TOOL: Still Writing A New Album, Out Eventually

As Tool fans approach the six-year mark since the release of Fear Inoculum, the band’s fifth studio album, hopes for a quicker follow-up are understandably mixed. The 2019 record ended a 13-year wait and went on to top the charts, but the group’s infamously meticulous and slow-moving creative process has left many wondering whether history is set to repeat itself.

In a new interview with Loudwire Nights, frontman Maynard James Keenan and guitarist Adam Jones gave a rare update on where things currently stand. Bassist Justin Chancellor had previously teased that the band would be blocking off three months to work on new material, but according to Jones, Tool isn’t fully in writing mode just yet.

“We want to get another record out and play, do what we do,” Jones explained. “The three of us have been jamming. I don’t know if you go, oh, the writing process has started. It’s always there. Between preparing for an upcoming tour or whatever we’re doing, there’s points where someone goes, oh, I got this and I got this. But I think we’re going to dive deep soon.”

Keenan added with his trademark brevity: “Writing, I guess. You guys are busy, Adam?”

The band recently participated in the Back to the Beginning sendoff concert for the late Ozzy Osbourne and the legendary Black Sabbath. For Keenan, that experience underscored the urgency of creating while time still allows: “You know, life is short. You just got to fucking do it now. There is no waiting. You don’t know what’s coming tomorrow. You got to do it now. So that’s what we’re doing.”

According to Tool bassist Justin Chancellor in a recent interview with Summa Inferno, the band’s instrumental members planned to lock themselves in the studio for three months following their festival appearance in Mexico this March to work on new material.

“When we get back from [our] trip — I think it’s only three weeks we’re gonna be [there] — but we have already shared with each other a lot of these new ideas, but when we get back, we’re actually gonna dedicate the next three months after that in the studio to organizing our ideas.”

Looking ahead, Chancellor suggested that new Tool material could arrive within the next two years, though he admitted that it’s still unclear what form that release might take.

“Yeah, well, the other thing is the climate of releasing music has completely changed… We’ve talked about releasing a single, just one song — we could do that. We could also release an EP… Or you could release a single and then another single, another single, and then after a year of releasing singles, you could put them all together on a record and make that an album.”

While no official timeline or format has been confirmed, Chancellor emphasized the band’s drive to move forward creatively rather than rely on their existing catalog: “We’re just kind of making it up. But I can tell you that we absolutely have to write new music to continue doing what we’re doing… So it’s coming. Trust me.”