Tool announced the name of the long-awaited follow up to their immaculate 2006 album 10,000 Days yesterday (29 July). It is titled Fear Inoculum.
The announcement, which was made on the band's Instagram page, also confirmed the prior rumoured release date of 30 August. And said that a lead single will be released before then.
The record will bravely sit alongside earlier great LP's Undertow, Ænima and Lateralus in their lauded discography.
"Thank you for your patience," the Tool post reads, referring to the 13 year wait between albums, and the fact the follow up has been teased since 2013.
There's a plethora of reasons for the hold up, not least drummer Danny Carey being in a Vespa crash that year. And in 2014 they revealed there was a multi-million dollar lawsuit against them, which they eventually won.
Speaking on episode 986 of The Joe Rogan Experience, singer and vineyard owner Maynard James Keenan, who only writes vocal melodies and lyrics once all the instrumentation is in place, added more comments to express what a nuanced situation the delay is. He spoke about his band members second guessing themselves: "It's a very tedious, long process." And implied the pressure of needing to deliver an album as good as the last played into the delay.
You might also like...
Despite the setbacks, we can all look forward to the new album and reap the rewards of a record that has had an uncompromising amount of time and energy put into it; a record that refreshingly doesn’t give in to conventional time pressure, and may yield something extraordinary as a consequence. We’ll have to wait and see.
As to what it will sound like, it will be a complete surprise. They have played 'Descending' and 'Invincible' from the album live, but drummer Carey said, shortly after they debuted the former, the studio version sounds nothing like the live version.
And Tom Morello has heard new Tool music, but that was without vocals and it's possible that the melodies will have changed since then. Nevertheless he had this to say:
“Had the honour of being the first outsider to hear new #TOOL music today!! Still just instrumentals but sounded epic, majestic, symphonic, brutal, beautiful, tribal, mysterious, deep, sexy and VERY Tool.”
Elsewhere, you can listen to the existing Tool back catalogue on streaming services for the first time ever starting Friday 2 August.
This Friday, Aug 2nd, the Tool catalog goes up on all digital and streaming formats. High five. #tool2019 pic.twitter.com/Vvt1UpXMvq
— TOOL effing TOOL (@Tool) July 29, 2019
View this post on Instagram
