Tool hope to release their new album and host a residency at Las Vegas venue The Sphere in 2027.
Drummer Danny Carey spills the beans during a new interview with Spiral Out Network, saying that he and his bandmates are “working on a lot of new Tool songs now, hopefully [for release in] 2027, that’s the goal”.
He adds that Los Angeles progressive metal idols hope to play The Sphere – a multimedia venue that’s previously hosted US, Phish, the Backstreet Boys and more – around the time of the new album’s release. “I think we’re the perfect band for that,” he explains (via The PRP). “We’ve been talking to those guys.”
Carey acknowledges that the preparation for the residency will be “pretty intense” and that “it’s a few shows before you make any money”, but calls the venue “incredible”. “I just took a tour of it,” he says. “I haven’t actually seen a full-on show, but we took [a tour], you know, just to show it off … I almost got vertigo.”
Tool’s last album, Fear Inoculum, came out in 2019, 13 years after its predecessor, 10,000 Days. Shortly after Fear… came out, Carey implied that the wait for the band’s next album wouldn’t be as long, saying at a webinar that he wanted to start jamming with guitarist Adam Jones and bassist Justin Chancellor as soon as possible.
In 2024, former bassist Paul D’Amour slammed the length of time that it took Tool to make Fear Inoculum, saying, “You don’t need to spend 10 years to make an album.” He added that frustrations over the over-meticulous songwriting process was what contributed to his exit from the band in 1995.
“When we got to writing [1996 album] Ænima, we spent a year and basically wrote five songs,” he told Guitar World. “That, to me, was so frustrating. And I think Adam was really in this moment where he was trying to find his voice as a guitar player.”
Tool aren’t the only metal band possibly lined up to play at The Sphere. Last month, it was reported that Metallica were “finalising” their own residency deal. Guitarist Kirk Hammett said last April that he’d love to play the venue. “That’s using modern technology to the fullest, to really up the levels of production and entertainment, connected to AI and making it a crazy experience,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
Tool will headline this year’s Sonic Temple music festival in Columbus, Ohio on May 17. Other than that, members are currently active with side-projects. Carey is on the soundtrack for the new Gore Verbinski-directed science-fiction/comedy film Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die and singer Maynard James Keenan is dedicated to his art rock band Puscifer, who released their new album Normal Isn’t last week.
