Maynard James Keenan’s Puscifer Debuts First New Song in 5 Years: “Apocalyptical”

With Tool currently sidelined from their Fear Inoculum tour due the coronavirus pandemic and resulting social-distancing restrictions, frontman Maynard James Keenan has revived his music and performance-art collective Puscifer. Last night (May 7th), the group — which is currently rounded out by singer Carina Round and guitarist and co-producer Mat Mitchell — unveiled their first new song since 2015, the eerily timely “Apocalyptical,” which seems to address the apathy and denial that so many people have demonstrated in the face of the COVID-19 crisis — read the lyrics below. The single arrives accompanied by a typically bizarre video that underlines the song’s themes, juxtaposing Keenan and Round as they sing and dance with end-times-evoking images of vacant cities being traversed by a Onewheel rider in a Hazmat suit.

As the collective’s Instagram account has chronicled, Puscifer have been hard at work on new music for awhile now, with the only question being when they would release it, this year or next. Posts have alternated between the hashtags #Puscifer2020 and #Puscifer2021, recently swinging back in favor of the former. Posts also reveal that Smashing Pumpkins and sometimes A Perfect Circle guitarist James Iha and Game of Thrones star Esmé Bianco have been collaborating with Puscifer’s main trio on music. Their contributions are expected to appear on the group’s upcoming LP, which, according to the YouTube description of the “Apocalyptical” video, is coming this fall.