In an article about why Tool headlining the Governor’s Ball festival over other acts like Lorde makes sense, Billboard predicted that it is a ‘signal’ that Tool will release a new album in 2017.
Like it or not, this time-signature-juggling quartet have reached that vaunted plane alongside Radiohead, Phish or their spiritual forebears Pink Floyd, where the size of their cult overshadows that of most mainstream audiences. Tool can do whatever they want, including commandeer a truckload of paying die-hards all the way to Randall’s Island to spelunk through 11 minutes of “Rosetta Stoned” — particularly because it’ll also be the band’s first New York-area date in 11 years, which dates to when they released their last record.
But it’s also a signal that there will almost certainly be a new Tool album this year, and they’ll almost certainly be performing new songs from it. Their residency might be left-field for the more posi-vibed, dancier principles Governors Ball was built on, but if multi-platinum artists (much less multi-platinum rockers) are in short supply these days, it might be time to scoop up what remains — even if that ends up bringing in 10,000 red-eyed college roommates who tried to explain why 2001’s Lateralus was a spiral.
