TOOL's Danny Carey Expects Shorter Wait For 'Fear Inoculum' Follow-Up

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It will not take Tool until 2031 to release the follow up to the band's latest album, Fear Inoculum.

The past decade has been a strange one, indeed, with fans constantly asking the four Tool band members when the new album would arrive or if there really was a new album.

Drummer Danny Carey has often come off as an optimist regarding his band's ability to release its music (he expected Fear Inoculum to arrive last year). He tells Metal Hammer that there's good reason to believe Tool will get back into the studio soon after the Fear Inoculum album cycle.

"My hope is we get in and knock out another record," he said. "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."

Carey hedges, however, that putting a timetable on more new Tool music at this stage is unreasonable.

"We're going to tour on this [album] probably for two or three years at least, I imagine," he continued. "It feels like what we've done on every album, and then I guess we'll see where we're sitting after that."

Fear Inoculum also marks a turning point in the band's career, as it's the last album in a five-album deal with RCA. That means, going forward, Tool can choose a new record label if it wants.

The drummer notes the "motivation" the band will feel as "free agents," and the freedom not having a record contract will bring them.

It only became clear within the past two years, when Tool began sharing the Fear Inoculum demos with some select friends (like Tom Morello and the guys from Behemoth) that fans became convinced the band was really working on a new album.

As frustrated with the lack of news as some fans had been, Tool's fan base only expanded in the years between 10,000 Days and Fear Inoculum. — a phenomenon noted in recent interviews by guitarist Adam Jones.

That expansion came to a head, when Tool made its catalog available on music streaming platforms, causing its music — all of it — to rocket up the charts in August. By the time Fear Inoculum came out August 30, Tool sat atop the music world with the No. 1 rock and pop albums.

Photo: Getty Images


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