page: 
 title: Weird Album Title for Tool
author: Greg Heller

Long-awaited Tool album due in April

Enigmatic prog-metalheads Tool have given their long-awaited third 
album a title, and -- as you might expect -- it's weird. The 
quartet's first full-length in five years, coming this April 17th, is 
to be called Systema EncÈphale. Track titles revealed in a typically 
cryptic posting on the band's Web site (www.toolband.com) reveal 
something of a medical fetish. Among the ten tunes listed 
are "Encephatalis," "Coeliacus," "Lactation" and "Pain Canal."
The band has been working on the album at a Los Angeles studio for 
several months now following the conclusion of singer Maynard James 
Keenan's road duties with his side project A Perfect Circle. 
Producing the project is longtime band collaborator David Botrill, 
who also oversaw the band's last offering, 1996's Aenima, and has 
manned the controls for the likes of Peter Gabriel and Remy Zero.

While the posting regarding the title appears to be factual (Tool 
have been known to spit out informational nonsense in the past, 
culling terms from their favorite made-up reference book about the 
therapy of crying, The Joyful Guide To Lachrymology) a spokesperson 
for the band "could neither deny nor confirm" its authenticity.

While they didn't reveal what the album's first single will be, the 
post makes it clear that they've already begun pre-production for its 
video. Coming so far in advance, this would suggest more epic clips 
from the band, a la 1993's groundbreaking "Sober" video, where those 
evil little men dwell in a dark dungeon with meat coursing through 
pipes in the wall. A post several weeks ago also revealed that the 
band has begun negotiations for a major tour to begin sometime around 
the album's release.

The new album caps a period of productivity for the band that began 
this past December when they released the DVD/CD box set, Salival, a 
visual/audio collection of the band's video catalog combined with 
unreleased live cuts and covers.

GREG HELLER
(January 13, 2001) 

Posted to t.d.n: 01/25/01 18:22:35