It seems A Perfect Circle has big plans for 2018. The progressive metal band is gearing up to release a new album, but currently on tour. The album news hasn’t been made official, but whispers suggest it is so. After performing new material during their spring tour, fans expected something. Seeing that they’ve added more dates on top of their spring tour in 2017, and will tour next year as well, fans may not have to hold their breath much longer.

Last week the group performed a new song, “The Doomed,” at Sacramento’s Aftershock Festival on Saturday. While it is increasingly easy to symbolize our country’s political turmoil, A Perfect Circle’s new song drives the hard sell.

A line like, “Blessed are the rich / May we labor, deliver them more,” has to be about Trump’s new tax overhaul, that seemingly favors the rich over the poor. The song’s lyrics sarcastically bless various injustices as the guitar, drums and bass pound the beat and riff into the audience’s skulls. Though a metal band, the song has a distinct lack of distortion. The rhythm section seems to favor Les Claypool’s style of roundabout riffs and clean tones over other metal music that’s out there, in which the power chords are barely distinguishable from the vocals screaming in competition.

A perfect circle formed in 1999 thanks to guitarist Billy Howerdel and Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Since, they’ve released three studio albums: Mer de Noms in 2000, Thirteenth Step in 2003 and the LP of reworked cover songs, Emotive, in 2004. After, they took a hiatus that seemed to last a while as individual members pursued individual goals. They met back up in 2010 to play some shows, which they continued to do for another three years. After the release of their greatest hits album, Three Sixty, the band’s activity seemed to mellow once again. The lineup has changed multiple times, but it seems like the group is finally ready to start something up again. The performance of new music and the packed touring schedule is definite evidence of something big to come. Watch their performance of “The Doomed” below.

Photography Credit: Marv Watson