Tool life and biography

Tool is an American rock band formed in 1990; the group's line-up has included drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Since 1995, Justin Chancellor has been the band's bassist, replacing their original bassist Paul D'Amour. Tool has won three Grammy Awards, performed worldwide tours, and produced albums topping the charts in several countries.

Tool is a band that is most noted for combining alternative metal with a wide variety of progressive structures, irregular time signatures and lyrics that range from angry diatribes to meditations on philosophical and social matters.

After performing a handful of shows in the Los Angeles area and up the West Coast, they toured in the United States with Primus in the summer of 1992 in support of their EP Opiate. Their first full length recording, Undertow, was released in 1993.

Emerging with a groovy heavy industrial sound on their first release, when the genre was dominated by post-punk, they were later seen at the top of the industrial metal movement with the release of their second full-length studio album Ænima in 1996, the first recording the band made after original bassist Paul D’Amour left the band, replaced by Justin Chancellor. After an ongoing evolution of their sound and continuous efforts to unify musical experimentation, visual arts, and a message of personal evolution on Lateralus (2001), their most recent album 10,000 Days (2006), as well as respective tours, they are generally described as a style-transgressing act and part of progressive and art rock.

Their aspirational work features exceptionally long or complex releases, controversial lyrics and cover art, and unorthodox music videos, which results in a rather ambivalent relationship between the band and today’s music industry, at times marked by censorship, and the band’s ongoing struggle for privacy.

Nevertheless, Tool has won Grammy Awards and continues to perform worldwide and receive critical acclaim. Lateralus and 10,000 Days both debuted number one on the US Billboard 200 as well as topping the charts in numerous other countries. Between album releases, the band takes extended breaks that allow for collaboration with other artists in designing award-winning album packaging, the creation of elaborate light shows, and band member involvement in notable side-projects.

According to Rolling Stone, after the 50th Grammy Awards, while attending a Sony BMG after party at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Keenan also promised another Tool album. Asked in an early 2009 interview with Guitar World about the new album, Jones replied, "It's been coming along... great! [laughs] No, we've been on hiatus. I'm writing and Justin's been writing, but Maynard has been working on his wine. We've all just been taking some time away from each other, which has been nice. I've also been working on producing some comics."

On hiatus since early 2008, Tool was expected to begin writing a new album sometime in 2009, according to Keenan, but gave no details on a possible release date. On March 24, 2009, the band's official website confirmed a Tool summer tour. The tour debuted on July 18 in Commerce City, Colorado, at the Mile High Music Festival. The last dates were August 7–9 for Lollapalooza 2009 and a concluding show on August 22 for the Epicenter Festival in Pomona, California.Tool headlined both.

According to the band's webmaster, by March 3, 2010, Tool had begun the writing process "in earnest" for their next album. In late April and May 2010, Tool announced a series of tour dates across the U.S. and Canada for June and July. In late September 2010, it was revealed that Tool would be headlining New Zealand and Australia's Big Day Out Festival in early 2011.

Meanwhile, Tool members have actively participated in their own personal musical projects. Notably, Keenan has toured extensively with Puscifer, which he describes as a series of musical ideas he did not have an opportunity to explore with Tool or A Perfect Circle.

Keenan later revealed in October 2011, that Jones and Carey were working together on the fifth album while he was touring with Puscifer, stating, "I'm allowing them their space to do what they do, so we're still in that mode...Even if they told me how close they are to being done, I couldn't tell you because if I say 60 percent people will start counting down. When it's done everyone will know. But I haven't done anything yet. They write forever and then we go in and knock it all out. We're writing. We're writing vocals, but nothing's solid".

Current members:
Danny Carey – drums, percussion (1990–present)
Adam Jones – guitar (1990–present)
Maynard James Keenan – lead vocals (1990–present)
Justin Chancellor – bass (1995–present)

Studio albums:
Undertow (1993)
Ænima (1996)
Lateralus (2001)
10,000 Days (2006)

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