10,000 days in the fire is long enough; you're going home.

Track: Wings For Marie (Pt 1) & 10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)

Artist: Tool
Album: 10,000 Days

Year: 2006

Genre: Progressive Rock

A rollercoaster of emotions. A musical piece in the uppermost echelon of epicness. I do not have words that can do this journey any justice.

If a music video lasts 17:26, and still garners almost 2 million views on YouTube, I do not need to convince you of anything. I'll let some handpicked comments on the video do the talking.

"The line '10,000 days in the fire is long enough. You're going home' will always bring chills to my bones and a tear to my eye. "

"This is why it takes a decade to make a new album.  Masterpieces aren't easy to make"

"No song destroys me quite the way this one does" 

 "I actually cried sitting next to my sleeping mother, happy to still have one, and you know, big men also do tend to cry."

"I sent this to my 68 year old mom who just lost her mother at 93. She's never heard Tool. She sent me an email saying, 'I cried so hard. For a boy to love his mother like that is why we are all here'. I cried a bit too and told her that even though I can't express myself the way he can she should know that no mom has ever been loved more than her."

"10:54 is when I start crying whenever I sing aloud this song, up until the vocals end.

God damnit. My mother is not even dead."

These are not songs that are radio-friendly. These are not songs you would sing in a car with your friends. But these are the songs we need to make sense of our life on this Earth, and make sense of everything we endure. We need these songs to retain our sanity and keep us going.

Maynard grapples with emotions ranging from guilt and denial to anger and acceptance, to wishing his mother well for the roads untraveled. But it seems like we are a passenger on this journey too.