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SLIPKNOT Members Join KORN On Stage
Members of SLIPKNOT joined KORN on stage on Friday, January 23...
SLIPKNOT: Fan-Filmed Video Footage Of Sheffield Concert
Fan-filmed video footage of SLIPKNOT‘s January 16 performance at the Motorpoint Arena in…
SLIPKNOT ‘Made’ New Drummer Visit PAUL GRAY’s Grave Before Beginning Work On New Album
SLIPKNOT percussionist Shawn Crahan has revealed to Rolling Stone magazine that one of the first things he did with the band's new drummer — rumored to be Jay Weinberg, the son of Bruce Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg — was take him to the Des Moines, Iowa cemetery where late SLIPKNOT bassist Paul Gray's body is buried. "I made him pay his respects and say hello," Crahan told the magazine. "I told him what we're gonna do, and we got on a fucking plane and flew to fucking L.A." to begin recording the new SLIPKNOT album, ".5: The Gray Chapter".
SLIPKNOT guitarist Mick Thomson said that the drummer who replaced founding member Joey Jordison "grew up with" the band's music and "knew all the material" before stepping in and joining the group during the songwriting sessions for ".5: The Gray Chapter".
"We kinda knew who we wanted [to play drums on the new CD] from the start, and we got him," Thomson told Guitar World magazine. "We knew from the get-go that there wasn't going to be any issues with him. We did get lucky, I guess. He knew all the [old] material anyway. He'd grown up with the band. That made things easier."
SLIPKNOT also has a replacement for late bassist Paul Gray, all but confirmed to be Alessandro "Vman" Venturella, but has not revealed his name either. Both new members are wearing the same generic mask onstage.
Weinberg was previously in the punk band AGAINST ME! and left under less-than-friendly circumstances. AGAINST ME! singer Laura Jane Grace tweeted last month, "Dear SLIPKNOT, good luck with that. #shitbag."
SLIPKNOT guitarist Jim Root recently said that the band may never reveal the identity of the drummer who replaced Jordison. Speaking with Guitar World, Root explained, "We're not saying who the new drummer is. Even if people find out beyond a shadow of a doubt who the new drummer is, I think we're always going to deny who it is. He might not last. He might tour with us a year and figure out we're all insane and he can't handle being around us. Or we might shut him out."
Root added, "For SLIPKNOT, I'd say drumming is only 50 or 60 percent of the job. The rest of it is who you are and what your personality is. Will you clash with guys like me, Mick, Clown, Corey, Craig and Chris? We all have these strong alpha-male personalities."
Root and SLIPKNOT guitarist Mick Thomson handled most of the bass duties on the band's new album, ".5: The Gray Chapter", with some help from former touring bassist Donnie Steele.
The first all-new SLIPKNOT disc since 2008 will arrive on October 21, followed by the two-day Knotfest in California and a North American tour.
SONG PREMIERE: SLIPKNOT’S ‘CUSTER’
A brand new SLIPKNOT song called "Custer" can be streamed in the YouTube clip below. The track is taken from the band's fifth album, ".5: The Gray Chapter", which will arrive on October 21 via Roadrunner. The new CD is the first by SLIPKNOT since the 2010 death of bassist Paul Gray and the late 2013 firing of drummer Joey Jordison.
Speaking to the Q105.1 radio station in Fargo, North Dakota, SLIPKNOT singer Corey Taylor stated about the making of ".5: The Gray Chapter": "The great thing about this band is we've never put shackles on ourselves creatively. If we're feeling one way, we go that way. If we're not, then we tend to go in the opposite direction. It's one of the reasons why we took so long to actually start thinking about doing a new album, 'cause we weren't gonna do it until we were ready."
He continued: "As far as pressure, we've never had a lot of pressure, because we approach it that way. We're, like, 'We're gonna do what we want. If nobody listens to it, that's fine, but we've fulfilled something inside ourselves.' So it was more emotional than it was stressful, to be honest. Because filling in the shoes of Paul, especially, was heavy duty. He was such an integral part of the songwriting process and had such a great ear for it, we knew that we were all going to have to step in and fill those shoes in, and I thought we did a great job. Jim [Root, guitar] came up with some killer stuff, I brought in some stuff, Clown [percussionist Shawn Crahan] really, he brought in some really killer atmospheric stuff that we were able to build into some great music. I think we all really stepped up to the challenge, and I think it was because we wanted to. It wasn't because we felt we had to; we felt we wanted to, we wanted to be able to do that and really kind of make new music with this band again. So it wasn't so much stressful as it was powerful."
Taylor recently denied that the band's new song, "The Negative One", is about Jordison, telling Metal Hammer, "'The Negative One' is about me, and not just me, but everybody in the band. We all have so many different sides to ourselves, but especially with this band. When we get together, there's something about the music we make that really unleashes the crazy, dark shit inside of us. And that song in particular is about, basically, embracing it again, giving into it and letting it have its say. Because if you don't, then you sit on it and you repress and it blows up in really negative ways. So, that song is about freeing it."
Taylor told The Pulse Of Radio that the new disc is autobiographical. "The whole album is essentially the story of the band over the last four years, and part of that story is that we've had to reach a point of acceptance with everything," he said. "You know, the last four years have been really difficult for us."
Taylor told Metal Hammer that the album is laid out like a story, "from the moment Paul died to the moment we stepped out of the studio. So there are certain songs that deal with, not Joey in particular, but about the tension and trying to deal with the ugliness that we all have in us."
The identities of the band's new bassist and drummer have not yet been revealed, but the bassist is widely believed to be Alessandro "Vman" Venturella, while the new drummer is thought to be Jay Weinberg, son of longtime Bruce Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg.
TAYLOR: SLIPKNOT DOESN’T SOUND LIKE STONE SOUR
SLIPKNOT singer Corey Taylor, who also fronts STONE SOUR, says that people often "choose the easy way" and compare the two bands' music despite their lack of similarities.
"I think a lot of it comes down to my voice," Corey said during an appearance on "Corey Taylor Talks", Las Vegas' only show for teens hosted by actor and radio personality Corey Taylor (no relation). "Like, there's a lot of people that think when I sing heavy with STONE SOUR that I'm trying to do SLIPKNOT. And then vice versa — when I sing more melodic with SLIPKNOT, I'm trying to be more STONE SOUR. And it's, like, but you're not hearing the music, you're putting everything together. Like [the new SLIPKNOT song] 'The Devil In I', a lot of people compared it to STONE SOUR because a lot of it is melodic until it gets to that chorus and it punches, you know. And I'm, like, 'Ehhh… Not really.' [It's] SLIPKNOT music, [so] it's a SLIPKNOT song. And I think it's because a lot of people, for better or for worse, choose the easy way to figure out what they're thinking about, or what their opinion is. So if they read somebody say, 'Well, he's singing melodically, it has to be STONE SOUR,' a lot of people pick that up, because it's easier to go with the crowd than it is to think differently. But we encourage our fans to try and do that stuff."
As previously reported, STONE SOUR has entered a Burbank, California studio to begin recording a covers album for a tentative early 2015 release. There's no word yet on which songs the band intends to include on the disc, which will mark the recording debut with the band of new guitarist Christian Martucci.
On its last North American tour, STONE SOUR treated fans to a different cover every night, including METALLICA's "Creeping Death", KISS' "Love Gun", JUDAS PRIEST's "Heading Out To The Highway" and Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes".
STONE SOUR completed the touring cycle earlier this year for its recent double album, "House Of Gold And Bones", which was issued in two parts in 2012 and 2013.
Guitarist Jim Root, who has played on all five STONE SOUR records to date, did not perform on the last tour. Although the official reason given at the time was that he was staying home to work on the new SLIPKNOT album, it was later revealed that he was dismissed from STONE SOUR.
Root said in a recent interview that he was fired by phone and is still not sure why he was dismissed in the first place.
Root and Taylor continue to work together in SLIPKNOT, whose new album, ".5: The Gray Chapter", comes out on October 21.
SLIPKNOT’s COREY TAYLOR Denies ‘The Negative One’ Was Written About JOEY JORDISON
SLIPKNOT singer Corey Taylor has denied that the band's new track "The Negative One" was written about the group's former drummer Joey Jordison, claiming that the song's lyrics deal with "the ugliness that we all have in us."
The first new tune released by SLIPKNOT in six years, "The Negative One" is taken from the group's upcoming fifth album, titled ".5: The Gray Chapter", which is due out on October 21. The disc follows up 2008's "All Hope Is Gone" and is the band's first without Jordison, who was let go late last year, and founding bassist Paul Gray, who died in 2010.
With lyrics like "The Lord Of Lies / You Had To Be Set Free / Opposing Sides / Your Choices Are The Negative One And Me," fans have speculated that "The Negative One" was written about Jordison, who was assigned "1" as his numbered alias shortly after the band's formation.
"I didn't even put that together! That's just how fucking crazy people are!" Taylor told UK's Metal Hammer magazine.
After it was pointed out to Corey that "The Negative One" apparently contains all the letters that spell out "Joey Jordison," the singer replied, "Oh my fucking God! People need to fucking unplug every now and again. I did hear some shit about the video for it, like it's supposed to be Joey, but it's so fucking funny."
Asked if the song is about anyone in particular, Corey said: "Here's the thing. The album is a story — not in a certain order; it jumps around — but it's a story of this band for the last four years, from the moment Paul died to the moment we stepped out of the studio. So there are certain songs that deal with, not Joey in particular, but about the tension and trying to deal with the ugliness that we all have in us.
"'The Negative One' was about me, not about Joey, and that's why the song says, 'Your choices are the negative one and me,' which is the two kinda colliding together. 'The Devil In I' is the same, which you'd think would be fucking apparent.
"I love the fact that our fans are that passionate, but 'Judas Priest', get out of the fucking basement once in a while! Log off of the fucking Twitter and go smell a flower, and just let yourself get back to a point where you go, 'Y'know what? That's a little crazy.'"
He continued: "'The Negative One' is about me, and not just me, but everybody in the band.
"We all have so many different sides to ourselves, but especially with this band. When we get together, there's something about the music we make that really unleashes the crazy, dark shit inside of us. And that song in particular is about, basically, embracing it again, giving into it and letting it have its say. Because if you don't, then you sit on it and you repress and it blows up in really negative ways. So, that song is about freeing it."
"The Negative One" lyrics:
Fire And Caffeine
A Lot Of Nicotine
I'm Going To Burn So I Better Tell You Everything
The Competition
The Superstition
Never Mind 'Cause You're Never Going To Give In
It's A Crisis, Just How You Like It
The Same Drama In A Different Disguise
I'm Bound To Walk With A Target On My Back
At Least I'm Ready For Another Attack
The Lord Of Lies
The Morning Star
You Had To Be Set Free
Opposing Sides
Your Choices Are
The Negative One And Me
Svengali
Why Are We The Enemies?
I Never Follow And I Never Make Apologies
Your Dementias Are Gonna Getcha
Because Your Walls Can't Support Each Other
Settle For The Cynical
You're So Political
You're Getting Ready 'Cause The First Move Is Critical
Reciprocity
Somebody's Listening
What Did We Learn From Our Time In Captivity?
The Lord Of Lies
The Morning Star
You Had To Be Set Free
Opposing Sides
Your Choices Are
The Negative One And Me
The Negative One And Me
I Hope You Live
To See The Day
When Your World Goes Up In Flames
And As You Die
You See My Face
You're The Only One To Blame
The Prescient
The Nascent
The Quotient (They All Will Fall)
The Cystic
Symbolic
Condition (Systemic)
Egregious
Replete With
These Lesions (Contaminate)
Succumb To
The Selfish
Creation (Your Failure)
No Accountability
Divisibility
I Point A Finger But It's Always Looking Back At Me
The Centipede's Pulling On The Mechanism
Unearthing Scars Of The Cataclysm
When The Innocent
Begin To Circumvent
The Color Fades But The Picture Is Vibrant
What Do You Believe?
Does It Matter Now?
Turn Away
The Killer Is Disavowed
The Lord Of Lies
The Morning Star
You Had To Be Set Free
Opposing Sides
Your Choices Are
The Negative One And Me
The Negative One And Me
I Hope You Live
To See The Day
When Your World Goes Up In Flames
And As You Die
You See My Face
You're The Only One To Blame
The Lord Of Lies
The Morning Star
You Had To Be Set Free
Opposing Sides
Your Choices Are
The Negative One
The Negative One
The Negative One
The Negative One And Me [End of lyrics]
SLIPKNOT announced in December 2013 that it had parted ways with Jordison, one of the band's founding members and key songwriters. Taylor told Metal Hammer that firing Jordison after 18 years was "one of the hardest decisions" the group ever made, adding that Jordison is "in a place in his life" which is "not where we are."
Taylor said he could not get into specifics for legal reasons, but admitted, "It's when a relationship hits that T-section and one person's going one way and you're going the other. And try as you might to either get them to go your way or try and go their way, at some point you've got to go in the direction that works for you. This is me speaking in the broadest terms, with respect to Joey. I guess to sum it up, it was one of the hardest decisions we ever made."
Taylor said that the band is "happy right now and we hope that he is . . . he's just in a place in his life, right now, that's not where we are."
The singer would not answer whether drug use played a role in Jordison's dismissal, and confessed that he had not been in touch with his former bandmate. Taylor said, "I haven't talked to Joey in a while, to be honest. That's how different we are. It's not because I don't love him and I don't miss him. And it is painful; we talk about him all the time, but at the same time, do we miss him or do we miss the old him? That's what it really comes down to."
The identities of the band's new bassist and drummer have not been officially revealed, but both appeared — disguised in the same newly designed mask — in the video for "The Devil In I", the first single from the new album.
Nonetheless, it is widely believed that the new bassist is Alessandro "Vman" Venturella, who sports the exact same tattoo on his hand that was spotted on the hand of the new bassist in the video.
SLIPKNOT's new drummer is widely believed to be Jay Weinberg, son of longtime Bruce Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg.
New SLIPKNOT Bassist’s Identity Revealed?
The new SLIPKNOT bassist, who is featured in the band's just-released video for the song "The Devil In I", is believed to be Alessandro "Vman" Venturella, who has served as a guitar tech for MASTODON, FIGHTSTAR and COHEED AND CAMBRIA and was also a member of KROKODIL.
A recent interview with Venturella can be found at MusicRadar.com.
A side-by-side comparison of Venturella's disctinctive hand tattoo tattoo and that from the person posing as SLIPKNOT's new bassist in the "The Devil In I" video can be seen on this page.
SLIPKNOT is rumored to be no longer working with Donnie Steele, the group's original guitar player who has been playing bass since they resumed touring in 2011.
The identity of SLIPKNOT's new drummer is still a secret, although it is widely believed to be Jay Weinberg, son of longtime Bruce Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg.
SLIPKNOT singer Corey Taylor confirmed earlier this week that the band's new drummer and bassist will both wear the same generic mask onstage.
SLIPKNOT's fifth studio album, ".5: The Gray Chapter", will be released on October 21 via Roadrunner. It is the band's first album without bassist Paul Gray, who died in May 2010, and drummer Joey Jordison, who was dismissed in 2013.
SLIPKNOT announced in December 2013 that it had parted ways with Jordison. The band has not disclosed the reasons for Jordison's exit, although the drummer issued a statement in January saying that he did not quit the group.
SLIPKNOT’s New Drummer And Bassist Will Wear Same Freshly Designed Mask
In a brand new interview with "Loudwire Nights" host Full Metal Jackie, SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor was asked if the band has been brainstorming about creating the right onstage persona for its new drummer prior to the release of SLIPKNOT's fifth studio album, ".5: The Gray Chapter", which arrives on October 21.
"We wanted to make something that still looked unified but still stayed with the spirit of what the band is all about," Corey replied. "Instead of trying to find something that was individualistic, we designed — well, [percussionist] Clown designed a mask that the drummer and the bass player will both wear. On one hand, they get a mask, but at the same time, it's not the individual mask that we in the band use. We knew that any attempt to do anything like that might be taken as disrespectful, but at the same time it's part of the way of moving, getting past the hardest steps, which is just moving on. So, we decided that we would come up with a mask that works for both the bassist and the drummer and that's what they'll wear on stage."
The first official single from ".5: The Gray Chapter", called "The Devil In I", has just entered the Top 20 at rock radio.
The album is the first without bassist Paul Gray, who died in May 2010, and drummer Joey Jordison, who was dismissed in 2013.
The identity of SLIPKNOT's new drummer is still a secret, although it is widely believed to be Jay Weinberg, son of longtime Bruce Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg.
It is also rumored that SLIPKNOT is no longer working with Donnie Steele, the group's original guitar player who has been playing bass since they resumed touring in 2011.
A new video teaser for SLIPKNOT's upcoming "Prepare For Hell" tour has given us a glimpse of Taylor's new mask. The band traditionally unveils brand new variations on its trademark masks and onstage outfits for every touring cycle, with the masks for 2008's "All Hope Is Gone" tour — the last time the group came out with new gear — much different from previous versions.
Taylor told The Pulse Of Radio that he's relieved the long wait for a new SLIPKNOT record is about to end. "You know, we're really excited about new music," he said. "We're excited about the next chapter, you know. Obviously it's a bit subdued, but at the same time, you know, it's still very much in the spirit of what we want and it's time for the next chapter."
Tickets for the "Prepare For Hell" tour, which will also feature KORN and KING 810, went on sale Friday (September 5). The trek kicks off on October 29 in El Paso, Texas, just a few days after the group's two-day Knotfest event is held in San Bernardino, California.
SLIPKNOT announced in December 2013 that it had parted ways with Jordison. The band has not disclosed the reasons for Jordison's exit, although the drummer issued a statement in January saying that he did
SLIPKNOT To Release ‘.5: The Gray Chapter’ In October
SLIPKNOT's fifth album, ".5: The Gray Chapter", will be made available on October 21 via Roadrunner. The CD will include 14 songs, plus two bonus tracks for the deluxe edition.
".5: The Gray Chapter" track listing:
01. XIX
02. Sarcastrophe
03. Aov
04. The Devil In I
05. Killpop
06. Skeptic
07. Lech
08. Goodbye
09. Nomadic
10. The One That Kills The Least
11. Custer
12. Be Prepared For Hell
13. The Negative One
14. If Rain Is What You Want
15. Override (bonus track)
16. The Burden (bonus track)
The official ".5: The Gray Chapter" pre-order can be found at this location.
You can see the cover artwork below.
"The Devil In I", the official first single from ".5: The Gray Chapter", can be streamed below. The disc follows up 2008's "All Hope Is Gone" and is the band's first without founding bassist Paul Gray, who died in 2010, and drummer Joey Jordison, who was let go late last year.
"The Devil In I" is more melodic and features cleaner vocals from frontman Corey Taylor, who told The Pulse Of Radio what the song is about. "'The Devil In I' is really about the war inside yourself," he said. "Trying not to give into defeatism, trying not to give into negativity, trying not to give up basically. It's a struggle. It's one of the hardest thing you can do, is to give in to that side of yourself."
SLIPKNOT issued and quickly fulfilled a casting call earlier in the month for fans — also known as "maggots" — to appear in the new video for "The Devil In I". The call for extras to appear as "human maggots," requiring that applicants be between 20 and 35 years old and "comfortable to be shooting in barefoot," was issued the weekend of August 16-17 and was no longer accepting submissions by August 18.
The shoot was scheduled to take place on either Friday (August 22) or Saturday (August 23) in the Los Angeles area.
Taylor told The Pulse Of Radio that the band's remaining members pulled closer together in the studio following Gray's passing. "It was almost like getting to know each other again," he said. "We were all kind of grieving in our own way and dealing with things in our own way, and knowing that we had to be healthy to go in, we had to be creative to go in, and knowing that we were gonna have to fill this huge void, we just kind of took it upon ourselves to make up for that emptiness by being a little bit of Paul. Like we were all a little bit of Paul in our own way."
Asked what has been most fulfilling about working on new SLIPKNOT music that he never experienced before, Corey told Full Metal Jackie: "This one, it just feels, there's something weird about this one. Obviously this is the first album we're making without Paul.
"After everything we went through, there's a catharsis that comes with this, being able to throw all the emotion and aggression out that we've been holding onto. At the same time, getting to be creative again. Feeling that juice coming back into us. It's been a real positive experience just from an artistic standpoint, a lyrical standpoint.
"We're making an album that's not just a reflection. Let's just get new music out there. There's something very vital with what we're trying to do. There's something very visceral with the emotion we're playing with and trying to tell the story of a band that's gone through hell, and yet we're back. It's been really fulfilling."
Corey recently described the musical direction of the new SLIPKNOT material as "a great mesh of [2001's] 'Iowa' and [2004's] 'Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)'." He explained: "You've got the gorgeous melodies and the artistic direction of 'Vol. 3' and then you've got the absolute brutality of 'Iowa'. And I think people are gonna lose their minds when they hear it."
Reports have suggested that SLIPKNOT has recruited drummer Jay Weinberg to play on the new album and tour. Weinberg is the son of Max Weinberg, longtime Bruce Springsteen and the E STREET BAND drummer. There are also rumors that SLIPKNOT is no longer working with Donnie Steele, the group's original guitar player who has been playing bass for SLIPKNOT since the band resumed touring in 2011.
SLIPKNOT announced in December 2013 that it had parted ways with Jordison. The band has not disclosed the reasons for Jordison's exit, although the drummer issued a statement in January saying that he did not quit the group.
The video for "The Negative One", w