Back in April, we marked 10 years since Tool last released an album. It was a sad day for all of us, but since then we’ve had several promising updates which suggest a follow-up to 10,000 Days might see the light of day in this decade.

Of course, Tool’s usual MO means we receive a promising update which claims Tool’s new album is days away from completion, before somebody from the band (usually guitarist Adam Jones) puts the kibosh on that and confirms that there is no God.

But the latest update does actually give us reason for optimism. See, the problem with all of these conflicting updates is we’re not sure just how much progress the band are making on the new record and just how seriously they’re taking it.

But as Consequence of Sound reports, the band are taking their 10,000 Days follow-up very, very seriously. According to the webmaster for the band’s official website, the band are grinding out four days a week on new material.

“[Danny Carey, drummer] added that they were very close to knocking out another tune, and that as soon as it was finished, they would send a recording of it to Maynard [James Keenan],” the webmaster noted.

“When I asked if this was the song with the REALLY unique time signatures, he told me that they had already finished the music on that one. Okay, admittedly, not exactly stop the press news, but what can I say…”

“…other than that they are still grinding away on new material four days a week, and would be back at it later in the week.” Carey is reportedly in Las Vegas at the moment and Jones spent the week at Comic-Con in San Diego.

The webmaster continued with an especially confusing update, noting that Carey mentioned “the possibility of something happening after the record was released” but that this depended on “something that may or may not even happen”.

As a result, the webmaster claimed, he would not be expanding on this, only insisting that if whatever this thing is actually does happen, it would in fact be “stop the press news”. That sounds like more than just a simple tour to us.

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Last month, Melvins frontman Buzz Osbourne claimed that he’s heard some of Tool’s new material, revealing that the shortest song on the new Tool record clocks in at 12 minutes and confirming that recording has not yet begun.

The last we heard from the band, writing sessions had been coming along well, with guitarist Adam Jones calling them “wonderful” and saying, “Things are really flowing and going really well, and I’m just blown away at the stuff that’s coming together.”

“I’m excited and can’t wait for it to be done,” he added. Meanwhile, Keenan had previously said that he’s been playing the waiting game just as much as Tool fans and will join the band in the studio once all of the music is actually finished.

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