Those of you who read the recent Tool newsletter might have realised I’ve been away for the last week in Tasmania at a caving conference. It was great! What was also great was a few tweets from Maynard, the most interesting of which confirms that his vocals have been recorded
Someone also asked if we should expect a surprise release:
I don’t think anyone should really be surprised with that response. It was always an unlikely fantasy that Tool were going to drop a surprise album in my opinion.
Finally when asked about the process:
Of course many online took this to believe that Maynard hates Tool, and all they stand for. My take is more that Maynard has expressed these kind of frustrations since Lateralus days, so it’s nothing new. I’m sure if he felt the end result wasn’t worth the “slow death” he would have pulled the pin on his involvement long ago.
All in all, the good news here is that we can probably assume that we’ll see the new album around about the same time they kick off touring in May.
Looking back into 10,000 Days history, the album title was released on March 3rd 2006. We didn’t hear about the release date until a few days after that (which you may recall was the 6th of May). Assuming that the new album is tracking on a similar time line (and I suspect an April/May release seems likely) it may be a few months until we get some more solid details.
Is it weird any confirmed news is via the band members social media accounts these days (it is 2019!), but you could say why don’t they just release something on their website or official @tool handles. It would be a better way to control speculation!
Agree 100% that Tool are underutilising toolband.com and the official Social Media channels
This has been the case from the beginning and Maymay isn’t really the person that should be doing anything important for social media. He really doesn’t have the temperament or wherewithal to promote the band.
That is a very good point.
Assuming albums are still released on Fridays, I am locking in FRIDAY, MAY 3, 2019 as the release date for this new album… they kick off their tour in Jacksonville two days later.
4 months is nice. I can wait that long 🙂
yeah id go with that. It must be frustrating for MJK cos he has probably had material for this record for about 10 years. Puscifer is instant gratification.
Like a slow death. It’s part funny part serious. It’s a human answer. It’s true. It doesn’t mean he hates Tool. It means he wants to be expressing himself through Tool and has had to wait many years. It’s been a long wait and at times has felt very grueling..for those of us that don’t listen to new bands (what can I say I think most of them suck).
I think you’re being extremely optimistic on April/May. Sounds like there could still be overdubs needed, plus final mix and master. Then you have Adam working on the packaging – which God knows how long that’ll take. I would be extremely surprised if this album is out much before the end of this year.
They have an entire European tour set. They’ve BEEN mixing….I really think the timeline makes sense. I think it’ll be by May. Artwork could’ve been worked on at the same time.
Last time they tracked or recorded in August 2005; they had a studio booked for 3 straight weeks in August back then. Mixed afterwards, mastered in late January 2006 (up in Maine if I can recall), Danny, Adam & Justin did promotional stuff in March 2006 (they were here in Sydney for two days doing interviews about 200 metres from where I worked!) and then Vicarious hit the radio as the first single in April 2006 before they started touring in late April 2006 (Coachella, 30 April 2006 was their first show). 10,000 days came out May 2 in the… Read more »
I love the way he talks about trolling the social media pages with wine stuff 😂
May is the only thing that makes sense for a normal band considering most bands would want to tour with an album behind them… However, this is TOOL… I hope for MAY… but we could all be wrong…
It seems to make sense based on the timeline. That would mean that we should see Vinyl pre-sales in the next month or two though. We SHOULD have an announcement months beforehand…
ALSO…. Sacha Dunable said he teched for Justin on a recording session… I’ll be at NAMM in 2 weeks… Don’t think I won’t press him on what he knows.
Vinyl would be cool but I doubt that’ll happen. 10,000 Days isn’t even on vinyl yet. Considering what MJK said in the past I believe there will be a digital release as well as CD. I’d love vinyl as well, though, so I’m hoping you’re right.
I agree with most people’s assessment of an early May release. If that doesn’t happen then I wonder if they’ll play new material during the tour.
I’m hoping for a limited edition vinyl run like most bands are doing now. Either way… bring on the album. Can’t wait. If it’s in May it’s in May if not as long as we get it this year… What’s another couple months?
As for new material live… jeez… wouldn’t that be awesome!? Hopefully they’ll make another round here in Sacramento with VIP…
I disagree with this. If vinyl was as popular back when 10,000 Days was released as it is now, then I’d have expected a vinyl issue on launch. The only reason 10,000 Days hasn’t been released on vinyl yet is band apathy. This time around, with vinyl much more popular for record buyers, I’ll be quite surprised if there isn’t some kind of vinyl available (at least to order) on release day. From an artistic point of view, I’d love to see what the band can do packaging wise where a record sleeve is the focus rather than a CD… Read more »
hope hellboy is right. Tools target audience is probably all over 40 (like me) by now and will remember vinyl making a comeback in the 90s. Considering they dont do spotify etc a decent vinyl makes sense
I don’t think they will be ignoring any of the popular release paths this time around, and expect Vinyl, CD and digital to all be options, including streaming services.
Of course. They are all about getting the cash. This will be the big pay day.
All previous albums will be loaded onto streaming services the same day probably.
Get the cash, 2019 is the big money year.
Given that TOOL haven’t toured Europe since 2007, i think it would be deceitful if they toured Europe this year in June & July without releasing the new album or playing new material, particularly after all the published updates they’ve given regarding recording. It would just be a bad PR move. You want your fans to feast on your new material for a few weeks and be incredibly keen to see you play live in June & July, especially if you’re going to be playing 4 or 5 new tracks in your sets. That’s what they’ve done the last two… Read more »
Given that they haven’t toured in Europe for such a long time I really think nobody will care if they tour without New material there. They will just be happy to see TOOL.
As for PR… This album has an insurmountable amount of hype behind it… They don’t need PR. They simply do not care. Nothing will stop this album from selling at this point…
I am european, and i’ll go fucking nuts when there is no new material
I agree.
So they just tour Europe for the first time since 2007 and play The Grudge, Parabola, Schism, Jambi, Aenema, Stinkfist etc. and no new material at all?
I highly doubt they will do that if they’ve tracked all four parts by October 2018. Mixing, mastering & artwork in time for a May 2019 release is perfect.
There’s no reason at all to think the album can’t be ready in time for May, so I don’t see much cause for pessimism right now.
Oh don’t get me wrong… I’m hopeful for a May release and I do believe there’s plenty of reason for them to release at that time. I’m just saying, don’t be disappointed if it’s not a May release. Either way, new TOOL album this year. The wait is over!
I’d wager most of the audio work has been completed and Adam is working on packaging/etc cuz historically, he’s been very involved in that.
I’m w/ hellboy on this, May seems most likely considering concert dates.
I ordered Puscifer Money Shot on a special offer with Merkin Vineyards 4 years ago. I had the wine shipped to a friend in Las Vegas because Merkin Vineyards wasn’t allowed to ship to Utah at that time. My friend ended up not wanting to risk legal issues to ship the wine to me and neither one of us traveled to see each other for 4 years. Until today! I listened to Money Shot during the Lunar Eclipse and the album is incredible. I heard a couple songs but never heard the entire cut until tonight. All I’ve got to… Read more »
Money Shot is a great album, I don’t really think it’s fair to compare the two. A solo album vs an album with complete creative control is always going to be two different things. I suspect many criticisms of EtE is that it sounds too much like a Puscifer album, and I assume many of the detractors prefer the sound/style of MDN and 13th Step APC (I do too for that matter). The last Puscifer tour was great, I was lucky enough to see it when it swung by town a couple of years ago. Pity APC didn’t include Australia… Read more »
Yeah here in the UK Ive been lucky enough to see MJK with both Puscifer and APC in last few years. In good voice both times. Wont 2019 be 29 years since Tool formed? Saturn ascends…
I think if they release their new album in late June 2019, it will have been about 10,000 days (27 years) since they released Opiate. I forgot about the 29 years Saturn thing. Anyway, I’m just excited they are coming back around again.