When Tool drummer Danny Carey starts talking about timelines, fans tend to listen closely. The famously meticulous progressive-metal titans don’t move quickly — their last album, Fear Inoculum, arrived in 2019 after a 13-year wait — but Carey says the wheels are turning again. And if all goes according to plan, the next chapter won’t just arrive with a record. It could come with a residency inside one of the most technologically ambitious venues on the planet.
In a recent interview with Spiral Out Network on YouTube, Carey went on the record about the band’s long-gestating follow-up. “The goal,” he said, is to have a brand-new Tool record in the public’s hands by 2027. For a group known for turning patience into an art form, even floating a date feels significant.
During the interview (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET), Tool drummer Danny Carey said:
The band is “working on a lot of new Tool songs right now”. He also revealed that, the band are “very much into” live performances and the cinematic nature of it all: “We’re hoping when we release the new record, maybe do a stint at the Sphere [in Las Vegas] ’cause I think we’re the perfect band for that. We’ve been talking to those guys.”
Tool’s deliberate pace has always been part of their mystique. Albums aren’t simply collections of songs; they’re dense, spiraling compositions built with surgical precision. Carey’s polyrhythmic thunder, bassist Justin Chancellor’s elastic low end, guitarist Adam Jones’ textural riff architecture, and Maynard James Keenan’s cryptic, often spiritual lyricism have long fused into something that feels less like hard rock and more like a psychological event.
Since opening, the Sphere has redefined what a live show can look and feel like, with its wraparound LED interior and seismic sound design capabilities. For a band that treats visuals as sacred geometry — from Alex Grey’s visionary artwork to Jones’ cinematic stage production — the venue seems less like an upgrade and more like destiny.
For now, 2027 remains a target rather than a locked-in date.
