"The Witness" is an instrumental song by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

guitarist Adam Jones. The song features performances from three members of the American rock band

Tool A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ba ...

, including Jones himself on guitar,

Justin Chancellor Justin Gunnar Walter Chancellor (born 19 November 1970) is an English musician best known as the bass player for progressive metal band Tool since 1995. He was also the bassist of the band Peach. After settling in the US, along with his engage ...

on bass, and

Danny Carey Daniel Edwin Carey (born May 10, 1961) is an American musician and songwriter. He is the drummer for the American rock band Tool. He has also contributed to albums by artists such as Zaum, Green Jellö, Pigface, Skinny Puppy, Adrian Belew, Carol ...

on drums. The song is the first collaboration between the three since Tool's 2019 album ''

Fear Inoculum ''Fear Inoculum'' is the fifth studio album by American rock band Tool. It was released on August 30, 2019, through Tool Dissectional, Volcano Entertainment, and RCA Records. It is the band's first album in 13 years, due to creative, personal, ...

'', and, alongside its

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

/short film, is meant to promote Jones' release of his own signature guitar through

Gibson Les Paul The Gibson Les Paul is a solid body electric guitar that was first sold by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1952. The guitar was designed by factory manager John Huis and his team with input from and endorsement by guitarist Les Paul. Its typi ...

Background

After a thirteen-year wait,

finally released their fifth studio album, ''

'', in August 2019. While the band toured in support of the album through the end of the year, their plans to tour through 2020 were cancelled due to restrictions placed in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. While frontman

Maynard James Keenan Maynard James Keenan (born James Herbert Keenan; April 17, 1964) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and winemaker. He is best known as the singer and primary lyricist of the rock bands Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Pusci ...

announced his intention to return to work on his side project

Puscifer Puscifer () is an American rock group formed in Los Angeles by Maynard James Keenan, known as the lead singer of the bands Tool and A Perfect Circle. Initially, Keenan was the only permanent member, and as such he considered the project to be hi ...

, drummer

announced his hopes that Tool members would come together and work on new material in the studio during the forced downtime. On October 27, "The Witness" was released. The song, composed by Tool guitarist Adam Jones was a seven-minute instrumental featuring himself on guitar, and Tool members

and Carey on bass and drums respectively. Additionally, frequent Tool collaborator and producer

Joe Barresi Joe Barresi (nicknamed "Evil Joe") is an American record engineer and producer who has worked with Kyuss, The Melvins, Tool, Chevelle, Queens of the Stone Age, Coheed and Cambria, Tomahawk, L7, The Jesus Lizard, Parkway Drive, New Model Army, Ba ...

was credited to mixing the track. Despite involving the entire band and its producer, except for Keenan, and frequently being mentioned in the context of Tool, "The Witness" is credited as an Adam Jones song. The song's

, also created by Jones, who frequently makes Tool videos, was noted to feature a lot of bizarre imagery, including an empty

spacesuit A space suit or spacesuit is a garment worn to keep a human alive in the harsh environment of outer space, vacuum and temperature extremes. Space suits are often worn inside spacecraft as a safety precaution in case of loss of cabin pressure, ...

floating through an abandoned forest on an island, a strange bug-human hybrid struggling, and a series of extreme close-ups of a guitar. The song and video is also meant as promotion for Jones' release of his own line of signature guitars - the "Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom", which faithfully recreates his guitar used on the ''Fear Inoculum'' tour and on every Tool album.

Themes and composition

Publications noted the song's similarity in sound to the music of Tool.

Reception

Guitar.com deemed the song and accompanying video as the best guitar-release promotion of all time, especially praising the video choice of strange imagery over a more normal scenario of a person plainly playing a guitar.

Personnel

Performance * Adam Jones - guitar, composition *

- bass *

- drums Production * Todd Harapiak -

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

* Tim Dawson - production *

- mixing

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Witness (song) 2020 singles Instrumentals