As of this weekend–September 23, 2017–it’s been more than 11 years and five months since Tool released their last album, 10,000 Days. It came out in the spring of 2006. Let’s put that into perspective.

As of this weekend–September 23, 2017–it’s been more than 11 years and five months since Tool released their last album, 10,000 Days. It came out in the spring of 2006. Let’s put that into perspective. The last time Tool gave us a record of new material, the introduction of the iPhone was still more than a year away.

Bob Barker was still hosting The Price is Right.

And this is my favourite: 2006 was the year NASA launched the New Horizons spacecraft towards Pluto. It has since flown past Pluto and is now well into the Kuiper Belt. In other words, you can travel out of the solar system in less time than it takes Tool to make an album.

This 11 1/2 year gap isn’t the longest interval between albums who has never broken up, but it’s loooooooong. Tool has gone out on tour multiple times in the interim, just to remain acquainted with their fans. But every tour only serves to underscore that Tool hasn’t come up with anything fresh since 2006.

Here’s the question: why? What’s the holdup? Where’s the new music? Those are three big questions that we’re going to try to answer. Welcome to The Tool Odyssey.

The Pot

Prison Sex

Forty-Six & Two

A Perfect Circle, Judith

Stinkfist (Salival version)

Schism

Vicarious

Playlistist Eric Wilhite provides this for us.

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