Tool explains long delay in releasing new album due to pending Insurance Lawsuit

Adam Jones explains long delay in releasing new album since 2006's 10,000 Days:

Rolling Stone Story (2 days old)

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"The fans are pissed at us," the guitarist (Jones) says. "And while part of me is selfish and goes, 'I'm not necessarily doing it for them,' it's time that they understand what's going on."

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the biggest problem has been a multi-level lawsuit that has weighed on all of the group members. This stemmed from a claim that a Tool associate had made against the group, but it eventually spiraled into the labyrinthine legal equivalent of a Laurel and Hardy routine, amounting to "who's suing whom."

Initially, in 2007, a friend of Jones' claimed that he had created artwork for the group that he wanted credit. But the suit got complicated when an insurance company that Tool thought would defend it against lawsuits turned around and sued the band over technicalities regarding the case. The band then filed a countersuit to defend themselves against the insurer's claims and now, seven years later, Tool are still deeply mired in litigation with the insurer. The case is scheduled to go to trial in January.

"The whole thing is really depressing," Carey says. "The bad thing is it's really time consuming. As we've gotten older and our priorities have changed, it's hard to get the band on a good, solid schedule as it is. People have kids now. And there's lots of other things that pop up. To throw this into the mix, it makes everything that much worse and stresses people out."

"And it's costing millions and millions and millions of dollars to defend us," Jones adds. "And the fans are all going, 'We want a new Tool album. What the frick?' And you don't want to pull people into your problems, because they don't understand.

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The good news for fans is that, through the turmoil, Tool's musical songwriting core – Jones, Carey and bassist Justin Chancellor – has been slowly writing music. By the drummer's estimation, the trio has "gotten through the toughest part of writing," which is coming up with the raw musical ideas for songs. From there, they piece the songs together, send them to vocalist Maynard James Keenan and begin to refine them. "It's time-consuming that way, but it has worked really well for us," Carey says of the group's creative process. "It gets stressful at times when outside influences are dragging you down rather than pushing you forward."

So far, the process has yielded one song that Jones describes as "pretty much done." Carey says the yet-untitled track is at least 10 minutes, in which it "goes through lots of changes and it's got really heavy elements."

In fact, "heavy" is a word both band members use to describe their new sounds. "Sometimes I feel we get a little too proggy or too into exploring time signatures but not getting heavy enough for my taste," Jones says. "There are some good nose-bleeding riffs happening, and I'm really happy about that. It's not out-of-the-gate crazy heavy, but there are these little journeys with nice paths that end up very heavy."

"It's all a little more 'metal' sounding, if I may," Carey says with a laugh. "I'm having fun drumming on it. There is one other song [beyond the 10-minute tune] that I would say is pretty much there. It's another one that's pretty gnarly with some good double-kick [drumming] going on in it."

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Well frick


However, there is light at the end of the tunnel...

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Carey says that fans have already heard some of their ideas as bits and pieces of segues between songs on their most recent tour.

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