It should come as a surprise to no one that, given the insane amount of hype surrounding its long-awaited release, Tool's 2019 album Fear Inoculum has been certified Gold by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). Fear Inoculum achieved the Gold certification on August 12, just under one year out from its August 30, 2019 release date. A Gold RIAAA certification means an album has sold 500,000 copies in the United States.
For those curious, this is far from Tool's first RIAA accolade. The rest of their discography has achieved the following:
- Undertow (1993) – 2× Platinum (2 million+ sales)
- Ænima (1996) – 3x Platinum (3 million+ sales)
- Lateralus (2001) – 2× Platinum (2 million+ sales)
- 10,000 Days (2006) – Platinum (1 million+ sales)
Tool is currently without a record label and is considering knocking out an EP while in quarantine. Though technically they're on kinda hiatus, according to drummer Danny Carey.
"Tool hasn't been jamming,"said Carey. "We've been just kind on hiatus. Nothing's really been happening. But I think it's time. We kept hoping that we were gonna get back out, so we were just kind of, 'Hey, enjoy this while it lasts,' but now it's looking like it could go to the rest of the year, so we need to get the lead out and start functioning — maybe knock out another EP, at least, or something like that. We've never really done that since our first release — done an EP — so I thought it would be kind of nice to do something like that. We don't have a record deal anymore — we're free agents — so we can kind of release whatever we wanna release now, which is a good feeling."
