Tool has unveiled the cover artwork for their long-awaited new album Fear Inoculum. The follow-up to 2006’s 10,000 Days will finally arrive on August 30th and today, the group has also revealed the title track and pre-order will be available for this coming Wednesday (7th). Tool’s entire back catalog was released on digital streaming services this past Friday and now, we can only assume the band’s upcoming single will be available to stream as well. 

Guitarist Adam Jones recently spoke to Guitar World as he provided a few additional details on the group’s first album in thirteen years. Jones revealed Fear Inoculum will run approximately 80 minutes consisting of seven tracks as the concept for the album circles around the number seven. 

Jones explained:

“I took a picture pointing to the number seven while we were recording, and a lot of the riffs Justin and I brought in were in seven. You don’t really go ‘I’m going to write a riff in seven!’

You just write a riff and you count it out and it turns out to be in seven. Without being too descriptive about the concept, the main thing is that the seven beat just kept coming up, and riffs in seven kept coming up. It was really weird!

When we finished recording, I went to the guys and said ‘I think we should called the record Volume 7’ because a lot of the songs are in seven and there are seven tracks on the record.

Then Maynard told me about a whole concept he had about the number seven. We were all like, ‘Oh My God! This is too weird!’ Then Alex Grey basically said the same thing and he has a concept that will reveal itself through video.

So there are a lot of rhythms and polyrhythms where we explore 7/4 or 7/3, and there’s a riff we count in 21 — which we count as three rounds of seven. I wrote a four-minute lead over something counted in 21, which is crazy!”