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DEEPER THAN EVER
New Tool album to push things
even further forward
Prog-metal pioneers Tool are gearing up to make their long-awaited return with their fourth full studio album, which is tentatively titled "Ten Thousand Days".
Due for release via Sony BMG on May 02, the 11 tracks featured represent the first new material to come from the LA quartet since 01's now legendary "Lateralus", and herald a heavier direction for the band. Although the album was self-produced, Tool enlisted the recording know-how of Joe Baresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Melvins) to aid them and have confirmed track titles including "Rosetta Stoned", "Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)" and "Ten Thousand Days".
Speaking to Rock Sound, bassist Justin Chancellor explained that Baresi was instrumental in helping the band achieve a new level of sonic power: "Because he's such a guitar-minded person, he really helped us achieve something we haven't been able to up to now in terms of our sound. At first it was a bit of a trip when we first started to mix it. We had to get our heads around doing it in a different way, but we quickly understood why Joe was doing what he was doing and how it was helping us for the better. It's not just an overload of guitars, though he's given each instrument its own space to exist and I think that gives the album an overall depth that was missing from the last one."
Meanwhile, frontman Maynard James Keenan was unapologetic about the band's long absence: "Clearly, if I hadn't been away with A Perfect Circle, it would have come out sooner, but it's a complex record that needed time to come together and to solidify. I didn't want to subject Tool to that pressure that a lot of bands put on themselves to get an album out quickly to keep everyone interested. For a band that makes the kind of music we do, it's never going to be beneficial."
Given Keenan's pre-Tool career as an American soldier, the album inevitably features a lyrical preoccupation with the much-debated intervention of Western forces in Iraq and the subsequent fallout, but the vocalist insisted that the new album will not see Tool climbing on to a political soapbox.
"There's not very much use for sloganeering when dealing with something as complicated as this, so there's no question about the album being simplified in the way that bands like Green Day have (done things), I've tried to employ a more emotional, cerebral element to the things I've seen in recent times and the idea of that is to initiate thought rather than aimlessly waving a fist. The other thing that I feel is important is to state how we are all indicted by this situation. There's no way any of us can distance ourselves from what's happening and there's definitely no exoneration for people who choose not to look at it or think about it."
The band have been confirmed as one of the headlining acts for this year's Download Festival, and will play a London date around the same time.
New Tool album to push things
even further forward
Prog-metal pioneers Tool are gearing up to make their long-awaited return with their fourth full studio album, which is tentatively titled "Ten Thousand Days".
Due for release via Sony BMG on May 02, the 11 tracks featured represent the first new material to come from the LA quartet since 01's now legendary "Lateralus", and herald a heavier direction for the band. Although the album was self-produced, Tool enlisted the recording know-how of Joe Baresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Melvins) to aid them and have confirmed track titles including "Rosetta Stoned", "Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)" and "Ten Thousand Days".
Speaking to Rock Sound, bassist Justin Chancellor explained that Baresi was instrumental in helping the band achieve a new level of sonic power: "Because he's such a guitar-minded person, he really helped us achieve something we haven't been able to up to now in terms of our sound. At first it was a bit of a trip when we first started to mix it. We had to get our heads around doing it in a different way, but we quickly understood why Joe was doing what he was doing and how it was helping us for the better. It's not just an overload of guitars, though he's given each instrument its own space to exist and I think that gives the album an overall depth that was missing from the last one."
Meanwhile, frontman Maynard James Keenan was unapologetic about the band's long absence: "Clearly, if I hadn't been away with A Perfect Circle, it would have come out sooner, but it's a complex record that needed time to come together and to solidify. I didn't want to subject Tool to that pressure that a lot of bands put on themselves to get an album out quickly to keep everyone interested. For a band that makes the kind of music we do, it's never going to be beneficial."
Given Keenan's pre-Tool career as an American soldier, the album inevitably features a lyrical preoccupation with the much-debated intervention of Western forces in Iraq and the subsequent fallout, but the vocalist insisted that the new album will not see Tool climbing on to a political soapbox.
"There's not very much use for sloganeering when dealing with something as complicated as this, so there's no question about the album being simplified in the way that bands like Green Day have (done things), I've tried to employ a more emotional, cerebral element to the things I've seen in recent times and the idea of that is to initiate thought rather than aimlessly waving a fist. The other thing that I feel is important is to state how we are all indicted by this situation. There's no way any of us can distance ourselves from what's happening and there's definitely no exoneration for people who choose not to look at it or think about it."
The band have been confirmed as one of the headlining acts for this year's Download Festival, and will play a London date around the same time.
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