Hard Talk |
The Pulse of the Maggots Beats On!by Don Sill The future of Iowa-based rock phenomenon, Slipknot seemed rather 'iffy' during the past few years. After touring on their second album, 'Iowa' ended the nine members of Slipknot branched out and began many forming separate side-projects. Front man Corey Taylor and Jim Root formed Stone Sour, which became very successful. Joey Jordison also formed a side project called The Murderdolls, which also did very well. And the success of those bands put out many question marks as to the future of Slipknot. Well, Fear not, Die-hard maggots, fear not, the masked metal maniacs are back with VOL. 3: (THE SUBLIMINAL VERSES) which drops on May 25, 2004. "We all just needed that break to fall in love with the band again and be brothers," says percussionist, Chris Fehn. "Dude, it's so on right now I just can't explain it." Slipknot is indeed 'on' and for their third album, VOL. 3: (THE SUBLIMINAL VERSES), the boys teamed up with super-producer Rick Rubin, [Beastie Boys; RHCP; System of a Down] and let it fly. "It was crazy working with him," said Fehn. "I mean, it was Rick Rubin, the guy who produced so many of our favorite records, so it was awesome. [Rubin] just let us go into a different direction and write some songs that we might not necessarily write and it was just a real crazy experience." The crazy experience wasn't only with working with Rubin, but working in Rubin's reputedly haunted mansion, which was once owned by Houdini and now used as a recording studio. "That place was crazy," remembers Fehn. "Lights would go off and on all the time like crazy. I lived down in the basement with Sid [Wilson] and it always felt like somebody was there, like people were walking by- it was weird like that." But it was cool though, because we were all living together. We haven't all been together in a long time and it was great to get to be friends again and all be there and record and everything.it was awesome." With all nine members under the same roof with Rick Rubin the band and producer were able to bond and shape their music like never before. "The first half-hour together with everybody was a little weird because everybody was out doing their own thing and it was like, 'what's gonna happen?'" Fehn recalled. "But once we get together it was all the same, like no time had passed at all." In that mansion Slipknot pushed the limits of the genre in all directions. Blending their aggression with depth; rage with melody, and did so with an unshaken confidence that exudes from song to song. "We're just better writers," says the percussionist, "we're better players. We've all been doing this for a long time and we've had time to grow. We have some shredder guitar solos on this album, and Corey's singing voice is awesome right now, so he brought a lot more melodic stuff. Sonically we're just a lot better." Their first single, "Duality", will hit the airwaves in April and the video will be shot in Paul Gray's small basement in Iowa. Slipknot has chosen the directing duo of Mark Klasfeld and Tony Petrossian to shoot the video. "It just gonna be us and the fans, man," Fehn said excitedly. "We're all gonna be in a basement just tearing the place apart. It's gonna be a sick-ass video." Other songs on the 13-cut CD include "Vermillion", "Circle", "The Blister Exists" and "Pulse Of The Maggots", a rallying cry for the bands most loyal fans. "This record was a no-brainer for us. We're not worried if anyone likes it or not, because we're fans too, you know and we know when it's good. Fans digging it is just the icing on the cake. We have a great tour set up and everything is popping." Fans will get their first taste of the band's new look and new music when Slipknot headlines the upcoming Jagermeister Music Tour with Fear Factory this month and head off to Europe for a run with Metallica and return to the states as the headliners of Ozzfest's second stage. Yeah, the boys are busy as hell and one thing's for damn sure, Slipknot is back and perhaps better then ever. |