Tool New Album rumour update April 2019

Us long suffering Tool fans are used to periods of near radio silence from the band, and while that’s ok when there’s not much happening, it becomes much harder when we know that something is imminent.

There are plenty of rumours flying around, but it’s pretty hard to discern what is true and what is false. They come from a range of sources – relatives, friends of the band, some dude who works at a radio station. None of these are easily verified. Some may have noticed something a little unusual about one of the fake tracks posted during April Fools.

Blair even comes in from time to time to drop us some hints:

I recently received my “Surrender Spirit Board” from the APC store and I must say that it’s quite talkative. However, I’m having a little trouble interpreting what I believe to be the first message from the other side as given by the octopus planchette: 

t-h-e-y-i-e–l-d-f-r-o-m-f-i-e-l-d-s-a-p-p-e-a-l-e-d-o-n-c-e-u-n-s-e-a-l-e-d-b-y- 

Some have taken this to be an anagram of sorts, and predicted an album release in early May. Some thing it might be lyrics from the album. Blair knows something I’m sure, but as to when he’s allowed to reveal – who knows?

What do I know? Bugger all actually. Quite often I get asked what insider news I have. The answer is very little. Sure, if I lived in LA I could probably rock up to the Loft, give the secret handshake and maybe chill with the band, but here in sunny Australia, I don’t quite have that access.

But here’s my educated guess as to what I think will go down:

• When will we know something about the album? We’ll get an announcement in the next week or two, about the first track from the album, and possible further details of when we might see the album released
• When will the first track come out? I’ll be surprised if we don’t have a track by early May, and expect to see this played live on the US dates
• Will they play new material live in at the US shows? If you’re going to one of the festivals, it might be realistic to expect that it’s the single only. At their solo shows, where they can control phone recordings a bit better, we might see some more. I think there’s a pretty good chance the album will be out by the European tour.
• Will there be a video with the first track? This is an interesting question. Maynard mentioned the possibility of a video in a semi-recent tweet. I don’t think this necessarily means there will be one so soon, but there’s no denying that Youtube is a powerful tool for promoting songs.
• So when will the album actually get released? At this time, I don’t see the album out until late May at the earliest. I think we should expect ~6 weeks between announcement and release
• Are you sure this isn’t just a big hoax and there is no album? “No” – Maynard