New Music Video: Slipknot - Sulfur

New Music Video: Slipknot - Sulfur

Slipknot Readies Tour, Corey Taylor Plots Solo Album

As Slipknot prepares to hit the road for tours celebrating the 10th anniversary of the masked Iowa group’s first album, frontman Corey Taylor is making plans to record his first solo album rather than go back to his other band, Stone Sour, at the end of the cycle.

“I know I have this album that I need to make,” Taylor tells Billboard.com, “and I’m the kind of guy that if I can’t get that done then it’s going to hold me back from all this other stuff I want to do. I just know I’ve got to make it or I can’t branch out.”

He adds that there are “a lot of songs I’ve written that don’t fit with either band, really” and describes the material as “kind of a cross between the Foo Fighters and Social D, with some Johnny Cash mixed in.” Country will be part of the mix — “Obviously there’s a country background that comes built-in with living in Iowa,” Taylor notes — but he also promises that “there’s a lot of upbeat, just flat-out hard rock tunes.”

“I’ve never let myself get painted into a corner,” Taylor explains. “I’ve refused to accept the fact that I can’t make any kind of music I want. I think it took people a minute to understand that, but now I’m at a point where I can do anything and people will take it seriously.”

But until September, when Slipknot is scheduled to finish touring, Taylor says he’s seriously committed to the group, which is continuing to tour in support of its fourth album, last year’s “All Hope Is Gone.”

The nine-piece group plans to tour the U.S., Canada and the European festival circuit with a show Taylor says is “getting away from the pyro and way more visual, video-oriented this time.”

And, he acknowledges, it feels good to have a 10-year anniversary to mark. “It’s funny because I’ve seen so many next-bit-things come and go in the last 10 years, and I look around and go, ‘Wow, we’re still here.’ Ever time we’ve put an album out people would write us off, but … we just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger,” he says.

“It not only proves so many people were wrong but that we were right,” he continues. “My dream wasn’t just to make it but it was to stay here and be able to do whatever we want to do, which is just how it’s worked out.”

Slipknot

Slipknot’s mix of grinding, post-Korn alternative metal, Marilyn Manson-esque neo-shock rock, and rap-metal helped make them one of the most popular bands in the so-called nu-metal explosion of the late ’90s. But even more helpful was their theatrical, attention-grabbing image: the band always performed in identical industrial jump suits and homemade Halloween masks, and added to its mysterious anonymity by adopting the numbers zero through eight as stage aliases. Add to that a lyrical preoccupation with darkness and nihilism, and an affectionately insulting name for their fans (”Maggots”), and Slipknot’s blueprint for nu-metal success was set.

Slipknot were formed in late 1995 in the unlikely locale of Des Moines, IA; after some early personnel shifts, the nine-piece lineup settled around (in order from number zero to number eight): DJ Sid Wilson, drummer Joey Jordison, bassist Paul Grey, percussionist Chris Fehn, guitarist James Root, sampler/programmer Craig Jones, percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan, guitarist Mick Thompson, and lead vocalist Corey Taylor. The music scene in Des Moines wasn’t much to speak of, and the band’s big-time ambition was usually met with disbelief and ridicule, which provided the initial spark for its mostly anonymous stage visuals. On Halloween 1996, Slipknot self-released an album called Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., which began to build a buzz around the group once it found its way to several labels. It was picked up for distribution by the Nebraska-based -ismist label, and also caught the attention of Roadrunner Records, which signed Slipknot in 1997. Working with producer Ross Robinson, Slipknot recorded their official, self-titled debut album, which was released in 1999. They gradually built an audience through near-constant touring, working their way up to the summer Ozzfest package tour, which really expanded their audience. Their live shows were a much-discussed hit with metal fans, and the band performed with such energy that Crahan gashed his head open on his own drum kit twice that summer, requiring stitches both times. The tracks “Wait and Bleed” and “Spit It Out” got the band some airplay, but most of the buzz came from touring and word of mouth. Finally, in the spring of 2000, Slipknot was certified platinum; the first such album in Roadrunner’s history.

The anticipation for Slipknot’s follow-up was intense, and many industry observers predicted that it would debut at number one; however, faced with some stiff competition that week, the band’s sophomore effort, Iowa, bowed at number three upon its release in 2001. More heavy touring followed, including another, more prominent slot on that summer’s Ozzfest. After a long spell on the road, Slipknot took a break while the members worked on side projects. The band set up its own label, Maggot Recordings, and signed a band called Downthesun, whose lead singer had served as Crahan’s drum technician. Wilson, meanwhile, began DJing solo under the name DJ Starscream, and Root and Thompson both worked on solo material. Drummer Jordison worked with a side group called the Rejects, where he’d actually served for quite some time as guitarist. Taylor, meanwhile, started a side band called Superego, and also contributed a solo song, “Bother,” to the soundtrack of the 2002 blockbuster Spider-Man. That May, the band got some amusing press when some of its fans discovered the website of a British crocheting group also called “Slipknot,” and flooded the members’ in-boxes with excessively rude e-mails. Guitarist Joey Jordison and Static-X guitarist Tripp Eisen teamed that summer for the Murderdolls project, while Taylor reformed his old band Stone Sour and released an album. By the winter, Slipknot had still not reunited and Taylor wrote a commentary on the band’s website stating that they had not spoken in months, and that they’d rather break up than become “the next Gwar”. The statement sparked a quickly resolved minifeud between Taylor and Gwar frontman Oderus Urungus. but it also sent many of the Maggots into a tailspin. By early 2003, Taylor had retracted his comments, and announced plans for a new Slipknot album. That August the entire squad decamped Iowa for LA, where they began work on the new record with producer Rick Rubin. “Pulse of the Maggots” appeared in early 2004 as an exclusive download; it was followed by a full track listing for Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses. Slipknot then embarked on a brief tour as a warm-up for their dates headlining Ozzfest that summer. (The group also debuted a fully redesigned third generation of their famous masks.) Subliminal Verses was released in May 2004. It peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200, and the band toured steadily for the next year and a half in support. They released 2-disc live album in November 2005, followed by a slew of side projects (Taylor and Root formed Stone Sour, while Jordison sat in with Ministry and Korn) before releasing their fourth full-length album All Hope Is Gone in 2008.

Slipknot - All Hope Is Gone

“A new Slipknot album means new masks, new outfits—and new sonic sojourns. “All Hope Is Gone” doesn’t disappoint in that regard. Building on the experiments of 2004’s “Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses),” the set is at once Slipknot’s most ambitious and accessible outing to date, with a broad palette of sounds and textures that shift faster than Michael Phelps off the starting block. “Sulfur,” “Psychosocial,” “Dead Memories” and “Vendetta” are easy fits next to most anything else on the active rock front, especially at night, while the melodic, acoustic guitar-driven “Snuff” is this album’s “Circle.” On the heavier tip, “.execute/Gematria (The Killing Name)” opens the album with seven-plus minutes of doomy chords and socio-political diatribe, and “Gehenna” is a leaded, layered sludge fest. On it, Corey Taylor howls that he “cannot maintain a semblance of normal anymore”—which, to the Maggots, is the best news of all. —Gary Graff”