As the Soundwave 2016 lineup drip feed continues to whip punters into a frenzy, festival boss AJ Maddah has dropped an absolutely massive clue as to who will top the bill for next year’s instalment of Australia’s premier hard rock event.

As FasterLouder reports, responding to a curious fan on his beloved Twitter page, Maddah confirmed that next year’s headliner has never played the festival before, which rules out a considerable number of bands and leaves just a few potential acts.

Maddah has been busy ruling out potential headliners since before the dust settled on Soundwave 2015, but the latest revelation rules out repeat appearances from past headliners like Metallica, Linkin Park, Blink-182, and System of a Down.

You can also rule out the likes of Deftones and Nine Inch Nails, while Maddah has already given a characteristic ‘nope’ to Muse and Rammstein. Black Sabbath recently announced their own tour and Maddah shot down those crazy Guns N’ Roses rumours.

It’s also important to remember that Maddah was asked whether the headline act has ever played the festival before, not headlined, which means we can rule out any acts that have grown to headliner status since last playing Soundwave.

So who does that leave? Well, at the moment the band in the lead of the Soundwave ’16 headliner race is Tool. Maddah has never specifically ruled out the alternative legends, saying simply that they would have to release a new album before venturing Down Under again.

Fans of the band will know that a new Tool album has quagmire for a while, but some promising signs that a fresh LP is on the way have emerged in recent months and as FasterLouder note, there’s an even bigger clue that the band are planning something big.

In the band’s most recent fan newsletter, Tool’s live video designer, Breckinridge ‘Breck’ Haggerty, revealed that he’s been working with lighting director Mark ‘Junior’ Jacobson and the band on a new stage production designed specifically for festival shows.

The new design will have its debut at the Monster Mash in Arizona next month, but the band’s festival schedule is otherwise empty, which is strange considering they’ve just invested in a brand new, extravagant festival stage show.

Another potential headliner are recently reunited heavy metal veterans Disturbed, who topped the Australian album charts last month after returning from a four-year hiatus. Maddah has previously stated that he’s been trying to book the Chicago outfit for years.

However, it’s arguable whether Disturbed will prove a big enough draw to make the festival “sell out instantly”, a claim Maddah previously made about next year’s Soundwave headliner. Thus, all eyes are currently on Tool.

Organisers have so far unveiled the names of seven acts bound for Soundwave 2016: Bullet for My Valentine, Dead Letter Circus, Failure, Refused, Northlane, Lordi, and most recently, UK metalcore favourites Bring Me The Horizon.

Organisers are set to announce several more Soundwave 2016 acts in the coming week before unveiling the full first round lineup announcement, comprising some 22 bands, towards the end of this month.