While Tool’s next fall tour is set to begin in September, its drummer, Danny Carey, spoke with Music Radar about the band’s music. During the talk, he divulged a detail, pointing out a specific song on their playlist that caused him to suffer while performing. When questioned about their most difficult piece, the drummer described ‘The Grudge’ as a physical struggle and stated: “‘The Grudge’ for endurance because if we’re not in tour shape, my hands almost cramp up because of all the Swiss Triplets.” Overall, it’s a great physicals tune with some double kick things in there.”
He then chose two of their more recent songs: “The newer ones, ‘Invincible’ and ‘7empest,’ may be the most difficult. “It’s just that I’m not used to it.” Maynard James Keenan, his bandmate and frontman, similarly acknowledged the difficulties of performing their work during a conversation on Steve-O’s Wild Ride! podcast. The singer discussed how difficult it was to play previous classics from albums such as ‘Opiate’ and ‘Undertow.’ In reference to his age, he stated: “Something is happening… You just can’t do it, you know. So, I believe that with age, you learn to sing in ways that do not cause harm. You can actually replicate it without picking a scab, both emotionally and physically, as if you were hurting yourself. So I believe my writing has evolved with time, and I am now capable of performing some of those tunes.
I can’t perform an entire set of those tunes. I can sprinkle them in here and there, so I can still do some of those things, but you can’t… If you sit down and think about it, you can’t expect some of those guys from back in the day to do what they did… Thirty years ago, forty years ago. That’s not going to happen with that body. Your body does not do those things indefinitely.” In honor of their original EP’s 30th anniversary, Tool re-recorded and released a new version last year. This new version was roughly twice as long as the original, and it added lyrics from live performances. It was also accompanied with the music video ‘Opiate2.’