DAMN YOU, TOOL, STOP TEASING ME! (OK, ACTUALLY KEEP DOING IT)

Tool are notorious for shenanigans and delight in giving their fans tidbits of information while watching them lap it up, parse it in every single way imaginable, and discuss it in the kind of depth usually reserved for biblical debates (guilty). So when Tool posted a missive against failed rapture prophet Harold Camping and his blind followers (sound familiar?) on their comically out-of-date website last week, then followed that with a “personal guarantee” a new Tool album would come out on May 22nd or May 15th, 2012… well, you just hafta wonder.

Still, the update did include a note that Tool were currently writing new material, and suggested that a few songs may even already be finished. Both May 22nd and 15th are Tuesdays, so there’s that. May 15th, 2012 would be the exact 11-year anniversary of the release of Lateralus, and just past the 6-year anniversary of the release of 10,000 Days (which came out on May 2nd, 2006)… so there’s that, too, if that’s good for anything at all. So let’s be cautiously optimistic; I won’t believe it until I see it, but May of next year does sound about right given the band’s current writing activity, a pending new A Perfect Circle album, history, etc.

Following the album release-date guarantee, the Tool newsletter continues with some gobbledy-gook about extra terrestrial beings, sheriffs, and Taco Bell. Those Tool fans more fanatical than I are welcome to clue us in to the meanings of and connections between these things in the comments.

-VN