Slipknot
Interview
Slipknot
frontman Corey Taylor sat down with Larry Rock1’s reporter Scott Chegg to
discuss the band’s new album, moving on with new bandmates, comparisons to
Stone Sour and more. Taylor also answered fan questions via social media and showed
off his new Slipknot mask.
Taylor
opened up on Rock1 TV about the emotional roller coaster of recording
Slipknot’s first new album in six years following the death of bassist Paul
Gray and the ousting of drummer Joey Jordison. He unveiled his new mask, which
Scott called “considerably scary” and put it on, giving a unique opportunity to
see him strap it on his face and show off its multiple layers.
The band’s
path to success has been littered with obstacles, especially in the period
between the release of their fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, in 2008, and their
latest, The Gray Chapter, late in 2014. In May 2010, one of Slipknot’s founding
members – bassist and songwriter Paul Gray – died following an accidental
overdose of morphine and fentanyl. Then in late in 2013 the band abruptly
announced the departure of drummer, founder and songwriter Joey Jordison, only
for Jordison to tell the world that he had been as surprised as anyone outside
the band to learn of his departure. Later, Scott directly asked Taylor about
the death of Paul Gray. Taylor called the time “very dark and very, very
heavy.” He said when they found out there was a “dense numbness that kinda
descended on us.”
He also
asked what Gray would think of the new album. “I think he would’ve loved it,”
Taylor said. “I mean, it’s essentially the story of the last four years,
dealing with the aftermath of his death and all of us trying to kind of get
back to a place where we wanted to make music again.” By turns euphoric and harrowing,
brutal and tender, The Gray Chapter is an extraordinary record that went
straight to No 1 in the US and Japan and several other countries (it reached No
2 in the UK). No other band has ever taken such wilfully extreme and menacing
music to the top of the charts anywhere in the world.
