“Vicarious” by Tool

"Vicarious" was the first taste of Tool's fourth album, 10,000 Days, hitting commercial radio on April 17, 2006, which happened to be Maynard James Keenan's 42nd birthday. At seven minutes it was hardly built for the airwaves, yet it debuted at number two on both Billboard's Alternative Songs and Mainstream Rock Tracks charts.

Danny Carey, Justin Chancellor, Adam Jones and Keenan wrote it together and produced it themselves, with Joe Barresi recording and mixing. It's prog-metal as a slow-motion avalanche: interlocking riffs that stutter and lurch in odd shapes, drums tumbling in cascades, a low end that grinds like tectonic plates, and a vocal that stays cool and cutting at the center until the whole thing builds to a crushing, hypnotic climax.

It earned a Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.