In an update from Blair just this morning he describes some progress on the next Tool album:
The other day an insider (and by “insider” I mean truly an insider!) told me that since getting back to working on material for the next record, things have been going VERY well. Now, don’t read more into this than it suggests – which is that there have been some good writing/arranging sessions as of late. Progress!.. We’ll take that any day!
I would guess the “insider” is likely to be Danny, and with all of the band members currently having clear calendars (from a public perspective at least anyway) I think we all hope that we can see some solid progress on the new album in the coming months.