10 Hard Rock Albums That Were Worth The Wait
2. Tool - Fear Inoculum
Of course Tool were going to pop up.
The LA-based group are almost more famous for making their fans wait for and tease a new album than they are for their music.
In the years since 2006's 10,000 Days, fans grew increasingly frustrated. Tool's noted aversions to public appearances, legal issues, multiple soft release dates for the new album and all the various Tool-related side-projects popping up fairly regularly split fans and critics into camps of "it's just Tool doing Tool things, the scamps" and diminished patience that was turning to anger.
By 2018, the Tool rumour mill was at the busiest it had been in years. When frontman Maynard James Keenan proclaimed "I'll go on record now saying you're gonna see some new music next year" at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards, the fandom went into meltdown.
At last true to his word, with no tricks or coyness, Tool released Fear Inoculum in August 2019 to the ecstasy of damn-near everyone. The release heralded a media frenzy not seen in rock music since arguably Black Sabbath's 2013 return, which led to the art metal titans off-setting Taylor Swift from the top of the charts, causing hysteria in her own fandom.