Tool almost burned down the studio during Fear Inoculum sessions

Tool press shot
Tool (Image credit: Travis Shinn)

Tool’s long-awaited new studio album Fear Inoculum was released in August and came 13 year after the launch of their last record 10,000 Days.

But while the wait was long, it could have been even longer as producer Joe Barresi says the studio almost burned down during recording sessions.

He tells Kerrang's Inside Track podcast: “We were tracking – we always like to set up the room so it’s visual. Drummer Danny Carey’s got some geometry thing behind him and there’s always a PA and candles. It’s very vibey. 

“I remember drum tech Bruce Jacoby was in front of the console, and I saw this look of panic in his face. And I was like, ‘What’s going on?’

“All of a sudden, he bolts out of the control room and gets behind Danny’s drum kit, where, I guess Dan was playing with such power that one of the candles fell over on his floor tom and started burning the floor tom, so the head went on fire. 

“There’s sprinklers in the ceiling, so we were trying to get the fire out before the sprinklers went off and the whole recording would be ruined. So that was one of the most insane moments – Danny almost burning down the studio.”

Tool are currently on tour across North America in support of Fear Inoculum and kicked off the road trip last month when they played in front of 60,000 people at Sacramento's Aftershock Festival – a bill which also featured Slipknot, Korn, Blink-182 and more.

Tool: Fear Inoculum

<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fear-Inoculum-Explicit-TOOL/dp/B07WL8FLD9?tag=georiot-trd-21&ascsubtag=hawk-custom-tracking-21" data-link-merchant="amazon.co.uk"" target="_blank">Tool: Fear Inoculum
Tool are back with their long-awaited new studio album Fear Inoculum. The follow-up to 2006's 10,000 Days is out now and features the epic 10-minute title track.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.