effects and autotune can only do so much, and when you abuse them you can REALLY hear it and tell (kid rock anyone?). I've NEVER heard anything like that on a tool album. I actually think most of the vocals on 10,000 days are quite dry compared to an album like Aenima. He isn't hiding anything.

I'd also like to point out that I saw Tool at the Brixton Academy in London while I was over there and they OPENED with Ticks and Leeches (well after DC tore up the drums a bit). Although it's one of my least favorite tool songs they pulled it off amazingly welll as well as the rest of their set (I finally got to see them play my personal fave, jimmy ;)).

Point is Tool are amazing, period. We all know this. ANY musician with talent knows this as well. Go watch a f'in cover band play tool (make sure it's one who does a song other than Sober) and you tell me how great you think maynard is. I see em all the time. The best ones can usually nail the music pretty well, it's ALWAYS the vocalist who loses it or can't hang.

MJK is one of the G.O.A.T. For sure.

No. I have never listened to the song.

No, systematic, I have never actually listened to the song... ever.

Clearly...

I've been playing and studying music my whole life including a stint at university (albeit briefly). I have a variety of live and studio experience, everything from orchestral to bigband to metal to ska you name it.


that is PRECISELY the issue. I'll spell it out for you.
I wasnt referring to the CD, I was referring to the bootleg video that everyone has seen, the one where maynard leaves the stage at the beginning of the song. His voice is heavily distorted with flange, gain and whatever else, yet it's easy enough to hear that hes NOT screaming.
he is speaking, whispering, whatever.
The performance on the CD is great, balls-out, almost brutal. However, my point is this;
why the fuck did he record it that way, if he can't (or isn't willing to) pull it off live?

if this is the most vocally challenging album performance you have ever heard, you really need to broaden your taste in music.

:-)

piss poor? The singing finished that song off, no other type of singing would have portrayed the message as well as what maynard has done. It is raw emotion, and that is all you can really ask for isn't it?

^refer my previous post

okay so nobody can say that maynard had done a piss poor attempt at anything! i mean no one could ever copy him! nobody is as creative as this band is so until you can some how sing like maynard, drum like danny, play like justin and play like adam. You can just pop that cock in you mouth and shut the hell up!

this is an opinion forum.
i was expressing my disappointment when i heard maynards attempt at ticks & leeches live. it was clear that he was trying not to ruin his voice for the rest of the night. this, i think is poor, since practically everything tool has ever recorded, they have pulled off live. in my opinion....
this is different to maynard fucking up or missing a note, it is akin to him putting in only 50%.

man think about how many times he's sung it, as some ppl have said he said it hurts for him to have to talk after he sings it like off the record, in the studio you can do it over and over until its right, live its just one chance!

my point exacty :-)

the way you make it sound is as though "maynard sucks, he could never do anything, like he does in the studio!" imo

GTFO!

I personally believe Maynard DOES possess the greatest voice given to a singer period.
Heard him live and have to agree he mimiced the album stuff perfectly. Let's face it, anyone who can sing with such angelic beauty as in Ænema but with such sublime but perceivable sarcasm has that something you need to be considered a GREAT singer.

Live and studio stuff is completely different. when making an album, a musician shouldnt even be thinking about live stuff. they are seperate things. Whats the point in making a CD if it sounds live?

well he has a full tour to do, who cares if he couldnt do T&L properly- he'd be voiceless after it if he gave it 100% like on the album.

You try to sing 2-3 hours a day for a month keeping your voice mostly perfect, and then tell maynard he sucks

Terrific! I was at that show, and I agree in hindsight. Though at the time I had no idea who Mike Patton was. He really was being a dick there -- and the whole gas mask singing business... I mean, it's hard to play Arco, as the acoustics aren't that great IMO, and Tomahawk's sound was shit, if I recall correctly.

Shit, I still wear my old Lateralus T-shirt from that show. Good times.

i'm not saying maynard sucks, i just didnt like how he performed ticks & leeches live.
end.

Well obvioulsy Maynard didn't like it either ;p. It's not like they were constantly playing this song... They just knew it wasn't meant to be played live, but probably trying it as a challenge.. It's really too bad because the drumming in this track is tight.

yeah. they dedicated it to fantomas who had been opening for them that tour.
he should have invited patton on stage to do the vocals, now that would have been awesome ;-)

I agree iwth most the things said in this post. Maynard standing alone isn't much, a strong singer, but he shines in his ability to be an instrument rather than just hte lyrics. I have to mention though, Eric Clapton is one of the great vocalists of our time. I know he wasn't necessarily in one hard rock band, but still he has to be mentioned. Listening/watching his MTV Unplugged performance, his voice is deep, emotional and absolutely flawless. Lots of people have said he sounds liek a black man a lot of the time, and thats a good thing. Deep strong bellowing voice.

hmm.. my workmate just did a deep strong bellowing fart. that can't be a good thing.

I like the ending vocals of Vicarious.
Everytime I listen to this song, I'm looking forward to the ending vocals.

Vicarious is the best song on 10000 Days, and the ending is the best part of the song AND the cd. The Pot is also great from beginning to end.

The problem with the other songs is that they are not good enough to maintain, before the eventual crescendo. And that is the main problem with 10000 Days, because in all the other CD's, there ARE great moments before the end.

Sheer brilliance, the way you put it!

i think he does pretty damn good considering the way he uses his voice on the songs.

I think it is all based on opinion. If you like his voice and think it's good, then it's good. It doesn't realy matter what others think about it, because that's their opinion.

and personally I find his voice great. I like the way it sounds, the notes he can hit, and the different styles he can sing.

I prefer the minor note at the end of Jambi to "I might as well be gone".

No, Maynard's voice is awesome. If you disagree, you're a LIAR.

you ever see the video they did for Fell on Black Days? Its like studio live version. VERY good. so sad...

Yeah, they even played it on the radio more often than the original, after awhile. I miss Soundgtarden >weep<

maynard have this unik voice,if you listen to tori amos feats maynard you will be abel to here an amasing voice comes out of maynard and when he feats david bowie in (bring me the disco king).i dont think it is a coinsident they chuoce maynard to do vocal.and another thing ,so far i have never herd eny other cover band,being abel to preform a disent tool cover number .(then the voice agein).

It's also the way he can scare the shit out of you one second, and then have you contemplative the next. For example, in "Flood" when he's singing "So I take what is mine! And hold what is mine! Suffocate what is mine! And bury what's mine!", I NEVER fail to piss my pants. Then a moment later, he's subdued, "I was wrong, this changes everything." And I'm empathetic, puzzled by his conundrum.

Its not just "does he hit the notes", "does he have the range", "can he maintain live", etc etc. What is this, American Idol? Its the way he DELIVERS his lines like he's, well, digging deep inside you.