It's been 12 years since the last Tool album, though we don't need to tell you that – the frustration from fans has been abundantly clear. Fortunately 2018 is the final year we've got to wait, as the band has officially entered the studio to lay down the new material. But why did it take so long?

Well, according to frontman Maynard James Keenan in an interview with Metallica's Lars Ulrich, timing issues had a lot to do with it. He also jokes that he pretty much had to stop putting out Puscifer albums in fear that someone might kill him over the absence of Tool and A Perfect Circle.

"I felt like if I was to go back and I do another Puscifer record, someone was gonna sneak into my bedroom and slit my throat, so I figured I'd go and call Billy [Howerdel of A Perfect Circle] and see where he's at with music."

"There's a lot of timing issues with Tool getting to the studio, I always try to gauge where they're at, how things are going, and if I see a window where, 'Okay, doesn't seem like things are going to get done any time soon…' The window might expand based on me going 'I'm gonna go do something then.' That's why you had a lot of Puscifer for many years.

Keenan also touches on why he feels like it's not so important to chase trends, but instead just do whatever the hell he feels like doing musically.

"Just be okay with not being part of the future, if you can get your head around the fact that you're not going to be part of the next generation's focus," he said.

"It gets easier to get lazy, so the only way to really do that is to always try to figure out some way to take yourself outside of your comfort zone. If you can get outside your comfort zone, you can then tap into things that are in a way fresh. I guess you could chalk it up to staying relevant. At our age now, you see a lot of artists coming out of the woodwork trying to clearly desperately trying to remain relevant, that stinks. That's just stenchy."