Tool's first album since 2006 Fear Inoculum is shaping up to an absolutely gargantuan deal. This a combination of the title track recently breaking that 13 year-long silence, Tool's music finally hitting streaming services and breaking some records, and the pretty insane physical packaging that will house the CD version of Fear Inoculum. Though of course fans are still chomping at the bit for an explanation on why exactly it took 13 years.
Tool guitarist Adam Jones recently sat down with Revolver to say that it's basically no one member's fault and that everyone has lives outside the band.
Thank you for not saying, "Your album is 12 years in the making." [Laughs] But yeah, it has been a while. I never felt pressure, though. I felt anxiety because they would blame our singer, and it's not his fault. We all have our own things going on — lives, families, other projects, other interests — so it's ready when it's ready. But I appreciate the dedication from our fans — the very strong dedication. [Laughs] But the record turned out cool and it's very different than our last record. I think that's what we all wanted.
Jones also talks about the process of writing a new album and how that can be a bit laborious.
Well, we're older. It's harder to get us all in one room. Everyone's got their own thing going, so we kind of wait until everybody's ready to start the process. And that can be on and off between other stuff. But I don't know how different it is. It's different but the same, same but different. We really do try to rediscover why we're a band and why we started and that fire that's burning inside us. We're trying to rekindle or restart that. But it's pretty much the same. We jam stuff to death and edit and use stuff we jammed a long time ago with stuff that's new. At some point, Maynard comes in and starts laying lyrics down and we start recording.
No word on if we can expect another single between now and August 30. In the meantime, maybe go enjoy two songs titled "Invincible" and "Descending" as live bootlegs (until the actual studio versions hit our ears).
