TOOL Frontman On Status Of New Album: 'Long Way To Go, But Much Closer'

Maynard James Keenan has offered an update on TOOL's long-awaited new album. The singer took to his Twitter account earlier today to write: "Scratch vox tracked awhile ago. AJ [Adam Jones] deep in guitars now. Final vox after. Step back. Adjust. Mix. Adjust. Re-Adjust. Master. Adjust. Re-Adjust. Long way 2 go but much closer." He then added the hashtags #TOOL and #2019.

Earlier in the year, Maynard publicly called out his bandmates during TOOL's show at the Northern Invasion festival, asking them to finish recording their parts for the band's new disc so that he could record his parts and finally complete the LP. Keenan said from the stage: "Eventually you wonderful people are going to run out of fucking patience. So I beg you, Danny [Carey, drums], Adam and Justin [Chancellor, bass], please finish your parts so I can finish mine."

The new TOOL album, its first since 2006's "10,000 Days", will likely arrive at the end of next year. Recording commenced in March, with Carey laying down his drum tracks first and Chancellor recording his parts next.

Maynard attempted to explain the long gap between TOOL albums in a 2017 interview with "The Joe Rogan Experience". Speaking about his bandmates, the singer said: "Their writing process is so drawn out. And I'm sure there's a lot of reasons why the delay has been long. Their process is very analytical, and I think, at some point, maybe because so much time has gone by from the last album, there has to be a little bit of fear in here. [You think to yourself] 'Is this record gonna be as good as the last one?' The anticipation now is… Now the pressure is huge, so I'm sure there's some of that [that] goes into play."

Keenan has spent part of 2018 touring with A PERFECT CIRCLE, whose first album in 14 years, "Eat The Elephant", came out in April.