Tool’s Justin Chancellor says new material could arrive as a run of singles saying that it would be “an exciting idea” to do so.

Speaking to NME in a new interview, Chancellor was asked if new material from the band could come as an EP – something band member Danny Carey had previously hinted at.

When asked if that was something the band – comprised of Maynard James Keenan, Adam Jones, Chancellor and Carey – were still open to, Chancellor replied in the affirmative.

He said: “Absolutely. Looking at how things are released and consumed by the public these days, it’s more common to release even just a single. That’d be an interesting approach for us because we’ve always waited until we’ve created a whole body of work and made it polished and refined and perfect.

“So it’d be an exciting idea to go, ‘Well, every time we finish a song, we could just record that and release it’. That being said, the way that we like to do stuff is to present a whole package with the art and with a theme to it… so an EP would be a good compromise between an album and a single. To get a couple of really juicy tracks together and release them on a shorter version of an album.”

He continued: “Another idea is to release singles one at a time, then once they’re all once we’ve accumulated to the length of an album we’ll put that together in a package and release it as an album. That way you could still have a physical vinyl and do all the artwork and all that stuff.

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“I still think that by writing a whole album, you get really deep into the vibe of the piece and it turns into something further reaching and makes your work a little deeper. But for now, it’s pretty flexible, which is exciting. As soon as we’ve got something ready to go, there’s a choice of different outlets.”

The band previously confirmed they’ll be heading back to the studio after their upcoming tour dates to make album six.

Check out the band’s tour dates below and buy any remaining tickets for the shows here.

TOOL’s European tour dates are:

MAY
30 – Birmingham, UK Resorts World Arena

JUNE
1 – Manchester, UK AO Arena
3 – London, UK The O2
5 – Paris, FR Accor Arena
8 – Berlin, DE Parkbühne Wuhlheide
10 – Wien, AT Wiener Stadthalle
11 – Kraków, PL Tauron Arena
13 – Budapest, HU BudapestAréna
18 – Köln, DE Lanxess Arena
20 – Dessel, BE Graspop Metal Meeting
22 – Copenhagen, DK CopenHell
25 – Stockholm, SE Tele2 Arena
27 – Oslo, NO Tons of Rock

The LA group released their fifth and most recent studio record, ‘Fear Inoculum’, back in 2019. It arrived 13 years after its predecessor, ‘10,000 Days’ (2006).

In a five-star review of that, NME wrote: “If you’re wondering whether ‘Fear Inoculum’ was worth the wait, then the answer is yes. If you’re wondering whether it’ll touch your heart, soul and spirit, the answer is also so.”