Last summer we got a taste of Lesser Key — ex-Tool bassist Paul D’Amour’s new band — in the form of a music video for the song “Intercession.” And it was damn good! Very Tool-like. This is, after all, the guy who was involved in creating early Tool classics “Sober” and “Prison Sex,” as well as Ænema standouts “Ænema” and “Stinkfist,” though he left the band during the recording sessions of the latter. But all we’ve gotten since last summer is a seemingly endless stream of teases about an eventual Lesser Key album.
Look guys, ive been a huuuuge Tool fan for over a decade and to be honest its been about 2 years since i found out there was another bass player before justin who was paul of course. Ive been stuck with the aenima album since then (when i thought there was only justin) cos in my opinion its one of the best records of any genres worldwide even today and its the very true. Justin is awesome on.
Finally we’ve got a release date — April 1st, via Sumerian (pre-order) — and though it’s just an EP and not a full album we’ll certainly take it. Especially if the songs are as good as this five-minute teaser makes them out to be. Interestingly enough the EP was produced by Sylvia Massey; she also produced Undertow, the last Tool album to feature d’Amour. I already said it, but I think it bears repeating: this stuff really sounds like Tool, the vocalist included, just maybe a tad more song-focused (poppier). And in lieu of new Tool music, this next best thing ain’t so bad at all.
Fan-filmed video footage of industrial metal legends MINISTRY performing earlier today (Thursday, June 20) at Hellfest Meets Knotfest in Clisson, France can be seen below.
MINISTRY recently recruited former TOOL member Paul D'Amour as its new bassist.
A founding member of TOOL, D'Amour played on the band's classic albums 'Opiate' and 'Undertow' and recorded some of the early demos for 1995's 'Aenima' before leaving due to personal differences and being replaced by Justin Chancellor.
In a recent interview with Revolver, MINISTRY mainman Al Jourgensen shared the story of how he first met D'Amour in 1992 at Lollapalooza.
'I used to live with Timothy Leary, and he had given me these bottles of liquid LSD to bring on tour,' Jourgensen said. 'I'd put two drops in my bottle of whiskey that I'd bring onstage. I'd drink about half the bottle during a show. So we were on Lollapalooza in '92, I think it was San Francisco, and when we came offstage there were these two guys who were like, 'Great show, dude!' So I gave them my bottle of Bushmills, but I forgot that I had put LSD in it. So they drank it and they were tripping balls for, like, two or three days. They didn't know what was going on and they were freaking out. They were ready to call suicidal hotlines. It turned out to be Paul and Maynard from TOOL! ... But he actually thanked me for that moment because he said it really got TOOL going into being a psychedelic band. Pretty cosmic, right?'
Following his exit from TOOL, D'Amour created the psychedelic outfit LUSK with Brad Laner (MEDICINE), Greg Edwards (AUTOLUX, FAILURE) and Chris Pitman (GUNS N' ROSES). Since then, he has worked on various film and television scores.
MINISTRY's summer 2019 European tour kicked off on June 16 in Austria.