At this point, we’ve all seen the periodic updates on Tool’s follow up album to 10,000 Days (2006). At times discouraging, at other times encouraging, progress on the new Tool release has been inching along for the past few years. Plans became more concrete when frontman Maynard James Keenan revealed plans to reunite with his bandmates in the studio to record music he’d been working on. At that point in February of this year, he had finished writing the words and melodies to all but one of the new tracks, according to Consequence of Sound. Then, guitarist Adam Jones chimed in that recording of the new album would happen in March.
Only a week into March, and it’s all confirmed. Yesterday, Jones posted a short video clip from a studio on Instagram with the caption, “Day 1.” Today, Jones posted a photo that confirms audio engineer “Immortan Evil Joe Barresi,” who mixed Tool’s 10,000 Days, as the man behind the console for the recording session. Marking the first new music since that 2006 album, Jones joked in the post: “Our first choice was Phil Spector – but he has other conflicting work obligations.”
So there you have it, folk–Tool is officially in the studio working on their first new album in 12 years.