We are all caught up in TOOL-Mania today, with the release of their first single in 13 years, "Fear Inoculum." But lost in the hoopla, is that Tool also began accepting pre-orders for the new album. With the pre-orders, came information on the physical release.
And, holy cow. Guitarist Adam Jones, who is typically in charge of the physical product really went all out this time. The official press release explains that the album comes with a built-in four-inch rechargeable HD screen, with built-in two watt speaker:
Tool has created a deluxe, limited-edition CD version of Fear Inoculum. The collectible offering, which was conceived by and directed by bands guitarist Adam Jones. The CD edition features a 4” HD rechargeable screen with exclusive video footage, charging cable, 2 watt speaker, a 36-page booklet and a digital download card.
Interestingly, the CD version of the album is only 79 minutes, while the digital download is 89 minutes. What are the extra 10 minutes?
The band has said the new album is seven tracks with two interludes. Could the two interludes be 10 minutes long?
In the new issue of Revolver, where the band discussed the concept of the record, Adam Jones also revealed that Mackie Osborne (wife of Melvins' Buzz Osbourne) once again collaborated with the band and was in charge of the layout of the album. When asked about the collaboration, Jones said "Mackie is just a monster. She does our layout. Sh's helped us on our last three or four records. She's very talented and very cool. We have packaging ideas and concepts and we go to her. She helps sort it out and then we take it to the record company. They always say "You can't do that" because they don't wanna make waves. But we wanna go balls out. We always wanna make things special, because it's special for us, you know? Our model has always been to do what we want. We'd want a t-shirt that's quality, that doesn't fall apart after one wash. You'd want a CD case that's collectible and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Or maybe it does cost an arm and a leg, but it's still really cool. [Laughs] We also want people who hate our band to go 'Wow, that's really cool.'"
We'll find out for certain when the new album is released on August 30th. We're ready.
