New Tool Album Hits A Roadblock? Frontman Maynard James Keenan Says Maybe
Has the new tool album hit a roadblock? Frontman Maynard James Keenan seems to have hinted so. Maynard was attending CBS‘s The Strombo Show when he was asked about his ongoing projects. To this Maynard replied that there were some issues with some of his projects. Tool fans have inferred he meant the new Tool album.
Maynard was then explicitly asked about the delays in his ongoing projects. To this, he replied with the following.
“For some things yes, I see a plan, and others I just see roadblocks.”
It is now rumored that the band have finished recording all of the music for the new album and are waiting for Maynard to write the songs and add the vocals to the tracks. Adam Jones teased the band’s fans on Instagram last week when he posted a photo with a hidden schematic to a new Tool song.
Bassist Justin Chancellor, in an interview with Bass Player from December, had addressed the delay. Despite being frustrated with repeated questions about the upcoming album, Justin tried his best to assure the fans that the album was coming and that they needed to be patient about it.
“We’ve narrowed things down to big groups of ideas. For the past few months we’ve been working on one of the newer songs fairly exclusively. We get the gist of it and find the main themes that make up the skeleton between verses and choruses.”
“Everyone knows we take our time.”
“All I can say is that we’ll go back Monday and do our best to finish it for you.”
It’s been almost over 10 years since Tool released their last album 10,000 Days back in 2006. Tool fans were ecstatic, when in 2016, rumors started floating around that Tool were working on a new double album rumored to be released soon. But these rumors were soon put to rest, at least for a while, by frontman Maynard James Keenan, who called them “dumb” in a tweet.
— Maynard J Keenan (@mjkeenan) July 16, 2016
Noting Tool’s history of trolling its fans before the release of any new album, one example being the time the band posted fake track listings before the release of 2001’s Lateralus, the fans chose to remain optimistic. And soon, separate revelations from bassist Justin Chancellor, drummer Danny Carey, and guitarist Adam Jones confirmed their optimism.
For many years, there have been rumors circulating about why Tool hadn’t released a new album in all this time. One popular rumor was that frontman Maynard James Keenan was so frustrated and indifferent with the fans of the band that he didn’t want Tool to make any new materials at all. This particular rumor along with others were laid to rest in 2014 when during an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, drummer Danny Carey and guitarist Adam Jones revealed that the causes behind the delay were actually an ongoing lawsuit and family commitments. Jones had said the following about the long and tiring lawsuit.
“Every time we’ve gotten close to going to trial, it gets postponed and we’e wasted money and time and it has just drained our creative energy.”
In 2015, the band won the lawsuit. Adam soon revealed that the band were now focusing on getting a new album out as soon as possible. It’s been almost two years now, and with the latest news regarding the possible roadblock, fans are disappointed. Tool have always had a certain enigma about them, and the band’s followers wouldn’t be surprised if this 10-year delay actually results in something pretty spectacular.
Tool played in the Aftershock Festival in October of last year. The band also played a new song called “Decem,” which had for long been rumored to be the title track of their upcoming album.
[Featured Image by Felix Marquez/AP Images]
