Tool: Penning New Album!!

TOOL frontman Maynard James Keenan has told MTV that the band will soon be reconvening to start kicking around song ideas for the group's fifth studio album.

"We're going to start writing the new TOOL record right away," he said.

Keenan didn't say when he expected the band to start tracking the effort, when it might be ready for release or what it might sound like. But with TOOL's touring schedule wide open for the foreseeable future, he said it's time for the band to buckle down. He also elaborated on TOOL's creative process.

"The music always comes first," Keenan said. "We all get in a room, shut out all the extra noises from the other people and what goes on outside the room and just focus on the four of us, where we are that day. And then we just start making sounds."

TOOL has been nominated for several Grammy Awards over the years, and they've even won three: "Best Metal Performance" in 1997 and 2001; and "Best Recording Package" in 2006 for their most recent LP, "10,000 Days". This year, TOOL was up for "Best Hard Rock Performance" again, for the "10,000 Days" track "The Pot", but they lost the award to the FOO FIGHTERS.

hmm.... it's not april 1st yet...

fandango wrote: GoldenSpiral wrote: hmm.... it's not april 1st yet...   Still, I don't believe Tool rumors until I see the result.     such cynicism in one so young, Golden Spaniel...   it came, courtesy of Blabbermouth...though I agree we might still have to wait for some while....

i read somewhere that Danny Carey said they are looking to start writing sooner rather than later, just beacuse they are older now i guess.

Hmmm....these guys have a lot of work to do to redeem themselves I think...which I personally don't see happening.

It is kind of good to know it will not take 5 years for a new Lp. I hope this news is true....

1800iareyay wrote: CaincelaOreinim wrote: Hmmm....these guys have a lot of work to do to redeem themselves I think...which I personally don't see happening. How so? Tool sacrificed nothing, yet their last album was the most commercially appealing. Not that Tool have ever really been underground, despite their successful attempts to avoid the fame lifestyle. 10,000 Days was no weaker than their established classics. Now, if you don't like them, that's fine, but to say they need redemption is silly.

Agreed...I think Tool's 10,000 Days contained some of their most personal and emotional music to date.  I thought it was a stellar release.

1800iareyay wrote: CaincelaOreinim wrote: Hmmm....these guys have a lot of work to do to redeem themselves I think...which I personally don't see happening. How so? Tool sacrificed nothing, yet their last album was the most commercially appealing. Not that Tool have ever really been underground, despite their successful attempts to avoid the fame lifestyle. 10,000 Days was no weaker than their established classics. Now, if you don't like them, that's fine, but to say they need redemption is silly.

Well, you asked for it...

Been a fan of their's for years...and still mildly to hardly interested.  However I thought 10,000 Days was for the most part a rehashing of Lateralus...for a band that consistently claims they're continuing to explore/experiment/broaden their horizons they seemed to be doing nothing of the such.  They rested on their laurels; I saw Lateralus as a kind of watershed to their sound - their next a make or break affair.  The title track's lyrics themselves seemed to solidify this notion of 'we're going to continue to push the envelope, be around for awhile, work hard, and explore where no one's gone before' therefore ushering in some pretty interesting bits in the closing track Resolution (what I refer to collectively as Dis-Ref-Trad).   Then they just rehashed past and present.

Aside from the 'winners' in my mind from 10,000 (Jambi, 10KD, Rosetta, and Intension) you can't tell me even in those selected 'winning' songs that they don't mime Lateralus' sound; you can't tell me: Vicarious doesn't sound like Schism, that the synth guitar effects in Rosetta and 10K aren't the same tone found in Reflection, that Rosetta doesn't have guitar lines similar to Third Eye, that The Pot isn't their staple 'angry' song a la Ticks & Leeches/Hooker, that Right In Two is just a tabla-centric Push*t makeover and an excuse to play in 11. 

How many more metal songs in drop D harmonic/minor + odd time can one take?  Also there's a formula they seem to be following too, you can't tell me every Tool song has a sort of climatic/cathartic release section designed to elevate the listener.  The problem I think is that Jones and Chancellor need to step it up and not rely solely on Carey to float their band, (Maynard's just a singer, with an identifiable/effusive/idiosyncratic voice but hardly any range left these days saturating his voice in compression and this robotic warble; listen to Undertow/Aenima and you'll hear him actually trying to push himself...and don't get me started on how his lyrics have slipped - vampires, zombies, monkeys, thick girls - unrelated Puscifer reference but still! -...); Chancellor IMO needs to stop relying on effect pedals, but who the hell am I really to tell him...his playing is fine, it's just he sounds so laden and watered-down.  I just think Jones and Chancellor really need to expand their horizons whether that's in theory/style/whatever BIG TIME.  But here's the thing, they wont because they have a winning formula/it works, why fix it?  

And I could go on and on about how drastically boring their live shows have become since Lateralus' tour...with projections that seem culled from Window 's Media Player, 'improvisations' that seem tacked on under this notion to flat out "rock" and be "balls to the wall" rather than establish an atmosphere and space (see what they did to Schism) or a seamless show, a new fanbase who doesn't listen; intent to scream along like at a DMB concert (which, if you're unfamiliar, is the last place on Earth you want to be), a greatest hits I-could-stay-at-home-and-have-pretty-much-the-same-experience set-list, mechanical/no energy playing with the band looking like they wont want to be there, f**king Alex Grey, who like them so to speak, paints the same thing over and over...can you tell yet that I've REALLY fallen off their bandwagon?

And that is why I'm not holding my breath nor am I really big on them much anymore...I'd like to be pleasantly surprised though! 

No,Vicarious does not sound like Schism

holy plorp its in drop d whoop it must be the same exact thing

Edited by heyitsthatguy - February 14 2008 at 21:56