For those of you who don’t already know about it 10,000 Days, the upcoming Tool album has leaked two weeks before the official release.
Like all pre-release leaks it has been swiftly followed by a debate on fansites and music forums the internet over. However, a band like Tool offers an interesting new spin on the debate over the morals of the illegal download. The argument against is no longer “by downloading you are taking money the band have earned after five years crafting a new release” it is instead “by downloading you aren’t getting the full experience that they spent five years crafting”. In the same breath the argument for is no longer “they make enough money anyway” or “I just want to sample them so I know I like them before I spend my money” it is instead “I want to hear it because I’ve been waiting for years, of course I’ll still buy it when it comes out”. Anyone who has a copy of Lateralus on CD or even Vinyl will know exactly why that is; owning a Tool album is a very different thing to having the songs from the album itself.
The band Tool are in such a unique position that they are world famous but underground, popular enough to gain a healthy income but not too popular that they suffer from ‘Nirvana Syndrome’ (where every angsty teenager looking for something to cling onto wears their hoodies and claims loyalty until death). Their fanbase is either committed or newly converted, either way fans either go in headfirst and wrap themselves in everything about each release (design detail, music, lyrics, meanings etc.) or else they dip their toe and get bored after a short period of time.
On May 1st I will be heading to my local record shop to pick up the physical release, by the sounds of the rumours going around it’s going to be even more elaborate than the last and with the help of Alex Grey I’m keeping mind open as to what that means.