There are no signs that Tool will release a new album anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean their frontman Maynard James Keenan hasn’t been busy. A Perfect Circle, Keenan’s supergroup that he created with former Tool’s guitar technician Billy Howerdel, just released their new album. Titled Eat the Elephant, this is the band’s first release in 14 years.
For this 12-songs effort, Keenan and Howerdel were joined by guitarist James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins), drummer Jeff Friedl (Puscifer, The Beta Machine), and bassist Matt McJunkins (Eagles of Death Metal, The Beta Machine) who became full-time members of A Perfect Circle in 2010. Eat the Elephant also marked the first time the band has turned to an outside producer, bringing in Dave Sardy who previously worked with ZZ Top and Incubus.
A Perfect Circle also made the album available to stream via Apple Music and Spotify.
Eat the Elephant was in the works since early 2008, but Maynard James Keenan and Billy Howerdel couldn’t agree on the band’s music direction and were also busy on other projects. Finally, after productive sessions in 2017, the album took shape.
The album was well received by critics, who praised it’s “diversity and flow,” as well as Keenan’s vocal performances, which are regarded “as being some of the best across any of his various bands’ albums.”
Maynard James Keenan and Billy Howerdel formed A Perfect Circle in 1999, releasing two albums, 2000’s Mer de Noms and 2003’s Thirteenth Step. In 2004, the band release album of covers, Emotive, before going on an indefinite hiatus. In the later years, band embarked on occasional tours.
