Tool Explain Why Their New 'More Metal Sounding' Album Is Taking So Long

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Tool guitarist Adam Jones and drummer Danny Carey have revealed why it has taken them eight years and counting for the band to record and release a new album.

The major stumbling block, they say, is a multilevel lawsuit that has been levied against all the band members and which is scheduled to go to trial in January. The suit stems from a claim made by a Tool associate that he created artwork for the group and wanted credit.

“The whole thing is really depressing,” Carey told Rolling Stone. “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 said. “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.

Both band members admit that, as a result, the group is not actually very far along in the process of writing a follow-up to 2006′s 10,000 Days. In fact, Tool only have one song that Jones describes as “pretty much done.” That said, their description of the new material is sure to excite Revolver readers.

“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 said. “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 said. “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.”