TOOL Officially Announces New Album, 'Fear Inoculum'

TOOL has set "Fear Inoculum" as the title of the band's long-awaited new album. The follow-up to 2006's "10,000 Days" is due on August 30. The disc is expected to include the songs "Descending" and "Invincible", which the band has performed live at its recent concerts.

TOOL's new album was reportedly produced by Joe Barresi, and mastered by Bob Ludwig, who previously worked on "10,000 Days". Recording commenced in March 2018, with drummer Danny Carey laying down his tracks first and bassist Justin Chancellor recording his parts next.

Singer Maynard James Keenan 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."

Earlier in the month, TOOL's legendary 1991 demo tape, titled "72826", surfaced on YouTube, Apple Music, Google Play and Pandora. It marked the first time a TOOL release had been available to stream online.

The demo contains six songs, all of which eventually surfaced on the band's 1992 debut EP, "Opiate", and its first full-length album, 1993's "Undertow", including "Sober", "Crawl Away" and "Hush".

Back in 2017, it was reported that TOOL planned to make its back catalog available on streaming platforms ahead of the release of its new album.

The release of the demo is just the start, with TOOL planning to share its entire catalog via streaming this coming Friday, August 2.