Fan poll: Top 5 songs on TOOL's '10,000 Days,' ranked | Revolver

Fan poll: Top 5 songs on TOOL's '10,000 Days,' ranked

See what prog-metal epic got voted No.1
Tool Press Photo

Tool's 2006 album was, for a long 13 years, the last thing the band had released. Therefore, fans had a lot of time to chew on the dense opus that is 10,000 Days, one of the band's most ambitious, musically technical and lyrically personal albums in their repertoire — as well as the home to some of their most popular songs.

One could make the argument that almost any of these 11 tracks is an album highlight (OK, probably not "Lipan Conjuring"), but we asked our readers to pick the single greatest cut on 10,000 Days. The top five vote-getters are ranked accordingly below.

5. "The Pot"

We at Revolver HQ thought this was a shoe-in for No. 1, but once the votes were tallied, it just barely cracked the top five! "The Pot" is arguably TOOL's biggest hit, earning their first No. 1 song on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, a Grammy nomination and bizarre words of affection from Justin fucking Bieber. So yeah, this is about as entry level as TOOL songs get, but that doesn't make it weaker than their other stuff. On the contrary: "The Pot" is knotty, explosive, soaring and super fucking catchy.

4. "Jambi"

So much of 10,000 Days saw TOOL stare down the intrepid technicality of their last album, Lateralus, and say, "Hold my beer." The album is packed with algebraic time signature changes and puzzling riff constructions, but then there're songs like "Jambi" that harken back to the heavier, more viscerally gripping pulse of their Nineties catalog. Simply one of the record's most exciting tracks, there's a reason "Jambi" has become a live staple for TOOL — It rips.

3. "Rosetta Stoned"

Leapfrogging time signatures. Polyrhythms. Outlandish percussion. Guitar riffs that gnash like a serial killer's blade — then swirl like fish in a koi pond, creating an uneasy swing between violence and serenity. Oblique lyrical references to aliens, DMT and spiritual revelations. Yep, this is a TOOL song, and one of their most quintessentially challenging at that. It's also a live white whale for diehards. According to Setlist.fm, the band have only played the 11-minute cut four times in the last 13 years.

2. "Right in Two"

The penultimate song on 10,000 Days has a poignant guitar lick, a freaky percussion breakdown and a magnificent slow build, but the lyrics are its most impressive part. "Right in Two" is a meditation on the foolish warring of humankind, written from the perspective of "angels on the sideline" who are baffled by the nihilistic selfishness of our species, and our moronic inability to peacefully share the bounties of the earth. "Father blessed them all with reason/And this is what they choose?" Maynard James Keenan muses. It's one of TOOL's most intellectually stimulating cuts.

1. "10,000 Days (Wings Pt. 2)"

Only TOOL heads appreciate the magnificent power of this song, and clearly, the heads turned out for this poll. The second movement in what's essentially one 17-minute journey, "10,000 Days (Wings Pt. 2)," is a heartbreakingly poetic ode to Keenan's mother, as the singer heralds her lifelong faith during her final days on earth, sets aside his own squabbles with a higher power, and makes a case for her entrance to heaven. The music provides a spectacular spiritual complement, but this is one of Keenan's greatest achievements as a vocalist and lyricist. We're thrilled it reached the No. 1 spot here.