Tool's latest album was 10,000 Days released back in 2006. The band has been working on new material but contrary to some rumours (a misunderstanding between the band's guitarist and a fan led to speculation that the group had completed the album and intended to release it this year), they haven't completed the new album yet. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, guitarist Adam Jones and drummer Danny Carey confirm that the new Tool record is far from completion. An ongoing lawsuit has weighed on all of the group members but the band has continued to write new music.

"The fans are pissed at us," the guitarist 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."

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. 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 fuck?' And you don't want to pull people into your problems, because they don't understand.

"But the point is, we're fighting the good fight," he continues. "We're going to trial and we want to crush them. But every time we've gotten close to going to trial, it gets postponed and we've wasted money and time and it has just drained our creative energy. We bought an insurance policy for peace of mind, but instead we would have been better off if we never had it and just dealt with the original lawsuit."

According to the drummer, 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."

"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."

Carey adds: "It's all a little more 'metal' sounding, if I may. 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."

"I'm hoping that we have something really solid recorded by the end of the year," Carey says. "But we'll see how it goes. I thought that last year, too." He laughs. "But we're making great progress. We've really knocked out a lot of good things, especially over the last month. We're all excited about it."

"It's not good when it's done, it's done when it's good," Jones offers. "We've been working at our own pace, but we don't want to put out something and go, 'This song's fine, just put it out.' I'm never gonna put something out where later, I go, 'Fuck, I wish we hadn't done that.' We're just not going to settle for doing anything but our best work, and the fans appreciate that."

Source:	rollingstone.com
Band profile:	Tool