Well known Tool optimist Danny Carey has claimed in a recent interview with Metal Hammer that the band have plenty of material ready for a new album, which I’m sure will be out sometime this decade:
My hope is we get in and knock out another record. We have tons of material. It’s not going to take 12 years, or if it does, I’ll probably be so old I probably can’t pick up my sticks any more! But my hope is we’ll do another record and just keep moving forward.
https://www.loudersound.com/news/tool-have-tons-of-material-for-fear-inoculum-follow-up
He also goes onto say that having the shackles unleashed from their record label could well effect the motivation to create the followup to Fear Inoculum:
There’s more motivation. The carrot on the stick has gotten larger because now we’ll be free agents – we don’t have to deal with a record company or if we do, we deal with it on our terms, because we can do whatever we want now.Â
This is the last record of a five-album deal, so that’s a good feeling and I hope that will be motivational in the writing processes.
So the count is on then! Take Danny’s estimate, and multiply it by two! See you in 2033!