On Friday, August 30th, music-lovers the world over will finally receive something they’ve dreamed of for years; a new Tool album.
Arriving more than 13 years after their last album, it’s safe to say that this album has been a long-awaited affair, with years of rumours, innuendo, and broken promises littering the path to its eventual release.
Now though, with a clear view of the upcoming release date, we’ve decided to take a look back at everything that had led up to this moment, documenting the constant back and forth between band members, notable moments, and everything else fans have had to endure in the exceedingly-long wait between albums.
Check out Tool’s Opiate EP:
2008
By February of 2008, Tool’s fourth album – 10,000 Days – was nearing its second anniversary. While fans were undoubtedly already eager for new material, the band seemed keen to oblige, with Maynard revealing at the Grammy Awards that “we’re going to start writing the new Tool record right away,” before noting it was time for the band to “buckle down”.
2010
Even with a tour from Maynard’s Puscifer project underway, things were still looking good in March of 2010, with the band’s newsletter revealing that “members of the band are still in the process of writing new material (three days a week).”
Despite the inclusion of a chant “to help speed up the process”, nothing eventuated in 2010, with fans beginning to get a taste for the disappointment that would follow them throughout the years.
2011
Given the five-year gaps between the likes of Ænima, Lateralus, and 10,000 Days, 2011 was shaping up to be a year of potential news for the group’s dedicated followers.
After all, with the band kicking off the year with a headline slot on Australia’s Big Day Out festival, this could only mean that new tunes were on the way, right?
Sadly, no Tool album arrived, though we were treated to the second album from Puscifer, with Conditions Of My Parole being released in October.
Despite this, rumours of new material began to swirl, as reports of Tool entering the studio soon surfaced online, only to be shot down days later, with the revelation that drummer Danny Carey was in fact recording with Volto! instead.
Check out Tool’s Undertow:
2012
As the predicted end of the world drew closer in 2012, many were left wondering if such an event would arrive before new Tool material did.
Thankfully, the year kicked off with Carey explaining in March that the new album was “coming together” slowly. “I’m hoping we get in the studio by June or July and start tracking,” he noted. “That’s the plan anyway.”
You might be starting to sense a bit of a theme here, because while nothing concrete came of this news, fans closed out the year with a newsletter from the band’s webmaster hinting that the record was “more than half way” complete.
“I heard a lot of new Tool music (sans Maynard). This was the most new material that I’ve heard so far, although a few of the riffs and arrangements were familiar. So, what did I think? Dare I say that it sounded like… Tool (some of it reminiscent to earlier Tool stuff, with other parts pushing the envelope), and I assume that it will sound even more like Tool once the vocal melodies, etc. have been added.
“To answer your next question, I cannot say how far along in the writing process the band is. If I had to GUESS, I would say more than half way (and keep in mind that in the past, at least, the writing went faster once the first few [more complex] songs were finished).”
2013
It didn’t take long for the bad news to rain down upon us in 2013, with Maynard revealing in February that there would be “no new disc” that year. “I have not written any songs. So, no, there is nothing,” he explained.
Adding to the pain of this delay, Danny Carey also revealed that progress had been halted thanks to his involvement in a scooter accident earlier in the year.
“It was over in the San Fernando Valley,” he revealed. “I was just turning to go on the freeway and I think I hit some antifreeze or oil or something. The wheels just slipped right out from under me and I hit the pavement really hard.”
On the plus side though, 2013 turned into a huge year of appearances for Aussie fans of Maynard, with A Perfect Circle making their return to the country, while Puscifer announced an Australian debut. Just months later, local fans were treated to Tool’s latest visit to the country to date.
Check out Tool’s Ænima:
2014
By the beginning of 2014, we were already getting close to the eighth anniversary of 10,000 Days, so to say that fans were getting a bit antsy was a bit of an understatement. So when guitarist Adam Jones told fans that “the record’s done and it’s coming out tomorrow” at a show in Portland, you could imagine the excitement that it generated.
“Last night, Adam Jones, in a private conversation with fans attending the Portland Tool concert, joked that the band’s new album was not only finished but coming out the next day,” a statement from the band later clarified. “Unfortunately, his off-the-cuff joke was taken out of context.”
Months later, the band revealed why things were taking so long, discussing that an ongoing lawsuit was in fact hindering progress.
“The fans are pissed at us,” Jones explained. “And while part of me is selfish and goes, ‘I’m not necessarily doing it for them,’ it’s time that they understand what’s going on.”
As Rolling Stone explained, the “multi-level lawsuit” stemmed from “a claim that a Tool associate had made against the group, but it eventually spiraled into the labyrinthine legal equivalent of a Laurel and Hardy routine, amounting to ‘who’s suing whom.'”
“The whole thing is really depressing,” Danny Carey explained of the situation. “The bad thing is it’s really time consuming.
“As we’ve gotten older and our priorities have changed, it’s hard to get the band on a good, solid schedule as it is. People have kids now. And there’s lots of other things that pop up. To throw this into the mix, it makes everything that much worse and stresses people out.”
“Every time we’ve gotten close to trial, it gets postponed and we’ve wasted money and time,” Jones added. “It’s costing millions and millions and millions of dollars to defend us.”
While this was undoubtedly a devastating blow to hopes of a new album, fans at least began to breathe a sigh of relief knowing that there was indeed a good reason behind the lengthy delay, and that attempts at progress were continuously being made.
2015
2015 brought with it the revelation that the ongoing lawsuit against the band had been settled in their favour.
“We moved over to a North L.A. courthouse and we had a brand-new judge, who was fantastic,” Adam Jones told Yahoo Music. “You know what his name was? Randy Rhodes!
“I knew the power of metal, and my appreciation of metal was someday going to be like a guardian angel. But he was great. He came in and took over, and he’s the reason the whole thing is finally over.”
Later in the year, Jones explained that writing sessions for the new album were “wonderful”, adding, “Things are really flowing and going really well, and I’m just blown away at the stuff that’s coming together. I’m excited and can’t wait for it to be done.”
“It’s something I’ve been missing for a long time [laughs], that beautiful collaboration that we have because we’re all so different and have different tastes. But again, when you are all meeting in the middle and that thing you do that meets in the middle is just beautiful, it’s very rewarding. So yes, I’m very happy.”
Check out Tool’s Lateralus:
2016
As 2016 marked the 10th anniversary of 10,000 Days, things began to look more positive that a new record was indeed on the way, with the band’s webmaster revealing that the band are taking things very seriously in the studio.
“[Danny Carey, drummer] added that they were very close to knocking out another tune, and that as soon as it was finished, they would send a recording of it to Maynard [James Keenan],” the webmaster noted.
“When I asked if this was the song with the REALLY unique time signatures, he told me that they had already finished the music on that one. Okay, admittedly, not exactly stop the press news, but what can I say…”
“…other than that they are still grinding away on new material four days a week, and would be back at it later in the week.”
Later in the year, bassist Justin Chancellor revealed he was growing pretty tired of being asked about the new record, simply asking us to “just trust me, it’s going to be awesome,” he then follows. “It’s gonna happen, it’s in the oven. It’s cooking, it’s cooking.”
2017
As 2017 kicked off, things almost immediately looked as if the band were gearing up to something. While reports of their music coming to streaming services were rumoured, an update to their website gave fans something to talk about for quite some time.
As things continued, Chancellor explained that the new album was “about 90 percent there”, before Maynard appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast to open up about things in the studio, revealing that his way of working is different to the rest of his bandmates, which often results in a stalemate.
“I’m always butting heads with the guys in the band to get things done, it’s just not their process,” he explained. “This is just the way that they have to do it, and I have to respect it.”
Before the year was out though, Danny Carey gave us one last piece of good news, explaining that the band’s new album will “definitely” be out in 2018.
“We’ll probably have it done in the first half [of the year] if things go as planned,” Carey admitted. “There’s setup times and manufacturing – I can never predict all that, it seems like it’s constantly evolving. [What time of year it will be out] I can’t tell you.”
Check out Tool’s 10,000 Days:
2018
Following comments made from Tom Morello that the new Tool album is sounding “epic, majestic, symphonic, brutal, beautiful, tribal, mysterious, deep, sexy and VERY Tool,” the positive updates kept on coming in 2018, with Maynard giving us a peek behind the curtain with a post on Twitter.
“Started getting music files from the boys w the word FINAL in the title a few months ago after 11 years of begging,” he began. “That in theory means the tracks wont change out from under me while I’m trying to write stories and melodies to them. In theory. Still waiting for the FINAL on 1, but way ahead.”
“Words & Melodies 100% DONE on all but 1. Someday we’ll track them. Long way from the finish line, but at least we’re closer.”
Before long, the band shared four minutes of a new track (their first taster of new tunes in years), while Maynard joked during a gig he had begun “begging” his bandmates to finish off the new record.
Although Maynard is usually the bearer of bad news in these situations, the enigmatic frontman managed to shock almost everyone by revealing that the band’s new album would be here in 2019.
“I wouldn’t be here without you guys, so thank you very much for all that,” Maynard stated during an acceptance speech at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods awards. “A lot of work’s being done, a lot of work’s been done. I’ll go on record now saying you’re gonna see some new music next year.”
Considering the fact the frontman is usually the one with the conservative guesses and statements when it comes to new material, fans went into 2019 feeling a little more positive than they would have been usually.
2019
As we now know, 2019 is to be the year in which will go down in history amongst Tool fans the world over, serving as the year that things finally began to happen after so much waiting.
While Danny Carey told a fan that the record would likely arrive in “mid-April”, Maynard soon countered this by revealing this was indeed false, and that his “Best Ballpark Guess” meant that the release date would be “somewhere between Mid May and Mid July.”
After performing the likes of ‘Descending’ and ‘Invincible’ during a run of US festival shows, Tool formally announced that their new album would arrive on August 30th, before hitting streaming services following the revelation that the record would be titled Fear Inoculum.
With the album’s title track and track listing revealed to fans earlier this month, it certainly seems as though Tool are indeed gearing up to release Fear Inoculum on Friday. Let’s just hope a spanner (yes, that’s a tool joke) doesn’t get thrown into the works in the meantime.
Check out ‘Fear Inoculum’ by Tool:
